7 Year-Old Sent to Hospital Under Baker Act – Incompetent Parents Might Sue
How many times have you read about some nutty kid who shoots up a school or hurts himself and the surrounding community blames school officials? Dozens of times, right? Schools are then required to do certain things under the law if presented with a child who might be at risk to hurt himself or others. Recently, a story dominated the news about a kid who was severely beaten by his mom and her boyfriend. Once again, the article wondered why the boy’s teachers didn’t sound the alarm.
Now we have a case where a child is clearly a danger, so school officials call police. The cops arrive promptly and haul the kid off to the hospital for clearly-needed mental health counseling.
Richard and Barbara Smith, parents of the year, are threatening to sue.
In a perfect world, the Smiths would be on trial – in danger of losing their parenting rights altogether.
We must decide once and for all – are parents in charge or not? Is the community responsible to act in the child’s best interest if the parents can’t be bothered or don’t know how? We cannot simultaneously punish those who act and those who don’t.
Let’s make up our minds.
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When are parents going to realize they HAVE to be parents?Not the teachers…
A seven year old? What, maybe 60 lbs?
The teachers and/or administrators couldn’t handle one out of control kid?
There are a number of things left out of this story, such as what precipitated this outburst. Do you have inside information about this case?
To call the parents incompetent is harsh and, probably, unwarranted. And libelous.
Kids will have meltdowns from time to time for various reason, not all due to parenting.
I like reading you a lot, Kate. But you have a knee-jerk reaction to siding with teachers.
But, really, if these professionals can’t deal with a seven year old, what hope do they have with high-schoolers?
I disagree, Mark. Those teachers and administrators did handle the out of control kid in the most effective way possible. When someone that young and small is battering an adult, calling the authorities is the only way *to* handle him.
Besides, you know as well as I do that if they had held him down or subdued him themselves, they’d be in trouble for that.
Those parents would have my sympathy AND respect if they had responded to this SECOND outburst differently. They should not keep the kid home and contact a lawyer. Instead, how about some goddamn gratitude and an ounce of repentance? They ought to be ASHAMED of themselves and embarrassed by their child’s behavior. Instead, they contact a lawyer and complain to local media. Ridiculous. Incompetent.
I don’t side with the teachers in this situation as much as the kid’s FELLOW STUDENTS. They are there to learn and how dare this little punk take that away from them? This is what our schools have become…good kids lose out while underpaid teachers, administrators, and police officers are second-guessed and sued.
Those kids and parents at the school should get together and sue the Smith family for denying their right to an education. That should be their punishment.
Then get that Smith child in a more effective parenting situation. Right after giving him a whoop upside the ass.
Little punk? The parents repentant? And ashamed of themselves?
First of all, again, unless you have some inside information, there is far too little information to make any grand judgments about the kid and certainly about the parents. You know neither the kid nor the parents. You don’t know the teachers or administrators involved (and neither do I).
Make all of the excuses you want for the educators, but anyone who cannot handle a seven year old without calling the police is in over their head and shouldn’t be teaching.
Small children don’t have the strength to hurt anyone beyond a sting and, yes, the teachers should have restrained and removed him/her from the classroom.
A school psychologist should have been called. The mother was there. The grownups should have discussed the issues and come to some agreement about a future course of action. If the school officials weren’t satisfied with the parents response they could move the kid into a class for children with emotional issues or suspend him/her.
A parent was there, willing to deal with the child without involving the police.
Fear of a lawsuit is an excuse and, anyway, there is still the possibility of a lawsuit with the way this was handled.
Taking the kid to Morton Plant Hospital? How are they better equipped to handle a seven year old? Their website doesn’t mention psychiatric services and can’t administer medication without parental approval, anyway.
Yeah, and smacking a kid is always the answer. Why stop at a spanking? Whip him with a hose and lock him inside the bathroom like the couple up in Spring Hill. Taser him.
How dare a kid in a public school have problems! The punk! How dare he not fit into the pigeonhole public schools put him in! How dare the parents not be perfect in childrearing or have a perfect child! Stone them! Put them on the rack! Take the kid away from them and into the foster care system in Florida. We all know how well children do in foster care, right?
I know you believe in corporal punishment. I don’t. I’ve raised kids to adulthood and have, at times, had to restrain them. I have never had to spank or hit them. It takes more time to deal with them that way, it’s more inconvenient but so what? Time is the minimum of what you are supposed to be what you give to your kids.
The article stated that this wasn’t the first time this had happened. How many times are we talking about? What was the upshot of that(those)time(s)? Again, if there is a problem, all problems aren’t solvable in a half-hour, these things take time.
Yes, it is regrettable that the outburst inconvenienced the other students in the class, but that all it is to them, an inconvenience. If I was the parent of one of the other children in the class, I would be more concerned about the behavior of the adults than the child. If the behavior of one child can cause them to spaz out like this, what would make me think that they could handle 20?