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Published on <i>The Root</i>

(<a href="http://www.theroot.com">http://www.theroot.com</a>)<br><br>

<a href="http://www.theroot.com/">Home</a> > Handcuffing 6-Year-Olds

in New Orleans? Seriously?<br>

<hr>

<br>

</font><h1><b>Handcuffing 6-Year-Olds in New Orleans?

Seriously?</b></h1><font size=3>By: Brentin Mock<br>

Posted: July 9, 2010 at 7:59 AM<br><br>

School officials shackled Ja'Briel Weston to a chair for being

disobedient. Two days later, they did it again. Now his father is suing.

Why we should all be concerned.<br><br>

Six-year-old Ja'Briel Weston was shackled by his ankle to a chair for

disobeying his first-grade teacher. Two days later, he was apprehended by

an armed security guard, dragged down a hallway and handcuffed to a chair

for getting into a shoving match with another student. This didn't happen

at some medieval-age boarding school. It happened this year, this May, in

New Orleans, at Sarah T. Reed Elementary School.<br><br>

When Ja'Briel's parents found out about this, his father, Sebastian

Weston, met with the school's principal, Daphyne Burnett, who not only

confessed to the child cuffing but also said that she'd have it done

again if the child got out of line. According to a legal complaint filed

by the

<a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-sues-new-orleans-school-after-student-handcuffed">

Southern Poverty Law Center</a> and the

<a href="http://jjpl.org/new/">Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana</a>,

"When [Ja'Briel's] father implored the school principal to stop

these unconstitutional practices, she insisted that school policy

required the arrests and seizures at the school."<br><br>

The juvenile-justice advocacy organizations are helping the father sue

not only the school and its security officers but also the Recovery

School District, the city's public school system, for allowing the

"required" policy to take shape. Since the incident, young

Ja'Briel has suffered pain in his wrists and ankles, as well as

longer-lasting harm to his emotional and psychological well-being. This

is increasingly cruel, but unfortunately <i>not</i> unusual punishment,

since New Orleans isn't the only city to

<a href="http://www.stateline.org/live/printable/story?contentId=18518">

cuff a 6-year-old</a>. But if there is a city that could do with less

emotional pain, it is New Orleans, whose children in the thousands,

displaced as a result of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, have bounced city

to city, school to school, ever since.<br><br>

It is also a city where one of the largest education-reform experiments

anywhere is being implemented. But the officials at Sarah T. Reed will

have to remind the nation why introducing children to Officer Friendly by

way of cold, metal wrist restraints is a best practice for optimum

learning environments. Data supporting such a claim do not exist. When

young black boys like Ja'Briel aren't being chained like criminals for

petty behavior, they are being suspended and expelled from school at

rates two to three times those of their white peers -- often

<a href="http://www.learnersedgeinc.com/file/737-6.pdf">because of their

race</a> (pdf). Excessive punishment is being meted out more often to

kids to whom breakfast is not given and for whom lunch is free because of

their families' poverty.<br><br>

School administrators believe that they need to get tough on bad

behavior, but there is little evidence that this is a deterrent. In New

Orleans, schools struggle with a lack of resources to deal adequately

with student populations that fluctuate with volatility, and include

children with a range of stress disorders due to disasters. Just two

years ago, Reed principal Burnett was featured in a

<a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june08/nolareads_06-17.html">

PBS special</a> in which she complained of overcrowding in her

school.<br><br>

"When you look at younger kids, out of anything they could have

lost, it was the opportunity to have a stable learning environment,"

said Burnett in the program. "You know, some of them, this is their

first time going to school because Katrina hit."<br><br>

But instead of stable learning environments being created, it's pipelines

that are being created -- pipelines to the penal institution. It begins

with kids being handcuffed and suspended at early ages, and continues

with them being locked up later in life. Students who are suspended early

on (Ja'Briel was suspended shortly after the handcuff incident) are

<a href="http://www.nyclu.org/content/impact-of-school-suspensions-and-demand-passage-of-student-safety-act">

three times more</a> likely to drop out before 10th grade, and drop-out

status triples a child's chances of ending up in jail later.<br><br>

In the report

"<a href="http://www.nesri.org/fact_sheets_pubs/Pushed_Out_Report.pdf">

Pushed Out, Harsh Discipline in Louisiana Schools Denies the Right to

Education</a>" (pdf), published by Families and Friends of

Louisiana's Incarcerated Children, a disturbing picture is painted of

disparate discipline practices in New Orleans schools: Suspensions in the

Recovery School District are among the highest in the state, with some

186 out-of-school suspensions from just 33 schools handed out each week.

The district's suspension rate, 28.8 percent, is four times the national

rate. Of the students the organization surveyed, 37 percent said that

they fell behind in school after suspension, and 25 percent said that

they felt less motivated to learn.<br><br>

Meanwhile, the report shows how out-of-school suspension and expulsion

rates <i>increased</i> after Katrina, as did budgets for security

officers -- $20 million in 2006-2007, as opposed to $3 million for

2004-2005 -- despite significantly fewer students.<br><br>

If there are any doubts about whether prison bars are in the forecast for

some of these students, consider that just last week, the city council

<a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/07/new_prison_complex_plan_approv.html">

approved a sheriff's plan to expand a major prison complex</a> in the

city. The juvenile courts are also in question, after one of the system's

judges

<a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/07/report_says_former_juvenile_co.html">

resigned this week</a> after multiple female employees within his

courthouse accused him of sexual harassment. Some of the city's leaders

are even confused

<a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/11/mayoral_campaign_will_be_educa.html">

about what the Youth Study Center is</a> -- a detention center where

youth offenders are currently baking because of malfunctioning air

conditioners.<br><br>

Other cities are dealing with poor disciplinary practices, as reported in

<a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2007/10/the-discipline.html">

Florida</a>,

<a href="http://journalismfor.us/JJIE/2010/07/school-discipline/">

Georgia</a> and

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/eedition/chi-070924discipline,0,7975055.story">

Illinois</a>. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that a middle school

that

<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-479.ZS.html">searched a

13-year-old girl's backpack, bra and panties</a> for alleged

prescription-pill peddling (never found) violated her Fourth Amendment

rights. What this all adds up to are zero-tolerance policies that have

already slid too far down the slope of acceptable disciplinary

practice.<br><br>

One plausible reason that schools have been able to get away with so much

is that students themselves are rarely included at the table when

disciplinary sentencing rules are established. In New Orleans, a group

called <a href="http://www.therethinkers.com/what-weve-done/">Kids

Rethink New Orleans Schools</a> has set out to change that. In this

group, children from the Recovery School District brainstorm conflict

resolutions and make recommendations on how schools can preserve dignity

for students even when delivering punishment. Among

<a href="http://www.therethinkers.com/wp-content/Recommendations-09.pdf">

recommendations they made last year</a> (pdf) are deterring mandatory use

of metal detectors in elementary schools, and increasing social worker

and counseling staffs in schools.<br><br>

If Ja'Briel Weston's father, and the juvenile-justice advocates

supporting him, win their case, schools will hopefully get an opportunity

to produce alternatives to their current methods of dealing with problem

children. And perhaps a win will compel the school district and state

government to supply more resources so that schools can implement those

alternatives. If they lose, this would send a bad signal to other schools

throughout New Orleans and beyond, that shackling 6-year-olds is

acceptable. Just as common sense tells us that waterboarding is torture,

we should be able to discern that handcuffing is cruel and unusual for

children in their earliest ages of development.<br><br>

<i>Brentin Mock, a regular contributor to </i><b>The Root, </b><i>is

based in New Orleans.</i> <br>

<hr>

<b>Source URL:</b>

<a href="http://www.theroot.com/views/nola-child-handcuffs">

http://www.theroot.com/views/nola-child-handcuffs</a><br><br>

<b>Links:<br>

</b>[1]

<a href="http://www.theroot.com/users/brentinmock" eudora="autourl">

http://www.theroot.com/users/brentinmock<br>

</a>[2]

<a href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-sues-new-orleans-school-after-student-handcuffed" eudora="autourl">

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-sues-new-orleans-school-after-student-handcuffed<br>

</a>[3]

<a href="http://jjpl.org/new/" eudora="autourl">http://jjpl.org/new/<br>

</a>[4]

<a href="http://www.stateline.org/live/printable/story?contentId=18518" eudora="autourl">

http://www.stateline.org/live/printable/story?contentId=18518<br>

</a>[5]

<a href="http://www.learnersedgeinc.com/file/737-6.pdf" eudora="autourl">

http://www.learnersedgeinc.com/file/737-6.pdf<br>

</a>[6]

<a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june08/nolareads_06-17.html" eudora="autourl">

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/education/jan-june08/nolareads_06-17.html<br>

</a>[7]

<a href="http://www.nyclu.org/content/impact-of-school-suspensions-and-demand-passage-of-student-safety-act" eudora="autourl">

http://www.nyclu.org/content/impact-of-school-suspensions-and-demand-passage-of-student-safety-act<br>

</a>[8]

<a href="http://www.nesri.org/fact_sheets_pubs/Pushed_Out_Report.pdf" eudora="autourl">

http://www.nesri.org/fact_sheets_pubs/Pushed_Out_Report.pdf<br>

</a>[9]

<a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/07/new_prison_complex_plan_approv.html" eudora="autourl">

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/07/new_prison_complex_plan_approv.html<br>

</a>[10]

<a href="http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/07/report_says_former_juvenile_co.html" eudora="autourl">

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/07/report_says_former_juvenile_co.html<br>

</a>[11]

<a href="http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/11/mayoral_campaign_will_be_educa.html" eudora="autourl">

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2009/11/mayoral_campaign_will_be_educa.html<br>

</a>[12]

<a href="http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2007/10/the-discipline.html" eudora="autourl">

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2007/10/the-discipline.html<br>

</a>[13]

<a href="http://journalismfor.us/JJIE/2010/07/school-discipline/" eudora="autourl">

http://journalismfor.us/JJIE/2010/07/school-discipline/<br>

</a>[14]

<a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/eedition/chi-070924discipline,0,7975055.story" eudora="autourl">

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/eedition/chi-070924discipline,0,7975055.story<br>

</a>[15]

<a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-479.ZS.html" eudora="autourl">

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-479.ZS.html<br>

</a>[16]

<a href="http://www.therethinkers.com/what-weve-done/" eudora="autourl">

http://www.therethinkers.com/what-weve-done/<br>

</a>[17]

<a href="http://www.therethinkers.com/wp-content/Recommendations-09.pdf" eudora="autourl">

http://www.therethinkers.com/wp-content/Recommendations-09.pdf<br>

</a>[18]

<a href="http://www.facebook.com/theroot" eudora="autourl">

http://www.facebook.com/theroot<br>

</a>[19]

<a href="http://www.twitter.com/theroot247" eudora="autourl">

http://www.twitter.com/theroot247<br>

</a>[20]

<a href="http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/jabriel1.JPG" eudora="autourl">

http://www.theroot.com/sites/default/files/jabriel1.JPG<br><br>

<br><br>

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