[Mb-civic] 5 year-old child handcuffed at school

[Rhaerther at aol.com]

Textbook case of discipline viewed with praise,  criticism
 
An expert calls educators' handling of a misbehaving girl admirable. But some 
 wonder: Why not corporal punishment? 
This situation occurred in a St. Petersburg school and resulted in a  
five-year old being handcuffed.  The mother is now suing the school board  
(surprising, isn't it).  What is interesting is how professionals are  calling the 
school staff conduct "textbook" and properly done the  mother's attorney has viewed 
the video and states it's clear the school  staff tactics provoked the child 
into striking.  I hope this one goes  through the court system instead of 
being settled out of court, as a I feel  parental guidance at home may be lacking.
 
By THOMAS C. TOBIN, Times Staff Writer
Published April 23,  2005

     
(http://sptimes.com/2005/04/22/Southpinellas/Video_shows_police_ha.shtml) 
ST. PETERSBURG - What parent hasn't tried this trick on stubborn  children: 
Tell them it's time to go, pretend you're leaving and hope they  follow. 
Two educators tried the tactic last month in the case of a 5-year-old girl at 
 Fairmount Park Elementary. Twice it failed. 
The pair used a range of other strategies in an hourlong ordeal, about 30  
minutes of which were caught on a videotape released this week by a lawyer for  
the girl's mother. Some of their "interventions" appeared to work, others did  
not. 
Although administrators and many teachers are trained in dealing with  
misbehaving children, educators say they have no sure formula for success,  
especially in such an extreme case. 
At Fairmount Park on March 14, the girl swung several times at assistant  
principal Nicole Dibenedetto and teacher Patti Tsaousis. She created a mess  
wherever she went and generally refused to cooperate. She eventually was  
handcuffed by St. Petersburg police, who were called to the school. 
"She's a little girl who wants to be in control," Carol Thomas, an assistant  
superintendent in charge of Pinellas elementary schools, said while viewing 
the  video this week. "It was very deliberate behavior. 
Lynette Fields, a professor at the University of South Florida's College of  
Education, called it "a very trying situation in the real world."  
Thomas said Dibenedetto and Tsaousis handled the case admirably, setting  
limits for the girl but also giving her options and praising the positive  
decisions she made amid the bad ones. Thomas also offered suggestions for what  else 
might have been tried. 
Instead of counting to five out loud, as Dibenedetto did to coax the girl to  
act, Thomas said she might have counted in her head to give the girl more  
leeway. 
Another alternative: ignoring the child. 
But Thomas said that strategy is risky because it requires an unbending  
commitment. If you give up on it to prevent a child from getting hurt, it  results 
in "intermittent reinforcement," Thomas said, which only strengthens bad  
behavior. 
Fields said it appeared Dibenedetto and Tsaousis took a page from the  
philosophy espoused in the book, Parenting with Love and Logic, which gave rise  to 
the Love and Logic Institute. 
The Love and Logic philosophy discourages the "drill sergeant" and  
"helicopter" styles of parenting. The first one commands and directs children,  the 
latter hovers and rescues them from mistakes. 
The Love and Logic style encourages children to talk about their feelings,  
make their own decisions and complete required tasks within loose "time  
frames." 
It is a philosophy that surely grates on those who said during the robust  
public discussion following the videotape's release that the girl was in need of 
 corporal punishment. 
In letters to the St. Petersburg Times, on Internet postings and in talk  
radio debates, many expressed outrage Friday that the educators at Fairmount  
Park seemed hamstrung by concerns about touching the girl or being too  stern. 
Among the dynamics at work that day: two school staffers were forced to focus 
 exclusively on the girl during dismissal, one of the busiest and most 
stressful  times of the day; the girl's behavior had prompted the school to call 
city  police a few days earlier, and the mother had complained. 
District officials said that in the future Pinellas schools police should be  
notified because they are accustomed to dealing with students. 
Florida law still allows corporal punishment but leaves the decision to  
school districts. Many districts abandoned the practice years ago because of  
liability concerns, Fields said. Pinellas is one of them. 
Even the law that allows corporal punishment is fraught with caution. An  
educator may administer it only with another adult present. That adult must be  
told - in the presence of the student - of the reason for the punishment.  
Parents can request a written explanation. 
Pinellas educators are told they may use "reasonable force" to protect  
themselves, a student or anyone else from harm. But, in practice, that  translates 
to a simpler rule of thumb: no touching at all. 
"That's a good rule for anyone to follow when dealing with somebody else's  
children," Fields said. 
Pinellas elementary schools reported 406 disciplinary referrals for batteries 
 on adults last school year, up from 272 the year before. Many are repeat  
offenses from a smaller group of children who chronically misbehave. 
"Some schools call them "frequent fliers,' " said Bob Poth, principal of  
Douglas L. Jamerson Jr. Elementary. 
"The bottom line is that if a child is misbehaving, learning is not taking  
place," Poth said. "We only have 180 days with the kids. We can't afford to 
have  them fooling around." 
Richard Haerther
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