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Posted by Connie Newbauer May 19, 2007 |
The trend to handcuff students has rippled throughout many school districts – and in the case of many, been dumped as a plan which in the end, made administrators, educators and parents alike more than a little uncomfortable.
Milwaukee Public Schools just recently reacted to a flurry of school violence with a plan of their own to use flexi-cuffs on students of all ages. All students: big and small students, special education students, kindergarteners included!
The baffling part of the situation is this: The parents and administrators, who several decades ago, became outraged at a child being paddled within the confines of a school building are now jumping on the bandwagon – at least initially – to use flexi cuffs in the schools!
Speaking to a prior military policeman regarding the safety of the flexi-cuffs, he stated that they were much more likely to cause injury than regular cuffs due to the way they are put on and adjusted – as they slide just as tight as you could want them with no give. The possibility of the cuffs being put on too tightly and the plastic cuff cutting or causing abrasions is much greater than regular cuffs which have built-in safety controls while adjusting.
Add to this formula the fact that in most cases, it wouldn’t be police officials putting the cuffs on – it would be school administrators and educators.
William Andrekopoulos, Milwaukee Public School superintendent was quoted by the April 22, 2007 Milwaukee Journal as asserting: “Using the flex cuffs is a much better way of restraining a youngster who’s out of control than having a number of adults pushing the child to the ground and restraining them.”
Stepping back from the problem, which granted, is immediate, neither the flexi-cuffs nor paddling addresses the big-picture problem: the environment of violence in which children live.
A violent home life or environment spills into the schools; It is bound too – but we are not going to be able to solve violence in the schools until as a society, we come up with a two-prong approach, addressing both societal and school violence at the same time
The person who is able to draft such a plan would most assuredly become the next Nobel Peace Prize winner, as societal/school violence has become an issue worldwide.
The change has to start with us – and so I ask: If you could spearhead action to stem this tide of violence, what would you do?