Family sue for $250m after New York cops handcuff and interrogate boy, seven, for hours over '$5 stolen from fellow stud (Great Neck: neighborhoods, elementary school)
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I'm putting my kid in karate class when he gets a little older. My wife and I won't be around him 24 hours a day and he's gonna have to know how to defend himself.
Put your child through boxing, muay thai, judo, or bjj instead. 90% of Karate and Taekwondo (TKD) taught out there are pretty useless n terms of self-defense. Any martial art is great for self-confidence and exercise but if primary goal is able to defense him or herself then definitely skip Karate and TKD.
If you'd like PM me and I can go through long list of reason why but as a martial arts hobbyist, this is best advice I can give you and you'll thank me for it later
Put your child through boxing, muay thai, judo, or bjj instead. 90% of Karate and Taekwondo (TKD) taught out there are pretty useless n terms of self-defense. Any martial art is great for self-confidence and exercise but if primary goal is able to defense him or herself then definitely skip Karate and TKD.
If you'd like PM me and I can go through long list of reason why but as a martial arts hobbyist, this is best advice I can give you and you'll thank me for it later
Agreed---TKD is totally useless. For real self defense at the kid level you're way better off with good ol' boxing or wrestling.
Everyone here is missing the point...it is a 7 year old kid...you never did anything wrong at 7? Got into a fight? "Stole" a pencil? These are years where kids are learning, we all went through these things...how would your life have turned out if everything you did as a child caused you to be arrested and put through the system? By the time you were 12 you would have a 10 page rap sheet..we ALL would. How does that benefit anyone or our society simply criminalizing everyone?
If this kid was a bully, or violent, and was unable to alter his behavior despite attempts by the school, he should have been expelled. If the school is incapable of controlling/managing a 7 year old and this process, without calling the cops to arrest a him, then the teacher does not belong in the classroom and the principal probably needs to be dismissed also.
And the idea that this kid will be a murderer or some other deviant because of stupid 7 year old antics is ridiculous. Like I said, unless you spent all of your time as a child reading the bible and working at a soup kitchen, this kid is like many other kids...A KID....and we all did dumb things and we did not become ax murderers.
I am all for "scared straight" but that was not the case....parents should know and be involved in this process...having meathead cops who would NEVER do such a thing to their own kids (who are worse) in Breezy Point, or elite enclaves like Riverdale or UES is all we need to know. If it is unacceptable to their arrest 7 year olds for school yard nonsense, why would it be acceptable here? Lemme guess....
And personally, it would be much better to have the older brother come and scare this kid so he learns, from his peers, it is unacceptable behavior and the same way he can bully him, he can learn how unfun it is to be bullied. That's called learning and growing up....arresting a 7 year old though? Is that the society we want? Where your 7 year old son/daughter/neice/nephew/cousin do dumb things and are arrested and put through the system? Over and over again? Really?
Something tells me when it's your 7 year old kid/family member getting handcuffed for hours, and you don't even know about it, for school yard nonsense, you would be singing a different tune.
First, there is a big line between dumb things and being a consistent bully as this child is.
Second, how would you feel if it was your son, daughter, niece, nephew, cousin that was bullied every damn day by this kid and you didn't know about it. Even if you did, no one did or could do a thing about it in the school system or the bully's parents.
Third. When I was 7 and I did some bad stuff like this. This as in specifically being a bully and doing really bad stuff. Not 'dumb' stuff. My parents would talk to me to help me try to understand. If i was still acting up I'd be punished in other ways like losing my privileges and so forth. If I was still doing it and being 'badass', I'd receive corporal punishment. It sure fixed me up right. I'd be highly surprised if the kids parents did anything like that to degree. As in, let's teach our child that there are consquences to my actions and I need to own up to it. Whether it's moral, punishment, or both.
Lastly. I hope this kid wakes the hell up and that the parents also realize there are consequences of it. This is like the typical story of a bully's parents. Oh my child is sweet angel, never hurt or bother anyone, blah blah. He or she'd never do that! Get over it.
man I remember a time when I was little, I stole a 25 cent pack of gum from target when i was shopping with my grandma. She asked me how I got it and I confessed. I got a stern yelling, and she took me all the way back up to target to return the pack of gum and apologize. Did I ever steal anything again? Nope.
Suggestion to a few people - first, gain some direct experience in public education in one of the "bad" schools.
Then - write about your experiences and observations here.
If people did this, it would change their opinions dramatically, and the experience might even occasion the development of actual solutions.
You are confusing cause and effect. One of the reasons schools are considered "bad" is that stuff like this egregious overreaction happens. When word gets around that teachers are calling cops in to handcuff second graders in police stations, who would send their kid there if they have any choice at all? Nobody. It's off to Catholic school, a charter, even homeschooling. And then the school's reputation continues to decline. It might have been just a school with some bad kids--and every school has some of those. But now its a bad school, without regard to who goes there, because the administration is inept and abusive.
I repeat: If the administration can't figure out how to handle a misbehaving 7-year old, they don't need to be in elementary education and should lose thier jobs. Calling the cops is something you do with teenagers and guns, not schoolyard scrapes. (And many here are taking the word of one of these seven year olds about bullying as a fact, when anyone who has ever been around kids that young knows that the first words out of their mouths may not be the truest.)
And yes, this is clearly an issue of race as well. I dare anyone here to tell me with a straight face that a bullying white kid in Great Neck or Chappaqua or the like would have been treated like this with no consequences. If you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Last edited by citylove101; 02-01-2013 at 11:14 AM..
You are confusing cause and effect. One of the reasons schools are considered "bad" is that stuff like this egregious overreaction happens. When word gets around that teachers are calling cops in to handcuff second graders in police stations, who would send their kid there if they have any choice at all? Nobody. It's off to Catholic school, a charter, even homeschooling. And then the school's reputation continues to decline. It might have been just a school with some bad kids--and every school has some of those. But now its a bad school, without regard to who goes there, because the administration is inept and abusive.
I repeat: If the administration can't figure out how to handle a misbehaving 7-year old, they don't need to be in elementary education and should lose thier jobs. Calling the cops is something you do with teenagers and guns, not schoolyard scrapes. (And many here are taking the word of one of these seven year olds about bullying as a fact, when anyone who has ever been around kids that young knows that the first words out of their mouths may not be the truest.)
And yes, this is clearly an issue of race as well. I dare anyone here to tell me with a straight face that a bullying white kid in Great Neck or Chappaqua or the like would have been treated like this with no consequences. If you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
And your experience in the public school system is ...
You know about the schools and their problems because ...
"Race" ? Really ?! I also have experience with the Great Neck types and I can assure you that such things are taken very seriously indeed. A major difference resides with the parents, who inevitably take responsibility. Not every time, but most often. They never blame others, but they are sometimes simply indifferent, which is not good either. Unfortunately, the ghetto folk blame the administration, the teacher, whoever is at hand. Then they file law suits.
It is not the job of teachers or administrations to raise children, in spite of the ghetto-culture mantras to the contrary - and yes, I heard them many times. Moreover, socialization, which might actually be among those jobs, is near impossible given what the problem kids get at home. One might term that "counter-socialization" and it is very real.
You just dont get it do you? It makes NO difference at all who took what, said what or did what. Calling in the cops and handcuffing a 7 year old kid in a police station for hours is just way over the top and totally indefensible. This is something that the school should have settled when it happened among the kids and their parents.
That they couldn't figure out what to do except call the cops is a testament to their total and utter incompetence.
No, you're the one who just doesn't get it.
You (and others on this thread who also don't know what they are talking about) need to actually read the story before commenting.
It did not happen at the time school was in session.
It did not happen on school grounds.
It happened on a public street.
The victim's mother called the cops, not teachers or administration at the school.
The cops just happened to arrest the kid at the school. The school, teachers and school administration had absolutely nothing to do with any of it, except being the place the police picked the kid up.
Why should the school be involved in mediating a reported crime that occurred off school property? The arrest was precipitated by the allegation that there was a robbery while the victim was walking home from school. This wasn't a schoolyard antic, in the least, and if there was a pattern of repeated bullying, I am not surprised that the authorities were called in this case. He was arrested at school, but the police can arrest a suspect wherever they happen to be, so they went to a place where they knew he would be found. I believe that the school had attempted to mediate disputes with this boy, but if a complaint is filed by someone alleging criminal activity, is that to be ignored and the schools are now supposed to take the place of the courts and social services?
Rather than march the offending child to the victim's house, and face the music -- including an apology, return of his money, and and an additional fine from the child's own allowance -- the solution is to blame someone else. Even if a third party admitted taking his money, a responsible parent/guardian would force the return of the money, even if the victim was compensated more than the original theft. Furthermore, the responsible parent would be at the door of the classroom morning and afternoon, walking with the child to and from school until they learn how to behave properly in public, not just walking with the child because of the media storm created when the lawsuit was filed. Mommy or Daddy walking with the child and observing their interactions would shoot down any credibility that they received from bullying, especially when combined with being grounded at home, with no XBOX or television. The charges were dropped, but again, that wasn't used as a life lesson to teach the child that what they had been doing was wrong, even if there was not enough evidence to support prosecution on the robbery charge for which they were arrested. No, the answer is to blame the police and sue the city because it's clearly the police's fault.
People ask why the police would do this to a child, but do they also ask why said child was allowed to bully another boy? Just because it is within his own peer group does not negate the seriousness of the action because bullying can have ramifications that can last for a lifetime, robbing the victim's self esteem. What is the age at which an arrest for an alleged crime becomes permissible? 10? 12? That is something that needs to be established by law, as there is a juvenile justice system to deal with such issues, and he was cleared before prosecution, but there was enough evidence to support an arrest.
Educators are there to teach, not delve into aspects of disputes that are better handled by social services, the police, and juvenile justice authorities. So, since things are not as easily handled as in private schools, where children were expelled for bullying in my day, the police should be called in when there is evidence to support crimes. This situation was more than a name-calling incident or dispute between two children that can be handled by the school. Perhaps the school called in the authorities to make a case for reassignment to another school, but I don't see how the police are to be vilified for responding to a criminal complaint, making an arrest, and referring the matter to proprietorial authorities. Is that not what the police are supposed to do when there is an alleged crime?
Thank you for making sense and knowing what you are talking about!
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