First Graders Cuffed, Charged, Arrested, in Tennessee

[Rich and Wen 101]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/first-graders-cuffed-arrested-charged-murfreesboro-outraged/ar-BBs1uxm

Figured this went unnoticed by the law and order crowd...

[smilesammich 10,727]

The number of incidents involving young children arrested doesn't raise eyebrows among societal experts.

"Unfortunately, I am not surprised," said Victor Rios, professor of sociology at University of California Santa Barbara. Rios is author of the book Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys (NYU Press, 2011) and analyzes how juvenile crime policies and criminalization affect the everyday lives of urban youth.

Nationally, Rios said, experts see the collapse of school-based discipline, with educational systems relying more on criminal justice-based punishment where a teacher may call or text a school resource officer for a fistfight or even a spitball flung across the room. In the 1970s, less than 30 percent of high schools across the country had school resource officers, but today 70 percent of schools do, Rios said.

And students often get mixed messages. They are taught to be active bystanders, but then are punished when they don't step in.

"It's counterproductive," Rios said. "It's teaching them the reverse. You can’t teach people to be peacemakers by violating their own peace, threatening them and making them feel terrified.

"It's time this behavior towards children and young people stop."

Walker agrees: "Yes, this is righteous anger," Walker said. "They are looking for solutions. Looking for accountability.

"Those of us who continue to work tirelessly at bringing the community together to deal with these difficult issues feel a tremendous blow has come to the work we attempted to do."

So what comes next?

Children should be exposed to what Rios calls restorative justice. Instead of calling police, kids who are caught engaging in or watching a fight and not stopping it should be approached by a facilitator — something known in the business world as conflict resolution and in the therapy world as group therapy. Kids should be asked what happened and then help them learn the lesson: "Hey, you didn’t stop that fight," Rios said. "Let's talk about that. What can you do to improve?"

And in the community, what can be done to improve there?

"Really, it takes leadership," said Gary Howard, an educator with more than 40 years of experience working with issues of civil rights, social justice and diversity, including 28 years as the founder of the REACH Center for Multicultural Education in Seattle.

Leadership, he said, from police, the black community, the white community, public officers and officials.

"Rather than it being a race-based contentious issue, we as a community have to learn from and with each other so we can not just heal this situation but the larger issues that this situation touches.

"The worst thing to do is blame and denial. Trying to blame kids, police, anybody."

Being proactive together, he said, could be a catalyst for conversation and a catalyst for growth within the community. A coalition of concern.

[Janelle2002 3,865]

Wow, handcuffing elementary kids, unbelievable. They should just handcuff straight out of the womb. Situations like this only show the kids handcuffs are the only thing in their future.

[TBoneTX 47,545]

Some kids will be traumatized for life.

[Boiler 47,524]

Could be worse, at least they get to use the Bathroom of their choice.

[ExPatty 502]

A little corporal punishment might be helpful, though in the modern age I don't know how to bring it back with appropriate oversight and non-abuse. Plus, I doubt you'd find many teachers who sign up to smack kids with paddles these days.

[smilesammich 10,727]

A little corporal punishment might be helpful, though in the modern age I don't know how to bring it back with appropriate oversight and non-abuse. Plus, I doubt you'd find many teachers who sign up to smack kids with paddles these days.

corporal punishment is not an effective tool across the board, imo. it's difficult to teach proper 'real life consequences' when hitting kids for not stepping in and helping a kid who was getting hit. doesn't make much sense.

[ExPatty 502]

corporal punishment is not an effective tool across the board, imo. it's difficult to teach proper 'real life consequences' when hitting kids for not stepping in and helping a kid who was getting hit. doesn't make much sense.

If what they were arrested for is accurate definitely hitting them over it isn't liable to help, I agree.