The Korea Herald

지나쌤

Police handcuff US 6-year-old for tantrum

By 박한나

Published : April 18, 2012 - 16:19

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A 6-year-old who threw a tantrum at her U.S. school was taken away in handcuffs, firing up a debate over whether teachers and police are overreacting with disruptive students.

Salecia Johnson's family lashed out Tuesday over her treatment and said she was badly shaken, while the school system and the police defended their handling of the incident.

Civil rights advocates and criminal justice experts say frustrated teachers and principals across the country are calling in the police to deal with even relatively minor disruptions.

Some juvenile authorities say they believe it is happening more often, driven in part by an increased police presence at schools over the past two decades because of tragedies like the Columbine school massacre. But numbers are hard to come by.

``Kids are being arrested for being kids,'' said Shannon Kennedy, a civil rights attorney who is suing the Albuquerque, New Mexico, school district, where hundreds of kids have been arrested in the past few years for minor offenses. Those include having cellphones in class, burping, refusing to switch seats and destroying a history book. In 2010, a 14-year-old boy was arrested for inflating a condom in class.

Salecia was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing books and toys in an outburst Friday at her school in Georgia. Police said she also threw a small shelf that struck the principal in the leg, jumped on a paper shredder and tried to break a glass frame.

Police refused to say what set off the tantrum. The school called police, and when an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted, authorities said. She was handcuffed and taken away in a patrol car.

Baldwin County schools Superintendent Geneva Braziel called the student's behavior ``violent and disruptive'' and said the girl was taken away out of safety concerns for others.

Interim Police Chief Dray Swicord said the department's policy is to handcuff people when they are taken to the police station, regardless of their age, ``for the safety of themselves as well as the officer.''

He said the girl will not be charged with a crime because she is too young.

The girl's aunt, Candace Ruff, went with the child's mother to pick her up at the police station. She said Salecia complained about the handcuffs. ``She said they were really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists,'' Ruff said. ``She was so shaken up.''

The girl was suspended and can't return to school until August, her mother, Constance Ruff, told WMAZ-TV.

``I have had some concern for a while that the schools have relied a little too heavily on police officers to handle disciplinary problems,'' said Darrel Stephens, a former Charlotte, North Carolina, police chief and executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association.

Some civil rights advocates, educators and law enforcement officials are concerned that officers are operating without special training, and that overwhelmed teachers are unaware that calling in the police could also result in serious criminal charges.

In Albuquerque, Annette Montano said her 13-year-old son was arrested last year after burping in gym class.

Albuquerque school officials have declined to comment on the arrests there. But Ellen Bernstein, president of the Albuquerque teachers union, said students' bad behavior is more extreme these days.

From sexual harassment to children throwing furniture, ``there is more chronic and extreme disrespect, disinterest and kids who basically don't care,'' she said.

In Texas, a December report from the nonprofit Texas Appleseed, a public interest group, says more than 275,000 non-traffic tickets are issued to juveniles each year. While it is unclear how many are written at school, the group says the vast majority are for offenses most commonly linked to school-related misbehavior such as disruption of class, disorderly conduct and disruption of transportation,

In Florida, a bill was proposed this year to restrict police from arresting youngsters for misdemeanors or other acts that do not pose serious safety threats.

``If you are afraid of someone because they bring a gun or drugs, of course we come down hard,'' said Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, who wants to eliminate the student ticketing. ``It's the kids that just make you mad that you don't need to make a crime.''

 

<한글 기사>

'소동 피운' 유치원생 수갑 차고 경찰서로

미국 조지아주 애틀랜타에서 여섯살짜리 소녀가 유치원 에서 짜증을 내며 소동을 일으켰다는 이유로 수갑이 채워진 채 경찰서로 연행돼 논란이 일고 있다.

사건의 주인공인 셀리시아 존슨은 지난 13일 유치원에서 갑자기 화를 내며 책과 장난감 등을 던졌고 이 때문에 경찰이 출동한 것으로 알려졌다.

경찰은 셀리시아가 작은 선반을 던져 교장의 다리를 맞았고, 종이 파쇄기 위로 올라가고 유리 액자를 깨뜨리려 하기도 했다고 밝혔다.

경찰은 교장실에서 셀리시아를 진정시키려다 실패하자 수갑을 채워 연행했다.

셀리시아가 소란을 피운 원인은 언급하지 않았다.

가족들은 셀리시아가 이번 일로 몹시 충격을 받았다며 17일 학교와 경찰 측의 대응 방식을 비난했다.

일각에서는 교사와 경찰이 과잉반응을 한 것이 아니냐는 비판이 제기되고 있으며 학교와 경찰 측은 사건 처리 방식에 잘못이 없다고 반박하고 있다.

드레이 스위코드 경찰서장은 경찰서로 연행할 때 "경찰관뿐만아니라 피의자의 안전을 위해" 나이에 관계없이 수갑을 채우는 것이 경찰의 방침이라고 해명하고, 셀리시아가 아직 어리기 때문에 고발되지는 않을 것이라고 덧붙혔다.

셀리시아의 어머니 러프는 WMAZ-TV와의 인터뷰에서 셀리시아가 정학 처분을 받아 8월까지 학교에 나갈 수 없게 됐다고 말했다.

일부 청소년 전문가들은 1999년 발생한 콜럼바인 고교 총기 난사 사건 등의 비극으로 경찰이 학교 주변에 더 자주 나타난 것도 교장과 교사들의 경찰 신고가 늘어 나게 된 부분적인 원인이 된 것으로 분석하고 있다.

몇몇 인권 옹호자와 교육자들은 경찰이 특별한 교육을 받지 않은 채 사건을 처리하고 있으며, 교사들은 경찰에 신고하는 것이 형사고발로 이어질 수도 있음을 알지 못하고 있다며 우려의 목소리를 높였다.

지난 몇년간 뉴멕시코주의 앨버커키에서는 교실 내에서 휴대전화를 소지하거나 자리 바꾸기를 거부하는 등의 사소한 이유로 수백명의 어린이가 경찰에 연행돼 왔으며 지난 2010년에는 교실에서 콘돔을 불었다는 이유로 14세 소년이 체포되기도 했다.

비영리 공익단체 '텍사스 애플시드(Texas Appleseed)'의 보고서에 따르면 텍사스주에서는 매년 10만명 이상의 청소년이 무단결석, 복장 규정 위반, 욕설 등의 경범죄로 벌금을 부과받는 것으로 드러났다.

이때문에 플로리다주에서는 안전에 큰 위협이 되지 않는 경범죄를 저지른 청소 년들을 체포해서는 안 된다는 내용의 법안이 올해 제안되기도 했다.