Friday, May 13, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.
An 8-year-old was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail last week after biting an assistant principal, outraging juvenile justice officials who believe children are too often arrested in behavior cases that could be dealt with through school discipline.
The child was booked at the juvenile detention center, but she was not taken into detention because her alleged crime wasn't considered serious enough, officials said.
"She should never have been booked. She should have been dealt with by the school district," Susan Roske, who heads the juvenile public defenders, told a meeting of the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative on Wednesday.
Eight is the youngest age of arrest under Nevada law -- children younger than that are not considered criminally responsible. The child had been acting out in class and was taken to the principal's office, where the bite occurred. She was arrested on battery charges.
Although the incident was confirmed by several justice officials with knowledge of the case, including Roske, the Clark County School District Police Department said it had not heard of the incident.
School Police spokesman Officer Darnell Couthen said he knew of no such case.
Officials familiar with the case said school police made the arrest.
Compounding the potentially traumatic effect of a police arrest on a small child, the 8-year-old spent the night in a holding cell in the booking anteroom to the detention center. She was later sent to a mental treatment facility.
When the district attorney's office found out about the case, prosecuting the child was immediately ruled out, District Attorney David Roger said.
"As soon as we were made aware that the 8-year-old was in custody, we told personnel that we would not be filing charges and urged them to find another placement for the child," he said. "Juvenile detention is not an appropriate facility for an 8-year-old child."
Biting a teacher, juvenile justice officials say, sounds more like misbehavior meriting a time-out and a session with the school counselor -- not a trip to jail. As such, they say, it is another example of a trend they have been trying for months to stop.
Juvenile Judge Bill Voy has been meeting with school district representatives to discuss the ongoing problem of child arrests he considers excessive.
"The main issue we deal with is the criminalization of school behavior and where do you draw the line," he said.
"The question needs to be posed to the school cops, because they're the ones who exercise their discretion" in deciding whether to make an arrest, Voy added.
Clark County School District Police Chief Hector Garcia, who took the job in February, has been asked to participate in the meetings on the issue. He was expected at the last such meeting, last month, but did not show up, apparently because he never got the invitation, officials said.
Garcia, in Carson City until May 23, did not respond to a phone message relayed by his office.
The school district would like to be able to make a policy about when a child's behavior in school merits arrest, but it is powerless to do so, said Edward Goldman, the district's associate superintendent for education services, who oversees school discipline.
"Our policemen are bona fide school policemen certified by the state of Nevada, not private security guards," Goldman said.
"Where a criminal act has been committed, the law gives discretion to policemen. We don't have the right to tell them not to arrest someone or to tell the principal she can't press charges against this kid."
Goldman said he had asked Garcia to make a general rule against arresting elementary schoolers except in extreme cases, but was told each arrest is up to the individual officer, based on the law and the circumstances.
"I probably would not have arrested an 8-year-old (for biting), but to be fair, I don't know the circumstances," he said.
Juvenile justice officials such as Judge Voy say the criminalization of school behavior is a national trend.
In March, police in Florida caused a stir when they handcuffed a 5-year-old who was acting up in school.
Officials say the trend has its roots in the increased presence of police in schools and parents' threats to sue schools for incidents that happen on their campuses. But they don't see a clear solution.
Voy came up with the idea of a screening panel that would look at each case and recommend whether it should be handled by the justice system or by the school administration. But that would require police to knuckle under to another authority when they are not required to do so.
Voy said he hopes that with more communication the school police can come to understand the issue.
"It's their discretion" whether or not to make an arrest, he said. "But they don't have to exercise that discretion."
Metro Police spokesman Chris Jones said he could not comment directly on the actions of another law enforcement agency, but he said Metro's policy is to be sensitive to the situation when dealing with young children.
"Common sense has to prevail," he said. "Does the child have behavioral problems? Can we look at something besides the criminal element with this child? Could this be better handled by the school district, or by meeting with the child's parents?
"The last thing I think a police officer's going to do is slap them in cuffs and take them to juvenile hall."
archive
