ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 23) - An attorney says he plans legal action against police officers who handcuffed an unruly 5-year-old girl after she acted up in her kindergarten class.

A video camera, which was rolling March 14 as part of a classroom self-improvement exercise, captured images of the girl tearing papers off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and punching an assistant principal before police were called to Fairmount Park Elementary.

Then it shows the child appearing to calm down before three officers approach, pin her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screams, "No!''

Largo lawyer John Trevena, who provided the tape to the media this week after obtaining it from police, says the officers went too far.

"The image itself will be seared into people's minds when you have three police officers bending a child over a table and forcibly handcuffing her,'' said Trevena, who represents the girl's mother, Inga Akins.

"It's incomprehensible ... There was no need for that,'' he added.



ABC News
The tape shows the girl lashing out at a school employee.

Police declined to comment, citing an official complaint by Akins that has sparked an investigation by the supervisor of the four officers who were present. Two are new officers who were being trained that day.

Spokesman Bill Proffitt said the investigation would be complete in about two weeks and the findings would be made public.

The 30-minute tape shows assistant principal Nicole Dibenedetto trying repeatedly to calm down the girl, who ignores her commands and begins punching her.

The child's mother was called but wasn't able to immediately come to the school.

After being placed in the back of a police cruiser, police released the girl to her mother after prosecutors informed them they wouldn't bring charges against a 5-year-old.


04-23-05 15:05 EDT




So what do you guys think? Should this girl have been arrested.

little kids think they can do anything cus they're little...

i don't see why handcuffs shouldn't have been used...

although: i don't think this is for entertainment...

Those cops went to far. She is freaking 5 years old. Even though its weird that she went all crazy but i still dont thik the cops should of handcuffed her...

omg wow

is this more proof that little kids are getting worse and worse with every generation?

I think she just needed a paddling.



I agree

Hmmm. I agree with this. Little kids are getting worse every day.

I think arresting a 5 year old is getting a little too far, but I do agree that kids are just getting worse and worse. But it is part of the parents' fault on how their kids turn out.

wow....she got it bad....when i was 6 they just came and knocked on my door and said dont do it again and then i had to go to the merril lynch (juvinial court)

I dunno. There's a good and bad side of it.

The good side: This will probably scare other little children from doing anything like that 5 year old girl did.

The bad side: The cops went too far.

It's not going too far. She's worse than some unruly teenagers, in fact. If putting handcuffs on her was the only way to calm her down or keep her hands down actually, so be it. I feel bad for her parents. Actually, no I don't. It's partly their fault she acts like that.

The cops should have fine the parents instead of cuffing the brat and bringing trouble on themselves.

Physically harassing a school official will get you expelled.. I don't think the officers really went too far. What else were they suppose to do? Handcuffing her would be the same thing as holding her down.

I wonder who videotaped it.

ST. PETE!! Thats near where I stay (Tampa, fl) She is just five years old, I really dont think the handcuffs were needed, they went a lil to far with that.

yeah she's five years old. But punching people in the face doesn't necessarily make her innocent.. yea?

Her actions are simply screaming for some anger management. =/
this is what i would call... either "lack of home education" or "counsellor needed"

Handcuffs are a form of physical restraint. It's not to hurt people- it's to subdue them. It hurts if you thrash around, so it's meant to stop people from doing that. Plus, she was physically hurting a school official. So I personally don't think it was an excess of force.

It's not the police's fault that the girl misbehaved. I personally think handcuffing her is better than putting her down to the floor like most policemen would do to teenagers being violent.

i dont think handcuffs was really necesarry(sp?)

I for one am happy they handcuffed that little bastard. You should of seen how crazy and tough she thought she was until she saw the cops walk in.

oh jeez. violent kids these days.

stupid kids these days. she deserved it. its not like she actually went to jail or got fined..

imo, the cops went too far. but i loathe little kids like that. she had it coming i guess. ;x but if i was a relative of hers, i'd probably be really upset about it.

Instead of handcuffing her, give her a timeout. Put her into a room until she calms down. (:

The cops did go to far. Kids do get these kind of tantrums.

that's crayzee ..

they should have just calmed her down .. or just punish her .. handcuffing a little girl ?? .. gosh that's too extreme

I think arresting her was going a little bit too far but the kid needs some discipline. kids these days think they can do whatever.

They just used the handcuffs to restrain her from hitting the officers, I don't think they went too far with the handcuffs; they could've used those plastic zip-tie handcuffs though. Or they could've just called the girl's parents.

wow.

if the mother didn't come as soon as she should have, maybe it was a good thing that they called the cops. although, the hand cuffs where not needed. i mean, she could be scarred for life because of that.

The police didn't go too far. You guys seen the video of her attacking the assistant principal? Sure, she is a kid so she couldn't do much, but kids can do damage too. Maybe now she will know better than to hit people when she's pissed off.

I agree that she was way out of hand. I don't disagree about the handcuffs, I just think that maybe, they should have called her mother, been like, hey, your daughter is being unruly, I need you here now, or, I'm handcuffing her...

She deff needs a paddling.

i saw a little fotage of what happened.....drugs these days...

they should've used a taser (sp?). that would've shut her up.

That's completely unnecessary. Arresting a five year old? The kid probably has A.D.D. or something. They went over board arresting a kid as young as her. Though they could arrest me at any age because I am COMPLETELY INSANE!!!!!

WORSHIP THE WAFFLE GODS!!!!!

no, it's called being a kid. and don't use A.D.D. as a scapegoat for whatever. i know people who have A.D.D. and it's treatable with some pills or whatever. and ur a weird person, u know that right? and not in a, "dustin, ur weird and random, but it's so funny and cool so we love u" weird. it's a, "okay, be quiet now." weird.

waffles are good tho..

i guess not.. maybe suspended. but hey kids make mistakes maybe she was having a bad day.. instead of handcuffing her maybe they shud have just ask her whats wrong and lock her in a corner as punishment.. she wouldnt go to jail.. would she..? but i guess handcuffing her was the only way of calming her down ?

Wow. Very interesting. Lol. People these days..

i think it was appropriate..
kids need to learn that if they do something wrong, then something like that will happen..

for god sakes she's a five year old she shouldn't be rebelling against athourity and punching school officials!

she did not calm down, i saw the the video like some of the others, she was thrashing about and jumping all over the place and yelling

wow thats... interesting.. geez im speechless

She was handcuffed by Policemen!

Response: She was a freakin' 5 year old!

She went ballistic on the Vice Principal!

Response: She was a freakin' 5 year old!

Now, if a FIVE YEAR OLD can do something like that, she needs the handcuffs.

I saw tht on the news. It was WEIRD!! U cant handcuff a little kid...below the age of 8...wtf

well the thing is kids are getting pretty smart and know what there doing half the time... and i read the article and i would have hand cuffed her..... crazy youth these days...

i saw one the other day trying to be all cool and stuff like he's a homie or something.

Cops went too far, that child is only 5 years old knowing nothing better. Well, she isnt a very violent person since the cops came. There was no need for handcuff.

Thats stupid.
I mean, handcuffs for a 5 year old?

Kids don't know better...but cops did go too far....

I found the video clips:

BEFORE COPS CAME

GIRL BEING HANDCUFFED

hmm, what the hell did i see on tv i could have sworn she was jumping around all over the place...oh well

They only showed part of it.. it kind of makes it look like she didn't do much but I saw it on tv too and she was like ripping shit up.

Like I said before, completely unneccasary *shakes head*

I agree.


Just because she is 5 doesn't mean they're going too far. If we let kids off easily, then they're gonna end up worse then they already are.

She shouldnt have been arrested thats too much maybe held or hugged to stop her form hitting.