Police Handcuff and Shackle ‘Disruptive’ 5-Year-Old Special Needs Student

A family and community is outraged after police arrived at a school to “de-escalate” a situation, but instead ended up handcuffing and shackling a 5-year-old student with special needs.

An official with the Jefferson-Lewis Board of Cooperative Educational Services explains that the faculty had tried to de-escalate the situation for two hours before calling the police. They hoped the officers would have special training at conflict resolution and de-escalation that would calm things down. 

Trooper Keller was on the scene. He said that the “disruptive” child was “screaming, kicking, punching and biting.”

The student’s teacher, Sarah M. Viscomi, used restrained the child until the officer arrived.

“An officer told me they had to handcuff his wrists and ankles for their safety,” she explained. “I told him that was ridiculous. How could someone fear for their safety when it comes to a small, 5-year-old child?”

Now the parents of the young boy say they are going to sue.

Chelsea Ruiz, the mother of the boy, tells us that officials at the hospital determined there was nothing extraordinary about how her son was acting. They determined that he did not need to be evaluated by a psychiatrist, as police has said. 

She explains that hospital officials agree that the boy, Conner, was simply throwing a tantrum.

Officers, however, claim that he was “jumping from cabinets and desks, was attempting to jump out of a window… he was stabbing himself with pencils and eating paper.”

The officers claim that he “bit off foam” and “tried to cause himself to choke.”

But it sounds a lot like he just bit foam. It seems an unreasonable conclusion – not supported by the hospital workers who assessed the situation – that he was actually trying “to cause himself to choke” – essentially a police claim that he was attempting suicide.

Now, the Ruizes, explain that their son has been emotionally traumatized. They say he is afraid of the school and does not want to return due to the traumatic experience.

Ruiz says that the school is “going to pay for the emotional distress they just caused my son. I told her I was going straight to the media, getting an attorney, and that I had already called the state Office of Special Education.”

(Article by Jackson Marciana)