“Above all, do no harm”

Disruptive children must be dealt with in a manner that will address the underlying causes of the disruptive behavior. Removal from the classroom setting (so that the behavior does not prevent others from learning) should be done, along with both individual and family therapy.

Restraining a child, in the manner described, is not to be tollerated.

The person who pointed out that a parent would be jailed for doing the same thing is correct - one of my neighbors had a visit from the police just b/c she grabbed her runaway toddler around the waist and picked him up like a sack of potatoes to keep him from running off in a parking lot (her hands were full of groceries). The idea that a principal can have a child handcuffed and a parent gets in trouble for holding a child incorrectly to keep him safe is ridiculous.

I agree with you. As I was reading I felt that something must be missing. I work in an urban school in 1st grade and have come across similar behaviors in my classroom as you describe. Only on my end nothing is done about it and the children continue with their behavior and other start to follow.

No human should be humiliated. In this case the human is a child which makes the crime more heinous. As educators we must ask ourselves "what does this child need to be successful?" We may not have all of the answers or enough resources, and we most likely don't have access to the root of the problem (poverty, difficult family, abuse, difficult temperament, etc), but if we begin from the stance that "children do well if they can", versus "children do well if they want to" it is less likely that we'll further damage the children in our care.

When a child doesn't know how to read or do math, what do we as educators do? Do we punish them or do we try to identify where their skill deficits lie and then teach them these skills? We all know intuitively that punishment would never help a child learn math or reading.

So why do we punish a child when they have a skill deficit in the behavioral realm? What does this punishment help to teach the child in terms of their lagging skills?

I know educators are asked to do more than we signed up for, but for those 5-10% of students who come to us severely emotionally damaged we must learn how to identify and teach to their behavioral skill deficits. Our job doesn't get any easier when we punish children for things they can't do.

Wow, glad you're not my children’s' teacher!!

I am an educator with three teaching credentials, and have taught children with special needs in the primary grades for 13 years. I have worked with children who have serious behavioral issues, mostly stemming from emotional disorders. I, too, have had students throw desks, attempt to stab someone with a pencil or other object, hit/kick/ and try to choke someone. However, it would never cross my mind to handcuff these kids! As the adult responsible for the safety and well being of students and staff, I may need to remove the child or the class (the other students) while the behavior is occurring. Once the child has regained control, I set up safety-nets and precautions in the form of increased supervision, which may require an additional staff member. I ensure that the "triggers" for the behavior are avoided - and there ALWAYS are triggers, which means that I may have to carefully monitor the student for signs that he or she is becoming agitated if I want to figure out what the triggers are. The child has consequences which may include loss of a preferred activity, having to work away form the group for a specific time period, in-house suspension, or suspension. The parent or guardian HAS to meet with the school when suspension occurs. I will set up counseling at school, or make a referral to mental health or other community agency if needed.
If a parent "will never" show up for the meeting, I find out why. Maybe a single parent is afraid of losing their job and becoming homeless. In this case, I will help them know their rights as employees, or move the meeting to a more convenient time. I might make a home visit if transportation is an issue. On a very few occasions during these 13 years I have had to let a parent know that failure to provide appropriate medical (which includes mental health) support for a child was a CPS issue. On only ONE occasion have I had to follow through with a report.

So please, Ms. Owens, give children everywhere a break and consider another line of work. Anyone who believes that "More information is needed" before determining that handcuffs are not an appropriate discipline tool for a 5-year old needs to stay far, far away from children.

Your comments are so accurate. This child was treated badly and my heart goes out to him, but what creates schools like this one? All schools need to have clear limits and boundaries in difficult, especially violent, circumstances. Teachers and principals need to be trained to respond to tough situations and get the school support they need to follow through when children are violent. It has been my experience that when children are taught how to fix the problem that they've created they become more aware of thier behavior and learn how to do it differently the next time. This teaching approach takes financial and administrative support for training and classroom assistants. My guess is that doesn't happen at this school which means that we, as a society, don't support children, teachers and schools. I am sorry for this child. I am also sad for the entire school, the teachers, the administrators and the school who are asked to do so much with so little.

I agree with this astute comment wholeheartedly. As a substitute teacher in my district's Junior High Schools, and as an elementary school Library teacher, I have seen many examples of the terrible disruption and dangerous situations that can arise in cases such as this. Because of one child (or more) with a behavioral disorder -- or even just one who, for whatever reason, has no respect for authority or fear of consequences -- an entire classroom full of students can be deprived of a safe learning environment. Classrooms that are regularly disrupted by student outbursts or other disciplinary problems, especially if violence is involved, have high stress levels all day, cannot focus on their learning, and have a teacher who spends more time trying to control the classroom than helping students to engage in learning.

One school in which I work has posted in every classroom this reminder to every student: "I do not have the right to interfere with the education, safety, or well-being of others." The school has a "steps" discipline policy in place, which, if utilized strictly, correctly, and consistently throughout the school, would greatly reduce the violence and disruptions in the classrooms. In this system, there are 4 steps -- 1) disruptive student is asked to go to a seat facing the wall, as distant from other students as possible. When they feel they can return to their seat and continue learning, they may do so. 2) disruptive student is required to stand facing the wall until the teacher privately approaches that student, the student states what the offense was, and agrees to go back and focus on their learning. 3) disruptive student stands facing the wall and holding a card with the "I do not have the right..." statement printed on it, and reads that card to him/herself until the teacher privately approaches the student. The student repeats the statement, relates their behavior to the statement, and agrees to go back to their seat. 4) the disruptive student is removed from the classroom, with their classwork and homework assignments, and there is a mandatory parent conference before that student can return to class. This sounds like a long, drawn-out process, but it can actually take care of problem situations quickly. Example: a student throws a pencil across the room. Teacher gives step one. Student returns to their seat within moments, and makes a snide comment about how stupid it was to get a "step". Teacher gives step two.
On the way to stand at the wall, the student instigates laughter from another student by some rude comment about the teacher. Teacher gives step three to the first student, and step one to the laughing student (they are not near eachother). When there is a break in teaching, the teacher approaches the student, he recites the statement, relates it to what he was doing, and returns to his desk. Any further disruption of class in any way is a step 4. The counseling office is called, the student is sent out of the classroom, and teaching resumes. The only time steps are skipped is in the case of violence, which is an automatic removal from the classroom.

When done correctly and fully supported by the administration, this program is a Godsend to the teacher and the other students in the classroom. The breakdown occurs when teachers use steps incorrectly (verbally sparring with the student, publicly approaching the student on step instead of making it a private conversation, or starting on a high step out of frustration), or when there is incorrect (or nonexistent) followthrough from the administration. A school using this system needs to have an in-house suspension room that is always manned with a certificated staff member. Students who are removed from class need to be held responsible for all classwork and homework required for the time that they are out of class. Counselors need to contact the parent(s) immediately, and the meeting should occur as soon as possible (suspension from school is the next step, should the student return to class and continue disruptive behavior).

Unfortunately, most schools do not have the staff, the space, or the time to fully support such a program, and the unacceptable -- even dangerous -- behavior of a handful of students creates an environment where learning cannot happen for other students. Schools NEED to have recourse where these disruptive students are involved. Agreed, handcuffing a 6-year-old boy to a chair seems absurdly over-the-top, but if that student is regularly seriously out of control in his general education classroom, he should not BE in the classroom. The rights of those many students in the classroom who are willing and able to learn should supercede the right of that one child to be included in a general education classroom, unless the school can afford to have a one-on-one aide there all day to work with the child on his behavior and/or remove that child before he can disrupt the class when he begins losing control.

I am deeply saddened of the fact that our society has reached the point where "violence against children at school is acceptable" and that it is considered acceptable for minor children to be handcuffed and shackled at their schools for "acting out" against school rules. The fact that these actions were done to a 6-year-old child is not even comprehensible.

Violence against children is definitely escalating and getting worse and worse in Louisiana schools. In the Terrebonne Parish School System located in Houma, Louisiana, there was a case last school year where a 10-year-old child was even tazered at school, publicized in the daily newspaper, and nothing was done. There was also a different case where a tenured special education teacher was allowed and permitted to restrain 4-5-year-old children with autism down to the floor with chairs in her classroom. When that case of child abuse was reported to the Superintendent by the paraprofessional who witnessed it, she was retailiated against for daring to file a written complaint to the Administration about the child abuse. The Schoolhouse-to-Jailhouse Pipeline has also been efficiently working in Terrebonne Parish where countless students, and more-so students with disabilities, are derailed out of their classrooms on a daily basis in out-of-school suspensions, and also arrested and dragged off to jails for trivial school rules offenses, though the public school system has intentionally systemically ignored and violated all the Federal and State laws and regulations regarding special education for over a decade and more.

The new trend being displayed over the last two school years is teachers and school administrators being allowed and permitted to write totally bogus and erroneous disciplinary complaints against students with disabilities just "to get rid of them" because they are academically performing 4-6 years behind their grade level due to the outcome of the school system violating special education laws throughout their education and refusing to provide services, though collecting over $12-$15 million dollars in funding off IDEA and NCLB each and every school year which is spent in benefits to the Administration and Staff and never reaches the children. Teachers and School Administrators are even being allowed to mark special education students as "truant" with unexcused absences for being out of the classroom during Pupil Appraisal evaluations which are Federally mandated under law every 3 years. Teachers and School Administrators are also being permitted and allowed to demand that children with disabilities classified under IDEA miss their 40-minute lunch period (being freely provided to non-handicapped students) in order to receive their extended time accommodations stated on their IEP's.

When parents request to review their child's educational records prior to their child's upcoming IEP meeting, it becomes an act of Congress and dragging of the feet that continues for 5 months of a vicious merry-go-round circus of professional neglect and fraudulent actions which ends with an e-mail where the School Principal orders you not to contact him or his staff at all anymore, because communication with parents is bad for his morale and the morale of his staff at school. But, if they want to tell you things about your child's confidential educational records, they just scream the confidential information across the School Administration Office in the presence of other parents, students, and school staff who have no legitimate educational interest in your child's education.

Even more despicable is the fact that all of these same actions of emotional, psychological, and physical child abuse and worse are being done and allowed throughout Louisiana's public school systems "business as usual" and practiced as custom, as well as throughout the nation we call America. The sad reality is that our public school systems will continue abusing children, simply because they believe and know they can get away with it due to the lack of accountability and the fact that nobody really cares.

I found this article on CNN describing the incident and the lawsuite. http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/07/08/louisiana.lawsuit/index.html

"The lawsuit states that in May of 2010, an armed school security officer took the 6-year-old boy -- who had been involved in a shoving match with another student -- to the principal's office, where he was handcuffed and shackled to a chair.

Two days earlier, another guard had handcuffed the boy for his alleged failure to "listen and follow directions," the lawsuit says."

Regardless of what instigated it, handcuffing a student is never acceptable! Schools are meant to be safe places, free of violence and force. I also know from experience that students bring violent behavior to school, but it is the job of teachers and staff to teacher students to resolve conflict and express emotions in ways that are safe for themselves and others. The use of restraint should be left to trained teachers/staff and never as a form of punishment.

Wow. This is really an unethical and misguided line of reasoning. We do know the history of the school. And even if this 6-year-old child was "chronically disobedient," he was not being violent and dangerous. Maybe he is/was very oppositional. I work in schools and work with oppositional children every day of the week. Consistently & willfully not doing what one is asked (or doing the opposite of what one is asked) is the definition of oppositional behavior. But research tells us that physical restraint by adults and harsh negative punishment does not help - at all - to change an oppositional child's behavior (as opposed to negative consequences that make sense along with teaching new skills, which have been shown to be effective in changing behavior). And kids don't enter the juvenile "justice" system (a.k.a. "juvie" (which is just one possible placement for youth who commit offenses), which is also woefully ineffective due to its focus on punishment only) for being disobedient (even chronically so). Six-year-olds don't get arrested by actual police officers (which is quite different from a school security guard) and sent to court for not listening to teachers - it's not a crime. Disruptive to the learning environment? Absolutely. But criminal? No. Plus kids younger than 7 are not able to be held legally accountable for their actions due to their limited cognitive development. If they go anywhere, it is to a treatment program.

Kids that young who act violently have always been triggered (usually by an adult, who sometimes knows exactly what they are doing, which I've seen repeatedly). There's a reason for violent behavior especially in younger children. And handcuffing them is ridiculous. If the child was out-of-control, some form of restraint may have been necessary by a trained school professional (who was clearly not the security guard), but he wasn't. I'm sure they were trying to make a point but it failed miserably. Sad that this is what some people have decided is a good response to these situations.

I am just wondering if we have all forgotten what we were like as students? I was not a real disobedient child but I did have my moments. I think we are much harder on children now than in previous generations. We once allowed children to misbehave to an extent because they were children and learning. When I was young I did get suspended a time or two for playground scuffles. In our society today we do not focus on children as children we treat them like small adults that are bound by the same rules. We give them schools without playground equipment or in some schools even a recess. Children are no longer able to be imaginative or creative. We criminalize children because of their upbringing, their race, their disabilities without remembering were once them too. I do understand when I was in school, which was not that long ago. Violence against teachers and weapons were not an issue, but there must be another way to address the issues without teaching children at a young age that they are "thugs" "problem children" or just not worth the extra effort to get to the root of the problem. I had some wonderful teachers that understood that there are reasons for every behavior. Maybe we need to look at how we were and what we needed and treat the children in our care accordingly.