Eight-year-old arrested in school for fifth time
Sometimes there are things done to special needs children in the US by authorities that make me want to hurl.
An 8 year old special education student from Orlando Florida is arrested and has a rap sheet after he “threw sticks” at his teacher. Now as the parent of a special needs student I understand that sometimes a special needs child’s behaviour can leave a lot to be desired, however to use the criminal justice system on an 8 year old is a futile effort at the best of times. By the time the child is “punished” he will no longer likely even be able to relate his “punishment” to his “crime” let alone the fact that using the justice system on an 8 year old special needs child is like using an nuclear bomb on to kill an ant. It is disproportionate in the extreme and also does far more harm then good. This child will never be able to trust police or the justice system if it is used to administer punishment for things that the parents and/or school system should be dealing with. Several commenters on the article were commenting that this was the future generation of criminal in the making, and they are right if the court system is used to deal with basic discipline instead of working within the child’s special needs situation to develop a program to help teach him appropriate behaviour (many special needs children do not have an understanding of appropriate/inappropriate behaviour which leads to many “behaviour issues”). This is a prime example of a time when a program like ABA or IBI should be used to help the student adjust to normal behaviours.
I am appalled, and yes this type of behaviour by school administrators, the police, the prosecutors and the judge really does make me want to puke.
The administrators at the school should be fired with all pensions removed.
The police (whose responsibility it was to stop this frivolous court case in the first place) should be disciplined severely.
The prosecutors and the Judge involved should all be facing competency hearings for not throwing this case to the curb the second it showed up.
This child needs to be properly taught with the appropriate evidence based therapies if there is to be any improvement in the child’s behaviour.
Continued visits to the court’s is highly likely to increase this students behavioural issues instead of improving his behaviour.
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