Handcuffs in Hallways: Children as young as 4 years old referred to police instead of principals in Illinois
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A little 6-year-old girl sits quietly in school as a book is read to her.
Then suddenly, a police officer enters the room and orders her to stand up. He grabs the child's hands and cuffs them as she cries.
"No! don't put handcuffs on!" the girl says.
The girl's wrists are so small that the officer had to use plastic zip ties. She is then further treated like a criminal - loaded into a police squad, taken for fingerprints and a mugshot, and formally charged.
This all really happened in Orlando, Florida in 2019 – and it started with a temper tantrum.
Children being referred to police instead of principals for school discipline has been happening across the country – including Chicago and other parts of Illinois too.
In early 2020, an off-duty Chicago Police officer working at John T. McCutcheon Elementary School in Uptown was accused of dragging a special education preschool student through a hallway.
The child was just 4 years old.
And while The Civilian Office of Police Accountability continues to investigate the officer's actions, we've learned that in March, the Chicago Public Schools gave the family of the 4-year-old $50,000 to settle a lawsuit over the traumatizing incident.
The lawsuit alleges assault, battery, injury and accused CPS of failing to train, supervise and discipline school resource officers.
Then there's the case of Rockford student Parris Moore.
"They traumatized him for the rest of his life," said Stephene Moore.
A high school freshman skipping class last year, Parris was wandering the hallways when he ended up getting picked up by a school resource officer and slammed on his head. His skull was fractured.
"I feel that there is a way better way to handle it than what they did," said the teen's grandmother, Diane Morgan.
Children of all ages being handcuffed, charged, and criminalized. The scary actions are caught on police body camera videos.
Video of the aforementioned 6-year-old shows her crying as she's walked out school in handcuffs. This was the exchange between the child and an officer as he walks heed to the squad car:
Child: "(Crying) I don't want to go in the police car."
Officer: "You don't want to?"
Child: "No please."
Officer: "You have to."
Child: "No please. Give me a second chance.
Dr. Sonya Mathies Dinizulu is a University of Chicago psychologist specializing in child trauma.
"I've worked with kids who have experienced intense sadness; intense anxiety," said Mathies Dinizulu, ""because they don't fully understand as to 'why I'm being punished this way.' Oftentimes, when we see kids who are handcuffed, you know, it's not really for the best reason. It might be used as a form of punishment versus a way to keep everybody safe."
The CBS 2 Investigators analyzed the most recent U.S. Department of Education data tracking how often students are referred to police. From 2017 to 2018, we found Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students made up only 19 percent of all first through eighth graders in Illinois.
But they made up 80 percent of all police referrals - four times more than the rest of the state.
Chicago high schools also disproportionately referred students to police. CPS made up only 17 percent of all high school students in the state, but 43 percent of all police referrals.
In 2019, a cellphone policy violation at John Marshall Metropolitan High School in the East Garfield Park neighborhood quickly turned more serious. Dnigma Howard, 16, was dragged down the stairs by officers working in her school. Then, a Taser was repeatedly used on her.
"It was painful - mentally, emotionally, physically," said Howard. "It was embarrassing for me."
The federal data show Marshall High School referred four out of every 10 students to police. Police handling school discipline as school resource officers is not a good combination, says Dnigma's dad, Laurentio Howard.
"It should be a wake-up call about SROs in school because they're not trained for teenagers in school," said Laurentio Howard.
There are concerns about how some officers treat younger children too. The officer who handcuffed the 6-year-old in Florida was caught on body camera saying he has arrested other little kids. But this one won the record as the youngest.
"She's 6. Now she has broken the record," said the officer.
That girl's record was cleared and the officer was fired.
Chicago Public Schools says the officer accused of dragging the 4-year-old was an off-duty Chicago police officer working as a part-time security officer, and was removed from the school.
The Chicago Public Schools released this statement:
<blockquote>"Chicago Public Schools (CPS) prioritizes the safety of its students and staff and remains fully committed to ensuring that all students have access to safe and supportive learning environments. Any student or employee conduct that violates our core values and policies will not be tolerated.
"Our faculty and staff are held to the highest standards and CPS investigates and addresses all complaints and allegations of wrongdoing per District policies and procedures. If there is any risk to student safety, staff are removed during the investigation phase of a complaint or documented incident. Any final disciplinary or dismissal action occurs at the investigation's conclusion."</blockquote>