kindergartener handcuffed, arrested, charged with felony

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Back in freshman year, I saw police handcuffing a nine-year-old at my high school (they had a little police headquarters there since the school wasn't safe). That kid looked so mad! My friends and I simply stared at the whole situation and then broke into a round of gossip. lol

I can see that I'm going to be putting a very unpopular statement here.

I don't think it's that awful. Yes, I think that cuffing her and charging her with three separate counts is too harsh. However, I believe that calling the police was acceptable. Had the child been bruised while the teachers were attempting to restrain her, the mother could have turned around and said, "They abused my child!" and they may have lost their jobs. Teachers can get in a heck of a lot of trouble just for touching kid, much less harming them. Furthermore, I've seen some little kids get pretty violent. Just because they're small doesn't mean that they can't hurt someone. And (unless I missed it) there was no indication in the article that she had AS or any other disorder that would have caused her to meltdown or otherwise act like that.

If she has been a problem in the past - and I'm discounting her mother's statements because parents are typically blind to the truth, and she'd hardly tell the press that her kid is a living terror (whether or not she is) - then there needs to be some punishment. If she isn't scared somehow - and I don't mean, let's chuck her in prision and charge her with crimes! I mean some type of punishment a little kid will get (take away their candy for a month...or something. I have no children and thus don't pay attention to suitable punishments) - then she may continue to become violent, increasing to a point in which she becomes an actual threat.

That being said, I don't think that they should have done more than escort her out of the school.

6 y.o.

I thought the US legal system was not so different from ours and had the principle of mens rea which is the basis of a (temporary) insanity defence or the "only joking" defence.

I believe a kid in Australia has to be at least 9 y.o. before they get into the legal system. Less than 9 y.o. its generally regarded that kids are not mature enough for the courts to assume that they are sufficiently aware of criminal behaviour for them to be charged with a criminal offence.

Well Bazza that used to be the case. But there's been several incidents recently in the US where undue force has been applied to autistic children to the point they have been killed. Some have been Tasered. Considering autistic children are CHILDREN, have a smaller body and being autistic they may have multiple health problems so you would think Police would not want to Taser kids because there might be more chance of harming their heart. The US in someways is becoming a police state where everyone's behavior is suppose to be controlled.

Here's a bad for instance. Several drs have tried to put me on antidepressants after they found out where I work because they think its a stressful place to work and that everyone there must be maniac depressive which I am not. That same thought pattern is getting applied to children where they think if a child is autistic they are dangerous and must be drugged and physically restrained. No other disability gets treated the same way. Actually I think this media attention to autism is causing negative results where more people will get harmed because for instance teachers now think autistics are always bad kids and they don't want anything to do with them. One 5 yr old in our town was told by his teacher to GET OUT of the classroom and the teacher tells him he is a bad person. This is what is being done to the little American Aspies.

(in response to Ticker's post) Does WP have enough money to launch a Spectrumite Awareness Campaign?

Why weren't the parents called before the police? That's what happens where I live. In high school the cops get called then.

And thank god I live down under. They don't taser kids here............yet.

One day I will rule the world and everything will be awesome.

(aren't I hopeful and immature?)

But unless this article fails to mention it (and I doubt they would, as disorders and the like could easily make it more sensational), the little girl in question has no disorders/syndromes/ect. Aspies may overload and be unable to control themselves (which is where most of us get out experince in these matters), but if she is truly a normal child, she should be able to control herself to a certain extent.

The cop should have the option of either being put in jail for the time the child is in custody, or have their name and address posted in national newspapers along with description of what he did.

This story and also the Teen who was tasered are depressing, society needs more education, to many ignorance exist in this world.

You mean to tell me those big adults couldn't handle a little six year-old girl? The adults need to be fired for lack of competence if they have to call the police on a Kindergartener.

My god, whatever happened to common sense? Has TV watching and religion really sucked the intelligence out of people's brains that much? Oh well. What more can I expect from the same people who elected Bush?