Former Rare Staff
Miami-Dade Schools Police officers put a 7-year-old boy in handcuffs in the middle of his school day after he allegedly hit his teacher for scolding him, and his mom’s video of the incident is tough to watch.
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“Do not worry, my love,” Mercy Alvarez choked through tears during the second time on three months that school authorities punished her son for behavioral issues via police force.
“This is police abuse; a whim of the officer, because my son was calm when they came to look for him,” she said later, calling the boy’s punishment disproportionate and outrageous. “The principal, the counselor, and two other people tried to prevent that action, and the officer took the child anyway.”
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Police detained the first-grader under Florida’s Mental Health Act, also known as The Baker Act, based on behavioral criteria suggesting the person could pose a danger to themselves or their peers. According to a police report, he had been removed from the cafeteria for playing with his food and responded to his teacher’s reprimanding him in the hallway by “repeatedly punching her on her back.” Once restrained, he reportedly continued throwing punches and kicks until he and the teacher both feel to the floor, where he proceeded to put up a fight. Afterwards, he was hospitalized without his family’s consent for a psychiatric evaluation and was discharged hours later.
“He does not have a mental disorder,” Alvarez insisted.
Since posting her video online, she said “more than 30 mothers in Miami have written to [her] in solidarity because their children have done the same thing.” She and her husband have also met with lawyers to discuss the possibility of taking legal action against the school district and the police.
Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Ian Moffatt admitted that the incident was unusual, but “was warranted to prevent [the child’s] erratic and violent behavior from bringing further harm to others or himself.” He added that the actions by police were standard procedures. Public schools spokeswoman Jackie Calzadilla seconded that the action was necessary because the child “began behaving erratically and hit a teacher. Due to a great concern for the student and to ensure his safety and that of those around him, he was restricted according to the Baker Act and transported to the hospital to be evaluated.”
The teacher has indicated that she plans to press charges against the child, but his mother is not convinced that her son is strong enough to have knocked the instructor to the ground. She indicated that she will not believe the series of events until she sees surveillance video of the incident. The family is under the impression that bullying at school has caused the boy to develop behavioral issues, adding that the same police officer detained him on another occasion in November.
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“They have created a psychological trauma, and instead of fixing the problem, you are building a problem,” Alvarez said, adding that her son once dreamed of becoming a police officer, but he recently told her “he does not want to be because the police are bad.”
