Mother Sues Florida School Board over Police Handcuffing of Her Kindergartner

You may remember the story of Ja'eisha Scott. It broke almost exactly four years ago.

A Black kindergarten girl in Pinellas County, Florida had a tantrum in school. The school decided the best way to handle it was to call the police and request that the girl be charged and arrested. St. Petersburg Police officers responded to the call; the officers felt the best thing to do was handcuff the small child. Because handcuffs are not designed to fit five year olds they had to use plastic ties on the girl's wrists; they hand cuffed her ankles and kept her bound in the back seat of police cruiser for several hours, while they sought to press charges against her. Footage of the police forcing the girl's hands behind her back and cuffing her and of excerpts of tantrum went viral on the web and played repeatedly on TV for some days.

The city of of St. Petersburg settled with the girl's mother, Inga Akens, for $18,000 in an out of court settlement for claims against the police department. The Pinellas County School Board has refused to settle out of court; a lawsuit is now underway.

The suit accuses school officials of mishandling the situation when the girl threw a violent tantrum in class at Fairmount Park Elementary.

The girl, now 8, will need long-term therapy, says the lawsuit, filed March 12 in Pinellas circuit court by Inga Akins, 27, the girl's mother.

"As a result of this incident, (the girl) is petrified about attending school, is afraid of law enforcement officers, has been severely traumatized and suffers from fear and anxiety," the suit says. The girl "has a permanent impairment related to the situation with the police and will require continuing long-term therapy and neurodiagnostic testing."...

The suit, which accuses Fairmount Park Elementary and the School Board of negligence, malicious prosecution for calling police and a civil rights violation, seeks more than $15,000 in damages. Akins has hired high-powered attorney Willie Gary.

"Obviously, we deny liability and will defend it," said School Board attorney Jim Robinson.

I blogged the hell out of this story for several months. Here's a selection of my posts, by no means exhaustive:

• St. Petersburg Police Bind Hands And Feet Of 5-Year-Old African-American Girl
• Arresting Children Under 12 In Florida
• Discerning The Social Fabric Of St. Petersburg, Florida (I)
• Discerning The Social Fabric Of St. Petersburg, Florida (II)
• What Is Going On In The Pinellas County Schools??
• Accounts Of Police Involvement In Ja’eisha Scott Case Raise New Questions About Assist. Principal Dibenedetto’s Intent
• “I think they were good people . . . [Ja'eisha] didn’t act like that over here.”
• Criminalizing Children In Florida
• What’s Race Got To Do With It?
• They Kept Ja’eisha Cuffed In Their Cruiser For Hours After Her Mom Arrived
• Ja’eisha Scott Update: Officers Let Off Easy, Cover-up Of School Responsibility Continues

It's disappointing to read in the new article about Inga Akins' lawsuit against the School Board that

A police investigation found race was not a factor; the lead officer, who isn't seen on the tape, was black. But the incident led the department to outline strict rules regarding the handcuffing of children under age 8.

In 2005, I emphasized that

By the time the police arrive and handcuff Ja’eisha it does not matter what color the officers are. Her treatment takes place in a context of persistent inequality and especially punitive attitudes towards African American students.... The presence of an African American police officer overseeing the handcuffing does not mitigate the racism inherent in the event.

I doubt current coverage of the lawsuit will

• mention the alarming number of children under 12 being arrested in the state of Florida as a whole;
• acknowledge that Pinellas County leads the state in these incidents;
• mention that African American children are grossly over-represented among young children who get arrested;
• deem it relevant that Pinellas County has been hit with a class action lawsuit for not educating its African American students; or
• mention other incidents where it appears students have been targeted for abuse by administrators and teachers for no other reason than being African American.

"[S]trict rules regarding the handcuffing of children under age 8" sounds like a bit progress, but does that even mean the practice has been forbidden? (And should 9 year olds expect to be handcuffed if they get out of line?) A ban on handcuffing young school kids would be a good start but it would not address the repressive atmosphere that Ja'eisha Scott and other Black kids have found themselves in.

In Pinellas County, Florida, it is standard procedure to call the police on small children who are having behavior problems. It is standard procedure to charge children in Pinellas County with felonies. It is standard procedure in Pinellas County to handcuff children as a means of discipline . It is standard procedure in Pinellas County to use police, criminal charges, and handcuffs disproportionately on African American children: 55% of children under 12 charged with crimes in fiscal year 1999-2000 were African American, though they were only 20.95% of the school age children in the state.

If you are unfamiliar with the footage of the handcuffing of Ja'eisha Scott, it is still online (see YouTube player, below). One of the things that is so remarkable is that when the officers arrived, Ja'eisha was seated and not acting out. You can hear someone, probably the assistant prinicipal, reporting on Ja'eisha's behavior. The cuffing looks like a punishment for the reported behavior more than it looks like restraint of a supposedly uncontrollable child. In 2005, it seemed to me that the assistant principal Nicole Dibenedetto's behavior needs to be scrutinized. Some reports contradict Dibenedetto's claims that she tried to pursue other avenues before calling city police to arrest a 5 year old. I am still flabbergasted to have read that Dibenedetto was disappointed when charges were not filed against five year old Ja'eisha Scott.

"To think we would consider charging a child of that age with a crime is almost comical,'' said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant state attorney. Di Benedetto, 31, was disappointed charges were not filed because it was the third time the girl had behaved violently, the police report says (emphasis added).

If the characterization of Ja'eisha's past behavior is accurate, I would expect an assistant principal, concerned about the well-being and development of young children, to focus on much different interventions than criminal charges for temper tantrums.