Earlier this year, police were called when a Florida fourth grader began cursing, screaming and throwing things in a classroom.
Now, the Oviedo Police Department is being sued by the child’s parents for handcuffing him in the mailroom of Stenstrom Elementary School. According to multiple outlets the incident was captured on body camera footage.
“Back on Feb. 2, the two officers entered the mailroom at Stenstrom Elementary School in Oviedo, near Orlando,” said 7 News, which cited a police report. It also said the lawsuit revealed that the student was on an Individual Education Plan and Behavior Intervention Plan that identified physical aggression as a behavioral problem.
WESH reported that, per the plan, staff were advised to “not engage in any conversation other than having him complete the task,” and to limit attention given to the student during an anger episode.
Ultimately, the child was handcuffed for 13 minutes. His parents said this choice demonstrates use of excessive force in the complaint, filed Sept. 27, according to the Miami Herald. That’s around a week after a complaint filed over the 2019 arrest if 6-year-old Kaia Rolle. Her wrists were bound with zip ties at an Orlando, Fla., charter school.
These two incidents are not the only recent cases of children being arrested in Florida. In July, Audacy reported on the arrest of an 11-year-old girl in Port Orange, Fla., who admitted to faking an abduction as part of a social media challenge.
The Miami Herald reported that the lawsuit cited an Oviedo Police Department general order that prevents officers from placing juveniles under 12 in handcuffs and “other restraints unless they pose a risk or danger to themselves, the officer, or others.”
When the student’s parents arrived at Stenstrom Elementary this February, school resource officer Yashira Moncada allegedly told them they were “lucky” that their child wasn’t arrested.
According to the lawsuit, the child at Stenstrom Elementary “suffered physical and emotional abuse and injury, mental anguish, violation of (his) right, humiliation, discomfort, embarrassment, loss of dignity, aggravation of an existing disease or mental defect, and medical expenses.”
Stenstrom Elementary School is a part of Seminole County Public Schools, which is not involved in the lawsuit. The school district declined to comment, McClatchy News reported. The city of Oviedo also did not immediately provide a comment.
“Nine-year-old children with special needs should not be handcuffed by police officers at school,” attorney Drew Moss, of Miami-based law firm Kutner, Rubinoff & Moss LLP, who is representing the family, said in a statement the outlet.