A Kentucky police department is being sued after footage was released showing an officer placing an eight-year-old boy with ADHD in handcuffs.
Deputy Kevin Sumner cuffs the boy – who also suffers from PTSD – above his elbow with his hands behind his back, and it looks pretty painful. School records suggest he was kept this way for 15 minutes.
It’s also been claimed that a girl in the same school district was put in cuffs for misbehaving.
Susan Mizner from the American Civil Liberties Union, who filed the lawsuit, said:
Shackling children is not okay. Using law enforcement to discipline students with disabilities only serves to traumatize children.
A government report has highlighted hundreds of similar incidents, mostly involving kids with disabilities, 20 of which resulted in death.
In a statement the boy’s mother said:
It is heartbreaking to watch my little boy suffer because of this experience. School should be a safe place for children. It should be a place they look forward to going to. Instead, this has turned into a continuing nightmare for my son.
Hopefully justice will be done.
