A Stitch in Haste

Well it didn’t take long after I revived my “Kids in Cuffs” feature for an even more egregious report to cross my aggregator:

Police this week removed an unruly 7-year-old from his classroom and forced him to be hospitalized under the state’s Baker Act — against the wishes of his outraged parents.

The boy spent the night alone at Morton Plant Hospital before he was seen by a child psychologist the next day and discharged.
…
By all accounts, the second-grader threw a tantrum at Mildred Helms Elementary on Wednesday. [Largo deputy police Chief John] Carroll said the boy tore up the room during his fit. In the process, he stepped on a teacher’s foot and “battered” a school administrator. Carroll said the tantrum was so bad that school officials had to evacuate students from the classroom.

School officials called the parents and police. When officers arrived, they decided the boy needed a mental health examination.

This was not the first time the boy had acted up, Carroll said, and the lead officer, Michael Kirkpatrick, decided the boy couldn’t just go home again with his mother.

I was not aware that rank-and-file police officers receive advanced training in child psychiatry.

In any case, the notion that an unarmed seven-year old can pose a credible threat to himself or to teachers is facially absurd and impermissibly extends beyond whatever legitimate confinement power that Florida’s “Baker Act” (which “requires a person show a substantial likelihood of causing serious injury to himself or others”) might confer to law enforcement.

One more time: If the situation at the school has been contained, the parents are available to remove the disruptive child, and qualified child welfare authorities have been notified for follow-up, then both the duty and the authority of rank-and-file police have ended.

What’s next — sending fourth graders to Guantanamo Bay?

Previously:
–Kids in Cuffs: 8-Year Old Aspie Charged With Battery

Filed under: Law Enforcement Abuses