JPS Admits Handcuffing Kids for Hours

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Read the complaint and the JPS response. Also, read our previous story.

By Valerie Wells
June 29, 2011

The Jackson Public School District admits to handcuffing children to a stairway railing at Capital City Alternative School, feeding them lunch and leaving them restrained for hours. JPS admitted this in its written response to a federal class-action lawsuit the Southern Poverty Law Center filed earlier this month.

Jody Owens, director of SPLC in Mississippi, said the response amounts to a major admission. "What we've always asked for is for to stop immediately," Owens said. JPS has a written policy that allows restraining students when they could harm themselves or others. Owens said students handcuffed for multiple hours would not pose a threat. If they were a threat, officers should escort the restrained students from the facility.

"If you thought they were calm enough to be given lunch, they were not a threat," he said today.

As defendants in the lawsuit, JPS admits students were handcuffed to the railing and ate lunch while restrained. The school district also admits that school employees passing by or through the gym area could hear children calling out, asking for the handcuffs to be loosened.

In an instance when school officials restrained a girl who talked back, JPS admits she was handcuffed for multiple hours to the stair railing near the stairs in the gym, where there was no video camera, and that the safety officer did nothing to remove her handcuffs. Also, the school did not give the girl any disciplinary paperwork, which Owens says is important.

"That means they did what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it," he said.

The JPS student restraint policy also states, "District policy prohibits the use of excessive force, or cruel and unusual punishment, regarding student management and discipline." The SPLC argues that the way Capital City officials restrained children goes against this statement.

"We understand there is a change in leadership (at JPS)," Owens said. He wants to sit down and evaluate the policy with school officials to implement changes before the school year starts in August. If JPS does not agree to that, SPLC will pursue the court to resolve the issue.

CORRECTION: We spelled Jody Owens' name wrong in an earlier version. This is the correct copy. We apologize for the mistake.

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