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Wink News
Student handcuffed to wheelchair
October 28, 2008
By Mike Essian
Video
COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - A
special-needs student in Collier gets handcuffed to a wheelchair at
school Tuesday morning.
The student reportedly hit a
teacher and needed to be restrained, but the parents think using
handcuffs went too far.
"They had him on a chair and he was
sitting with his (hands) tied up and I looked at him and he was just
so sad," Sagrario Szanto said.
She arrived at Palmetto Ridge High
School Tuesday morning to find her 17-year-old son Michael, in
handcuffs.
The sheriff report says Michael was
not having a good morning at school and he hit his teacher in the
face, several times.
"The typical procedure is first to
try to, what we call, de-escalate verbally, to try to calm the
student down, to try to talk the student down," Dr. John Kelly,
assistant superintendent of student conduct for the Collier School
District, said.
A spokeswoman for the Collier
County Sheriff's Office says the teacher tried to calm the student
for ten to 15 minutes before calling in the Youth Resource Deputy to
help.
According to the Sheriff's Office,
the policy is to try to de-escalate the situation using as little
force as necessary.
"Law enforcement can go from
physical restraint, to taser, to taking the student and arresting
them and taking them downtown," Kelly said.
It never progressed that far, but
for Michael's mom, it progressed too much.
"Putting him in the handcuffs? No,
that was wrong," Sagrario Szanto said.
Michael was not arrested, but left
school early with his parents. His dad says they've asked the school
for special assistance for Michael's behavior for the past two years
but have received no help. He thinks that help could have prevented
this from happening. The teacher says he will not press charges.
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