Quote:
Still, Harmon said, the officers should have done more investigation, explored ways to defuse the situation and allowed school officials to take the lead in handling it.
"This child needed some intervention, but I don't think it was by law enforcement," Harmon said, calling the handcuffing "premature."
The video of the March 14 confrontation prompted criticism of the police and school system, and charges of racism that brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson to town to meet with school officials. The girl is black, and the police officers are white.
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The school officials bent over backwards to handle it in house without calling the police. What I see in those videos demands praise, not criticism.
If calling the police to handle a student who has been throwing a fit for an hour, damaged property, assaulted a school official, and been engaging in behavior that is dangerous to her isn't appropriate, and whose parents are unavailable, what does a student have to do before it
is warranted?
I don't see any problem with either the way the school officials or the police behavied. Given that the girl tried to kick out the car windows, and had to be further restrained, the handcuffs don't seem the least bit excessive.
Gilda