Handcuffing 9 year old boy

sfarrow3 · #1 August 31st, 2011, 08:19 AM

What do you think about the police cuffing a 9 year old boy? This baby also has Aspergers Syndrome.

Toronto cops handcuff 9-year-old following tantrum | Sympatico.ca News

shockandawe · #2 August 31st, 2011, 08:41 AM

Wow - you guys heard about this all the way down there too eh? I'm a bit surprised actually.

I'm a little torn on this. I believe the police did what they had to do to get the child calmed down, and they did what was within their ability to do. They did what they are trained to do. I don't believe they should have been called in the first place. I think the daycare failed to do everything they should have done in this situation. Beginning with teaching the kids about tolerance and acceptance, not to mention disciplining the teasing/bullying behaviour they were guilty of. And they should have been a lot more capable of handling him offline. Sequestering him alone in a room to punish him for being teased was obviously not the right approach. I also think that the mother needs to pipe down a bit and look at things a bit more rationally than she is doing, though I know it's not an easy thing to do. The reality is that this child appeared to be high functioning in his interview on the news last night. He was able to clearly articulate what he did and why. I'm guessing he is high functioning enough to have been better reasoned with by the staff at the daycare. And, I have to assume that by the extreme measures the daycare took with him, that maybe they had enough previous history to warrant being that extra cautious. With my limited knowledge of the details, I place the blame squarely on the daycare. I also think it's heinous that other daycares (who are supposed to be special needs focused) are now refusing to take the boy in.

I'm awfully dismayed that this has happened, and that the reporting of the story seems so skewed.

sfarrow3 · #3 August 31st, 2011, 08:46 AM

I'm going to come back and comment, because I have a meeting to go to, but I wanted to say that all the information I know is from this article. I am very interested to know the whole story. What did the mother do or what is she doing? Also what is the daycare's stance on this? Do you have a more detailed article? Thanks girl.

Ally-Mac · #4 August 31st, 2011, 08:55 AM

Boy with special needs handcuffed by police at daycare - CityNews

Here's another article -- also with video.

shockandawe · #5 August 31st, 2011, 09:04 AM

I was just going to post the same link. Mother is all over the news about how traumatized her child is, and is angry that her son has been discharged from the daycare. I understood from the snippet I saw yesterday that other daycares were refusing to take him in too.

sfarrow3 · #6 August 31st, 2011, 12:06 PM

This is CRAZY!!!! I agree with you Becky, this is definately the daycare's fault. The police should have not been called in the first place. I really think they should have called the parent first at least. Being handcuffed is traumatic for anyone who is innocent, I can't even imagine what a child must feel like.

shockandawe · #7 August 31st, 2011, 12:23 PM

Well, they did call her first. They just didn't give her enough time to get there.

Like I said, it feels like there's something missing from the whole story. But at the end of the day, the daycare claimed and is supposed to be able to deal with special needs kids. This shouldn't have escalated the way it did if they were truly capable of managing those kinds of needs.

SarahBethsMommy · #8 August 31st, 2011, 01:20 PM

Putting a special needs Asperger's Syndrome boy in a room by himself to allow him to calm down is the correct move. It sounds like they just didn't know what to do beyond that. If the daycare has a policy about not touching the kids then you have even more issues. They need to reevaluate their policies and train the workers in more ways to deal with kids like that. ODD just escalates it as well. Caring for children who have ODD can be extremely dangerous to all involved if they are not trained in how to hold a child who is tantruming without hurting him or allowing him to hurt you.

I'm not sure how I feel about the cops cuffing the child. I would hope they tried more than just bursting in and yelling at him to get on the floor and cuffing him, but from the articles provided, it does not sound like they did. That was poor judgement on the part of the cops.

I really feel it sounds like the daycare is more at fault than anyone. I feel sorry for mom who now has no care for her child.