School Cuffs Kids for No Belt, Wrong Shoes

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The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit claiming Jackson Public Schools unconstitutionally punished students over dress code violations and back talk.

by Valerie Wells
June 9, 2011

One morning this spring, a boy showed up at school without his belt. He forgot it at home. The 16-year-old walked up to the metal detector that all the students at Capital City Alternative School have to go through. School officials inspected their shoes and belts before the students could go to class.

The boy who forgot his belt had to report to in-school suspension for his dress-code violation. A school counselor offered the boy a replacement belt so he could go to class. Bobby Walden, assistant principal at the alternative school, stopped the counselor, telling her not to give it to him. The boy protested. He wasn't physically aggressive and he didn't threaten anyone. He wanted to go to class.

That's when Walden treated the boy like a criminal, a class-action lawsuit filed yesterday claims. The Southern Poverty Law Center filed the suit in federal court, saying Jackson Public Schools unconstitutionally punished students over minor offenses. This boy isn't the only one restrained with excessive force and left alone for hours at the school, the lawsuit says. Children as young as 9 face severe punishment for dress code violations or talking back at the alternative school, neither of which are crimes.

The Jackson Public School District released a statement yesterday saying it takes any allegation of this nature seriously.

After the boy without a belt talked back to Walden protesting not being able to borrow a belt, the assistant principal told a JPS safety officer to take the boy to the school gym and handcuff him there. Officer Franklin McGee took the boy to a spot in the gym next to the stairs leading up to the stage, handcuffing him to the railing. One cuff went on the boy's wrist, the other on the railing.

The handcuffs hurt. The boy asked McGee for some relief. McGee did nothing except leave the boy by himself.

He stayed there, cuffed to the railing, for the rest of the school day. He had nothing to do, not even schoolwork. Other students and even school staff could see him. The situation humiliated the boy.

He had to go to the bathroom. Waiting until someone came near, he called out. McGee uncuffed him and let him go to the bathroom, but after the short trip, he cuffed him again to the railing.

No one uncuffed the boy so he could eat lunch. Someone brought him food, and he ate it cuffed to the railing. The cuffs came off at the end of the school day and the boy went home.

The SPLC lawsuit claims that the boy faced the same punishment three more times that week for not following the dress code. One time, he wore the wrong shoes. Three more times that week, McGee cuffed the boy to the stair railing in the gym, like the assistant principal told him. The men left the boy unsupervised for all or most of the school day on each occasion, releasing him when school ended.

No one called the boy's mother to tell her about his punishment or to ask her to bring a belt or a different pair of shoes. No one gave the boy a note to take home. No one called the police. No one charged the boy with a crime.

The lawsuit says this wasn't the first time school officials handcuffed this boy. It claims this has been happening for years. The boy saw other students get the same punishment, when school officials took someone "to the pole." He fears it will likely happen again.

"This excessive use of restraints was not designed to reduce or curb misbehavior or prevent violence," the lawsuit states.

As outlined in the SPLC suit, other dress-code violators handcuffed at the school include a 14-year-old boy who wore a stocking cap to class. His teacher says he threw his papers on the ground and refused to do his schoolwork. When he was left alone, cuffed to the railing, he yelled out because he had to go to the bathroom. The school safety officer refused to let him go. When the cuffs came off at the end of the school day, they left marks on his wrists. The 14-year-old showed this to Walden, who didn't get him medical attention. Like the boy without a belt, the boy with the stocking cap got similar punishments repeatedly for wearing mismatched shoelaces and not bringing back paperwork.

One morning, a 15-year-old girl loudly called out the name of a friend in the hall to get her attention. A "campus enforcement officer" told her to "shut up."

"Who are you talking to? I ain't your child," she said.

For talking back, the officer walked the girl down the hall where they met Principal Marie Harris. She asked where the officer was taking the student.

"To the stairway," he said.

Harris allowed him to continue.

A 14-year-old boy refused to take off his shoes during a routine search at the start of the day. The boy didn't want to do it and went to class upset. A school safety officer came to the boy's class and dragged him by his belt to the gym. The officer handcuffed his arm and leg and shackled the handcuffs to the pole. The boy said it was too tight. The officer didn't loosen the cuffs. A school official called his mom, but when she got to the school she wasn't allowed to go to him. The officer uncuffed the boy and brought him to the office to his mother. She immediately saw bruises and scratches on his wrist that he didn't have when he left for school that morning.

One day, another 15-year-old boy was dancing and rapping in his classroom. Walden came in the room and told him to stop. The boy stopped.

"Boy, you look like you got an attitude," Walden allegedly said. He sent him to the office, and the boy went. From the office, two school security guards took the boy to the gym and handcuffed him to the stair railing. The cuffs left marks on his wrists.

The lawsuit is asking the court to prohibit the school from taking any more students to the railing and to protect the students' constitutional rights.

"The JPS legal department will respond to the lawsuit in the appropriate legal manner," the response from the school states. 
"JPS is totally and fully committed to providing a safe learning environment for all of its students."

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