School violence strikes Lincoln

Monday, it took three officers to deal with a disturbance at a Lincoln Public School. The incident started in a classroom. The culprit was taken to the school office. Shortly after arrival, he became aggressive and physical. The suspect tried to escape by crawling through a window in the office. The principal and two other staff members tried to physically restrain him. When the first officer arrived, he put a bear hug on the struggling suspect and was head butted. It took a couple more officers to get things under control. In the end, three staff members and one police officer were assaulted.

Here's the surprising part (to you, that is, not to the police): it wasn't a 17 or 18 year old at a high school. It was a 9 year old elementary school student.

I did a quick search looking for police dispatches to Lincoln elementary schools so far in 2007 which contained the key phrase "out of control" in the first 80 characters of the remarks field that is keystroked by the 911 call-taker in the Communications Center. My search returned 37 cases. It would have been more, if I had been a little more creative with the search terms. Here are some typical excerpts (I spelled out a few abbreviations, though--call-takers have their own unique shorthand):

"1st grade student out of control causing property damage"
"2nd grader out of control throwing chairs"
"9 year old out of control and escalating, destroyed a room"
"5th grader assaulting staff right now"
"7 year old male being restrained by staff and parents"
"3rd grade female out of control kicking, hitting, screaming"
"8 year old out of control, being restrained"
"9 year old contained in room she has torn apart"

...and my favorite:

"7 year old refusing to come in from playground"

This probably speaks volumes about the emotional problems of children in our society and the difficulties teachers face. But it also illuminates an interesting phenomenon that impacts the police. What do we do when a nasty 2nd grader won't come in from the playground? Call the cops, of course.

I realize that a 9, 10, 11, or 12 year old can be quite a handful. I also realize that emergencies happen--that's one of the reasons we are here in the first place. I know that school personnel try other interventions before resorting to 911. But something seems wrong to me when the contingency plan for dealing with a child with Oppositional-Defiant Disorder ends with "call the police."

I have discussed this on several past occasions with administrators and principals--including meeting with all the principals as a group. "What," I asked, "would you have us do when we arrive at the scene of a 6 year old who has shinnied up a pole and is sitting on a wall refusing to come down? Use the OC spray, the Taser, or the nightstick?" (I don't make these things up). The responses during this discussion were interesting, and here's my summary.

1. "We call you because your presence will intimidate the little one into complying. "

2. "We don't have the training or the trained staff to grapple with misbehaving children."

3. "We call you because if we touch the child, the parents will be mad at us."

My response:

1. Therapeutically instilling fear of the police in a 6 year old is a fine idea. It will help us a lot by the time he's 15. (I'm trusting the readers of this blog to understand that I am being facetious: it will make him that much more difficult for us to deal with in the future.)

2. If you serve over 30,000 children, a small percentage of whom have serious behavior problems or disorders, I guess you ought to have the appropriate skills in your organization to do so effectively. Maybe an LPS behavioral "SWAT Team" of specially-trained staff would be good--like a van-load of social workers and a psychologist or two.

3. Thanks. We'd much rather mom and dad be mad at the police.

Actually, if you've called the police because you are worried that the parent who has already been summoned to the scene will fly off the handle when he or she arrives, just like the child has, I can understand that.

Some officers (and some citizens) think we should just stop responding to these calls involving little kids at school. I don't think that's a viable option. We don't know exactly what's going on, and the minute we tell the slightly-frantic secretary making the 911 call that we won't be coming, something Really Bad will happen. We all know whose fault that will be.

The job of teachers, para educators, and principals is tough. I think very highly of them. I do not envy them. I understand why they call the police in these circumstances: they have a significant problem, and it is an expedient that works--we will come, and we will do something. I have no easy solution. This isn't about the workload and I'm not complaining about the calls--we're here to deal with life's curve balls.

It just seems that there ought to be a better way of dealing with an out of control 2nd grader with a behavioral disorder than having a police officer bristling with handcuffs, pistol, chemical weapon, baton, Taser and body armor bring his or her arrest authority to the proceedings.