A Massachusetts school district and a city police department have come under fire for calling multiple officers to a classroom to respond to a 9-year-old Black student’s mental health crisis by handcuffing him to a pole to restrain him before taking him to a local hospital where authorities held him in adult custody.
The Lawyers for Civil Rights alongside Anderson Krieger LLC law firm in Boston wrote a letter to the Walpole Public School System and the Walpole Police Department demanding the district take action and implement “wide-ranging reform.”
The letter recounts the incident that happened on Jan. 12. A third-grade student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and delayed intelligence “became dysregulated while in his elementary school class,” according to both groups.
The student’s individualized education plan has procedures in place to apply positive reinforcement that will help regulate his behavior. Instead of implementing those school measures, the staff called the school resource officer who then called in officers from the Walpole Police Department.
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Two Walpole police officers arrived and forcibly handcuffed the child and restrained his arms and legs. At that point, he was taken to a nearby hospital and held in custody where he was unable to reach his mother until he was discharged.
Erika Richmond, an attorney with Lawyers for Civil Rights, stated, “The actions taken by Walpole Public Schools and the Walpole Police Department against this 9-year-old boy were egregious, age-inappropriate, and directly contradicted the school’s own guidance for regulating his behavior.”
She said the incident exemplifies the “adultification” of Black children. This is a form of discrimination where Black children are…
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