“Both children were being punished for behavior related to their disabilities”, the ACLU said in a statement.
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At least 100,000 children are shackled in the U.S. every year, David Shapiro, a campaign manager at the Campaign Against Indiscriminate Juvenile Shackling, told Mother Jones. “It is traumatizing, and in this case it is also illegal”, said Susan Mizner, disability counsel for the ACLU, in a statement. “It makes behavioral issues worse and interferes with the school’s role in developing appropriate educational and behavioral plans for them”. However, they believe all sheriff employees should be properly trained to handle a child with disabilities.
Various legal advocacy groups, including the Children’s Law Center and the ACLU, filed the lawsuit against Sumner on behalf of the boy and another child who was restrained.
“SROs are law enforcement officers, who are assigned in the schools to maintain the safety of students and staff and they act in accordance with their training as professional law enforcement officers”. “He’s a teacher who left that profession to become a police officer”.
Throughout the 7-minute video, which was filmed by school personnel, according to the lawsuit the boy shouts, cries and kicks at a table in front of him. “It gives me the opportunity when I’m in the schools to have a better idea of where I fit in without being a distraction”.
Kenton County Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn declined to comment until he sees the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that officials at both schools were aware of the students’ ADHD, which is characterised by “impulsivity, difficulty paying attention, complying with directives, controlling emotions and remaining seated”. It also seeks an unspecified amount of monetary damages against Sumner, the ACLU said. Plaintiff S.R. can be heard saying, “Oh, God”. School should be a safe place for children. It should be a place they look forward to going to.
The mother of the little boy shown in the video says the experience has been a “continuing nightmare” for her son. The video was recorded in the fall of 2014.
It is never made clear who is actually filming the video. Reported by the suit, the boy had refused to take a seat after returning from a bathroom break with Sumner. She was a student at John G. Carlisle Elementary School in Covington.
In the wake of the GAO report, the Kentucky board of education introduced new rules that restricted use of handcuffs only to those situations where a “student’s behavior poses an imminent danger of physical harm to self or others”.
A report from the sheriff’s office said Mr Sumner put the girl in handcuffs because she was “attempting to injure school staff”. Learning de-escalation skills should be as common as fire drills for schools and any law enforcement officers who serve them. “The school resource officer’s involvement was harmful and unnecessary, and it escalated rather than helped the situations”. Disabled students and students of color are vulnerable, claims the ACLU, to being pushed out of school and into the criminal justice system, a phenomenon referred to as the school-to-prison pipeline. The SRO named in the lawsuit is Kenton County Deputy Kevin Sumner in Covington, Kentucky.
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You can read the lawsuit here.
