OVIEDO, Fla. – A former police chief is reacting to body-camera video released Thursday that shows a 9-year-old who was handcuffed by Oviedo officers earlier this year.
Video of the encounter shows one of the officers handcuffed the student out of concern for the safety of others in the room.
Former Orlando police Chief Orlando Rolón said it’s disturbing to see a child in handcuffs and that law enforcement typically has a defined scope of when certain behaviors merit an escalation in restraint.
“Handcuffs are not necessarily the only tool that law enforcement has but sometimes handcuffs are necessary to control the situation, and I think that’s the difficult position that law enforcement are placed in,” Rolón said.
According to an incident report, officers responded to the mailroom at Stenstrom Elementary School on Feb. 2 after the child began angrily throwing items around the room and at school staff.
Court records state the child was a fourth-grade student with a Behavioral Intervention Plan, which identified “physical aggression” as one such behavioral problem.
Due to those plans, school faculty was told to “not engage in any conversation other than having him complete the task” when confronted with the aggression, according to those documents.
“Training is critical, very important to situations like this,” Rolón said. “Depending on the situation, then a plan has to be in place.”
While officers initially tried to de-escalate the situation, the student was seen kicking and punching staff while screaming profanities, at one point trying to break a window, the incident report states.
“I can only hope that de-escalation techniques were applied, and every effort was made to control the child,” Rolón said.
Last month, the student’s parents filed a lawsuit against the city of Oviedo over the incident, claiming that the officers used “unnecessary and unreasonable” force when dealing with the student.
Due to the incident, the parents are seeking compensation for the damages, attorney fees and other associated costs.
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