At a high school in my state last week, a school resource officer was under fire for allegedly using "too much force." Apparently, a special needs student was causing quite the scene in a classroom. She was being violent, at first taking to yelling and swearing, rummaging through the teacher's desk, and then using physical violence. When a resource officer was called in to assist the teacher, the student began kicking and punching the officer. She threatened to break a glass trophy case, and destroy the school. He handcuffed the student when she threw herself on the ground, where she continued to kick him. She was clearly out of control. The parents claimed that the officer did not need to handcuff their child and used too much force.
...Wait, what? Let me get this straight. Let's assume for a moment that this is not a 16 year old special needs student (which should have nothing to do with it, because special needs or not, violence is unacceptable.) Let's assume that this is an 18 year old, and the police officer is being punched and kicked in a non-school setting. What do you think that officer is going to do? Put the person in handcuffs, of course. That's policy and procedure! The girl was a hazard to herself, the other students, and the police officer! What do the parents expect that he's going to do... stand there getting punched while trying to take her to the principals office? That's ridiculous. I'm sorry, but parents are just too sensitive sometimes.
Luckily, on Thursday, an investigation concluded that the officer used an appropriate amount of force and followed all of the necessary procedures. The girl was also charged with disorderly conduct and the assault of a police officer.
Parents are really sensitive these days, but a lot of them, in my opinion, are not strict enough on their kids either. I understand that it was a special needs student, but parents need to discipline their kids more so that scenes like that don't happen. I think that a lot of kids act unruly because they don't have parents that enforc good behavior at home. Some children will rebel due to strict rules, but overall I think parents are too easy on their children. The fact that they said that he used too much force also makes me laugh and think that they were just trying not to look bad (blaming it on the officer) because their child caused such a scene.
I agree, however I disagree with the discipline aspect. I think if children are simply taught the difference between right and wrong, and the parents display model behavior (since most parents do not behave themselves, hehe), there would be less behavior like this. My mother never "disciplined" me because she taught me the difference between good behavior and bad behavior and because of that I never really needed disciplining for anything besides "don't hit your sister!" (lol!)
I do agree with you also that they were trying not to make themselves look bad but the irony is that if they didn't complain, the story would have never ever made the news. They made themselves look bad.
"There are two ways to look at life. One is as though nothing is a miracle; the other is as though everything is."
certain parents you mean, my parents would have disowned me.
hooray for emancipation though :)
The guy didn't use excessive force, but being as the girl was mentally handicapped, I don't think she should have been legally CHARGED...
Just me, though.
The school won't release her handicap (for obvious reasons) but just because she's a special needs doesn't mean she's mentally challenged. Many students that were special needs at my high school simply had severe anger problems, etc. and needed one on one attention for at least a portion of the day.
I guess from the sounds of it she SOUNDS mentally handicapped to me. It could very well just be anger issues.
Parents try to hard to be their child's friend (if they have a relationship with them at all, many are too concerned with other things...I reference my brother) rather than their parent. Because they have a good friendship, nothing their baby does is wrong. Look at the Halloween hate crime in the LA area... the black girls involved had possessions of the white girls, and the parents still said their daughters were being framed!!