Local civil rights organization founder John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute sent a stern letter to Andrea Whitmarsh, superintendent of Greene County Schools, about policies that allowed an out-of-control 4-year-old to be handcuffed, carted away by a Greene County sheriff’s deputy and shackled at the sheriff’s office October 16 until his mother, who was en route to Nathanael Greene Elementary School, could pick him up.
While the child was in police custody, Whitehead wrote in the letter, officers had him talk to an inmate to “scare straight” the preschooler, a charge Greene County Sheriff Steve Smith said is false. The child “was never around inmates,” said Smith.
“Rather than recognizing the imprudence of treating a young child like a hardened criminal, school officials and the sheriff’s office not only defended their actions but actually suspended [the child] from the pre-K program and instructed the mother to seek ‘homebound instruction’ for him,” wrote Whitehead.
Whitehead wants Greene schools to implement policies that make clear that handcuffing and shackling preschoolers is not O.K., train its staff to deal with unruly tots rather than call police, rescind the child’s suspension and remove the incident from his permanent record.
Sheriff Smith said he supports his deputy’s handling of the child, who had already assaulted three teachers and jumped off a wooden play kitchen at the school. The boy was shackled in the sheriff’s office because “he kept trying to run away,” said Smith, who added that when the boy’s mother came to pick him up, she gave the deputy who brought him in a hug. “I know it’s one of those things that don’t look good on the face of it,” said Smith, “but the bottom line is we have to protect the community.”