MC police pick up ESS 5 year old; harass & assault him
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Anonymous
....it really doesn't. I think most of us who read the story assumed that at least one of the cops was Black, and probably both. That doesn't mean race wasn't a factor at key points in this story. Police officers, even Black ones, work inside a system in which Black children are adultified and where abuse of Black kids is less likely to be reported or taken seriously. The individual officer doesn't need to be racist against the child for this to have racial implications. The cop can just be abusive, and have a sense that they will get away with it because the child is Black. |
Anonymous
An fing 5 year old. Some of the posters here are absolutely vile. |
Anonymous
One of the many questions that we don't have answers for is how much of this abuse happened in front of school staff. If the child eloped, and if MCPS policy still dictates that staff can't stop a child and cannot retrieve them from off school grounds, then the school's hands were tied in terms of involving the police. So, for that piece I think the problem is the MCPS policy, not the school staff. It's also unclear how much of the 50-minute ordeal happened at the school, and how much happened offsite. However, if school staff witnessed the abuse (as reported) and if they shared student information (as reported), then it's a huge issue. At absolute best, the front office staff need bystander training on how to deescalate a situation and information on what can and cannot be shared with law enforcement. At worst, school staff were complicit in the abuse of a young child. That's the piece that the school community, and the broader community, will need to seek answers on. The vaaaast majority of the fault here, though. lies with Montgomery County PD. The school staff should never have been put in the position of trying to figure out how to deescalate two angry, abusive, and armed police officers. We don't pay school secretaries nearly enough to deal with that. |
Anonymous
The child left school grounds. Someone was asleep at the wheel. |
Anonymous
If you are suggestion that it’s in any way, shape, or form excusable that a young child is able to leave school grounds unnoticed, you have a pathetically low bar. This is about student safety - not incarceration. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Someone may have been asleep at the wheel, but just so we're having a fact-based discussion, MCPS policy is that school staff cannot physically stop a child who is eloping, nor can they follow beyond the school boundary. So, if a child is determined to walk away, school officials can *try* to reason with them (but not touch them) and *try* to redirect their attention, but their choices are extremely constrained. This is for good reason (staff can't touch kids), but the result is that calling police to retrieve an eloping child is not uncommon at any school in MCPS. The answer would be more teachers and teacher's aides, and more social workers and counselors to work through the eloping impulses before the child walks out. |
Anonymous
| How on the hell could a SCHOOL have a “policy” that staff are not allowed to stop a FIVE YEAR OLD who is attempting to leave its campus? If I had that policy in my house it would be called child abuse, and rightly so. This idea is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard here. Someone post a link to this alleged policy. |
Anonymous
We actually don't know that he left unnoticed, for what it is worth. We have no idea whether he turned up missing at the count after recess, or whether he made a fully witnessed break for it but staff were not allowed to follow him beyond school grounds. Given student privacy concerns, we also may never know the answer to this question. |
Anonymous
Also need to be careful not to infantilize a child. I’m not saying threatening children is ever appropriate, but there is a realm of acceptable and unacceptable behavior from a child. |
Anonymous
| This thread demonstrates why it’ll be nearly impossible for teachers to enforce children wearing masks. |
Anonymous
I doubt there is a written policy saying that. The policy on behavior management doesn't say that (https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/detail.aspx?recID=282&policyID=JGA-RA§ionID=10) and it addresses use of physical restraint by staff. I wouldn't be surprised if teachers THINK that's the policy though; communication of what laws and policies actually say to teachers is often very poor. |
Anonymous
Agreed on perceptions of what teachers are allowed to do versus reality. I would also point out, though, that only staff trained in safe physical restraints can restrain a child. A regular kindergarten classroom teacher is unlikely to be in that group. The answer here, as others have said, is for every teacher to be trained in trauma-based approaches, for there to be additional adults in the classroom, and for every school to have social workers and counselors that can help keep elopement from happening. Only a tiny fraction of that is within the ability of any individual school, which means we need systemic approaches. |
Anonymous
Soooo what you are saying is that if this same scenario happened to your offspring you would be perfectly OK with what happened. Gotcha!
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Anonymous
Maybe. But it is also possible, for example, that the audio is muffled and open to different interpretations. Counsel has a lot of leeway in presenting facts in a complaint and, shocking as it may be, some counsel go even beyond that great latitude when presenting facts to the court, especially when the court of public opinion is also the audience. It is probably more likely than not the quotes are fair, but I'll reserve judgement until I either see the video or see an account of the video from a more objective source. |