Yeah. I don't exactly like children and all my maternal instinct gathered together is probably smaller than the fingernail on my pinkie, but I would never call the cops on a six-year-old having a tantrum, and I really don't want anyone who would near any other impressionable children.

I can only hope it's a case where she's pitched plenty of fits before, appropriate help has been attempted, and the parents have been unconcerned and/or refused to get help for her or cooperate in any way. But in this day and age I can fully believe that would be some "edumacators" solution to a problem.

sarameg! we were just looking for Baltimore buffistas in Bitches because my cousin, Sox, has joined in over there and she's in Fell's Point.

I can only hope it's a case where she's pitched plenty of fits before, appropriate help has been attempted, and the parents have been unconcerned and/or refused to get help for her or cooperate in any way.

Yeah, I really want to know what the backstory is on this....

How checkered can your past be, when you're not going to be seven for another two and a half months?

I'm sorry. If she's developmentally disabled in some way and unable to behave in school because of a lack of emotional control, she should be in an alternative education program, not the local lock-up.

Ooh - Google can help:

[link]

....However, the girl's mother doesn't believe the story.

"She never fell out. She is very respectful. If I tell her to do anything, she will do it," Lateshia Wilson said.

School officials said they were forced to call the local police department, who cuffed the child and put her in a police cruiser. The little girl's mother is angry and said her daughter is usually very respectful.

"I was very upset about that and I feel like they violated my baby's rights," Wilson said.

The chief of police said his officers did the right thing.

"When there is an outburst of violence, we have a duty to protect and make that school a safe environment for the students, staff and faculty. That's why, at this point, the person was arrested regardless what the age," said Chief Frank Mercurio, Avon Park Police Department.

The longer I think about this, the angrier I get. It's like the kid in New York who hugged his teacher and said he loved her, and was brought up on sexual assault charges or some such. He was, like, six.

Kids growing up in an atmosphere where half the normal things kids do (as they're growing up and LEARNING how to behave) are now considered actionable is just terrifying.

she's in Fell's Point.

We are few, but we exist!

[link]

The arrest of this child, who should have been placed in the care of competent, comforting professionals rather than being hauled off to jail, is part of an outlandish trend of criminalizing very young children that has spread to many school districts and law enforcement agencies across the country.

A highly disproportionate number of those youngsters, like Desre’e, are black. In Baltimore last month, the police arrested, handcuffed and hauled away a 7-year-old black boy for allegedly riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. The youngster was released and the mayor, Sheila Dixon, apologized for the incident, saying the arrest was inappropriate.

Last spring a number of civil rights organizations collaborated on a study of disciplinary practices in Florida schools and concluded that many of them, “like many districts in other states, have turned away from traditional education-based disciplinary methods — such as counseling, after-school detention, or extra homework assignments — and are looking to the legal system to handle even the most minor transgressions.”

Once you adopt the mindset that ordinary childhood misbehavior is criminal behavior, it’s easy to start seeing young children as somehow monstrous.

“Believe me when I tell you,” said Chief Mercurio, “a 6-year-old can inflict injury to you just as much as any other person.”

Is ita around? Maybe she can tell us what percentage of Krav training is devoted to defense against 6-year-olds....

My mother works at an elementary school and she tells me all kinds of horror stories about the kids, so it's not like I'm under the impression that they're all little angels.

But dude, seriously, if it's a felony for a six-year-old to be cranky, I'm in big trouble.