Police in Seminole County were called as backup when a 4th grader was throwing a tantrum at school.
The parents of a fourth grader are outraged after the boy was handcuffed by police officers as he was having a tantrum at school.
Video shows the 9-year-old throwing items as teachers tried to calm him down. Teachers held pads as the boy tried to kick and hit them.
Police in Seminole County, Florida, were called as back up. Initially, the officers watched, hoping the child would stop, but that did not happen. Police placed the boy in handcuffs and restrained him for 13 minutes until he calmed down.
The 9-year-old’s parents have filed a lawsuit claiming “unnecessary and unreasonable” force.
Police department protocol does not allow kids under the age of 12 to be placed in handcuffs, “unless they pose a danger to those around them.”
Video of the incident is reminiscent of a similar occurrence in Orlando in 2019.
A 6-year-old girl, Kaia, was handcuffed and arrested at a charter school after throwing a tantrum. Bodycam video shows the girl begging officers not to put handcuffs on. An officer put her in the back seat of a cruiser, and she was taken to a juvenile detention center. She was charged with misdemeanor battery, which was later dropped.
“The video for us was really horrific,” the girl’s grandmother Meralyn Kirkland tells Inside Edition. She told officers Kaia suffers from severe sleep apnea, which she says caused her to act out.
One of the arresting officers was later fired, and now the family has filed a lawsuit.
“It is something that is happening to our children across the nation,” Kirkland says.
After the incident, the Kaia Rolle Act was established prohibiting the arrest of children under the age of 7 in the state of Florida. Last week, it was proposed to raise the age to 14.
