Police Handcuff 7-Year-Old Student

On October 12th, a seven year old child attending Brownell STEM Academy's after-school program in Flint, Michigan was handcuffed by police. His mother, Chrystal McCadden, was called into the school office, and when she arrived, she saw her son’s wrists bound together. When she demanded that her son be released, the officers claimed that they didn’t even have the key. Chrystal Claims, “He don't deserve to be in no handcuffs, he ain't in here with no knife, he ain't in here with no gun. You put my son in handcuffs and you don't have the key — what sense does that make?" She later revealed to NBC reporters that her son had ADHD and had never attempted to hurt himself or another person. That would make it difficult to calm his actions when the teacher demanded him to stop. It is still unproven exactly what the boy did to show some sort of disturbance in the school environment. The mother even managed to record video of her son while in the handcuffs in the school. See the two videos here nbcnews.com

The Flint Police Department released a statement on Friday that the young student "appeared intent on injuring himself" and was then handcuffed to prevent injury to himself and other students. Along with this, James Tolbert, Flint Police Chief, made a public announcement toward the McCadden family, explaining his apologies for the incident. He has scheduled special training for all of the department’s officers in “de-escalation tactics” to use toward children.

One would only imagine that these kind of interactions between children and police rarely occur, but this is not the case. Only last week, a South Carolina school officer was fired after flipping an 18-year-old student in her chair. Along with this, in August, an 8-year old Kentucky boy who had ADHD was handcuffed while in school by a Kenton County Sheriff's Deputy after failing to listen to his teacher.

This topic is obviously very sensitive towards some and I understand that. It brings up the question if children, or even students, should be treated this way by police officers. Should they be treated as if they were adults? Personally I do not think so because they have experienced less than those who are older and could possibly not know better. I know that this is not exactly the best, most specific reason, but just imagine seeing a child behind bars who might not be able to help committing their crime, like McCadden who had ADHD. Let me know how you feel.