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Principal Suspended After 5 Year Old Handcuffed

Yes, believe it or not...he got the police help to handcuffed a 5 year troublemaker child to teach him a lesson.....

From CNN:

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- The board of a St. Louis charter school on Wednesday placed a principal on leave after he had police handcuff a 5 year old and drive him around the block in a squad car to curb his unruly behavior.

Principal Sam Morgan is on leave from Thurgood Marshall Academy pending an investigation into last month's incident, board attorney Wayne Harvey said.

Morgan declined to comment Wednesday, but last week said he had spent more time on the boy "than any kid in this building, trying to steer him straight."

He said he had police "put the handcuffs on one arm, put him in the back seat of their car and drive him around a little bit."

https://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/16/ha...d.ap/index.html

Handcuffed Year Suspended Principal

I see two problems here:

1. False imprisonment. Stable ground for a lawsuit. One of the clear-cut reasons for which an educator can be reprimanded or fired.

2. More importantly, the mother's attitude. From the article: "They put handcuffs on my baby," Rucker said. "That's for adults who murder and kill. He's 5. He's in kindergarten."

I know it's normal for parents to think their precious babies can do no wrong, but if he behaves as the article mentioned, the kid deserves some discipline. I would not have taken the risk myself, but in a way I agree totally with the principal's approach. He didn't beat the kid. He didn't yell. He didn't make idle threats. He did something harmless to make a memorable point. I would stand up for the principal, even though his actions were legally unexcusable.

Principal Suspended After 5 Year Old Handcuffed UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

Sorry, but to me this is clearly a case of a school administrator going too far! A 5 year old child is really quite an innocent little child. I don't care how badly they behave, they are very immature intellectually. That child probably couldn't really understand that this was just a lesson being taught. He probably really thought he was going to jail. I believe real psychological damage could have been caused. This might have been appropriate for an older child, but not one this young. My grandson will be five in two months. He would be scared out of his wits if something like this was done to him.

If, at five, he has such behavior problems, there is an underlying cause which ought to be identified and treated. This was completely inappropriate...at least that is how I see it.

Handcuffed Year Suspended Principal

I can understand both sides. The Principal have worked in the past in a correctional facility for the youth, I guess he has extensive experience in the field and he was concerned about how bad this little kid was and tried to help. I do not think he meant to harm him in any way. I understand also the child's mom who obviously cannot see the problems her child is having. I think this is the greatest challenge, we as teachers and other professionals in Education face...parents MOST of the time are not supportive and end up supporting their child even though the child may be doing horrible things. Sometimes as a teacher you feel the need to do something about it....but the methods are not appropiate sometimes.

Handcuffed Year Suspended Principal

While this may be true, I doubt there were 5 year-olds in the correctional facility and that he was placing handcuffs on them to teach them a lesson! While he may be trained in dealing with out-of-control juveniles, it is obvious that he was targeting older children, and still thinks that the tactics he may have used in the correctional facility would apply to all kids, regardless of age. Which in my opinion is a gross error in judgement.

Principal Suspended After 5 Year Old Handcuffed

Malexander, I agree. The Principal did not act properly, all that I'm saying is that I do not think he meant to harm the child in any way, he thought he was helping him. His behavior is unacceptable anyway.

Principal Suspended 5 Year Handcuffed

OK in my opinion that is a good tatctic for kids but at the age of 5 just give him a good swat on the butt. Haven a child handcuffed was the wrong thing to do because all you did was gave him the attention his was asking for. The police officers should have known better do to the fact that it is against the law to handcuff anyone under the age of 14 in the first place so I would have to ask what was wrong with the police in this matter?

Principal Suspended 5 Year Handcuffed Sciences Education Art Writing & UFO

Actually, the teacher could have been arrested himself had he "swatted the child on the butt."

I agree with Tenaheff in thinking that there might be an underlying cause to the child's behavior. The article said that the principal commented that he'd spent more time on that child than any other. My question is, what was he doing? How was he trying to discipline this child?

Five year olds have discipline problems. That's a fact of life. Most of them are hyper and ramunctious, especially if they're in a formal setting for the first time in their lives. For all we know, the principal could have just simply been disciplining this child without making sure he really knew what he was doing wrong.

Another factor that could have played a part in this child's behavior is he could easily have an emotional/behavior disability. Did the principal, or the child's teacher for that matter, try to test him and see if he had that particular disability, or perhaps another type of disability? Since most children who seem like disciplinary cases are often overlooked as having a disibility of sorts, it is not unlikely the child was not tested.

I tried looking up the article from the link provided, but it couldn't bring it up, so I looked up another source for the story. There was a quote from the principal:

"I'm trying to scare this kid straight. I would not be doing my job if I were not trying to get him on the right path." He believes he did the right thing. He believes his actions were justified. I'm starting to wonder if this man has children of his own. Some children are wild children when they're young. I was a terror when I was five. I threw tantrums like there was no tomorrow, but by the time I was seven or eight, I'd grown out of it. I have friends of my parents tell me that of all the people they know my age I have my head on the straightest. Yet I was also described as a "holy terror." Nobody handcuffed me to try to get me on the right path. They were simply patient with me. They made sure I understood what I was doing wrong before punishing me for it. I did understand the things I did wrong. **grin** I was just the type of child who always found something new to do that happened to be wrong.

https://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/5_yr_old_handcuffed.htm

That's the link to the article I read. It's only a couple paragraphs long.