Case Number 448*$&#: Kindergartner, age 6, sent to Jail
The said “criminal”, six year old Desre’e Watson
I’ll let the reader decide on this one. But I can say that if someone sent my 6 year old child to jail and pressed charges against her, I would definitely throw a hissy fit. That’s just unacceptable for a school, let alone teachers to call the law on a young child. Like it or not, she’s still a child. Did this child bring a weapon to school? No. Did she bring drugs to school? No. This young lady is accused of having a temper tantrum that any child, anywhere across America is capable of having at anytime. She threw a chair, she yelled, she probably kicked and screamed. But to call the police to press charges against a six (6) year old. Give me a break.
Her mother was a at work, as any parent most likely would be, and yet they couldn’t get in touch with her to come get her child? A next to kin? Anyone? Another teacher? She was this unruly that their “last” option was law enforcement?
I don’t believe a word of what school officials are saying. It may have happen, but what triggered it. It’s sadly this young ladies word against the adults.
Her daughter had been arrested on felony charges and was booked.
According to police, the Avon Elementary School kindergartner became violent. They say she threw chairs, struck a teacher, and began crying and wailing uncontrollably.
Lateshia says she’s never seen that kind of behavior and believes something brought it on.
Here is what she is charged with:
disruption of a school function, battery on school employees, and resisting a law enforcement officer without violence.
Disruption of a school function: So I should send every child who is loud when I ask them to stop talking, pushes their classmates in the hall during transition from one class to the next, who throws paper at a classmate or who comes in late and starts talking during the class period. Disruption of a school function.
Battery on school employees: Oh my goodness! Battery? Battery? Do you know how many times I’ve been the un-intentional target of a pencil, piece of paper or eraser. How many times I’ve had my foot stepped on in the hallway, been pushed or “abused” while teaching? Battery? A 6 year old threw a chair. To me it sounds like they are doing their VERY best to make sure they charge her with everything they can. Battery? She’s 6, do you believe her judgment is that mature to know consequences and intentionally abuse a teacher? Of course…she’s a little deviant Black girl. Black children are bad, white children, well they are just so active, and we must try and see what is making them so “upset”. Black children “CALL THE COPS THESE NIGGERS ARE UNCONTROLLABLE, MUST BE THE CRACK OR SOMETHING!
Resisting a law enforcement officer without violence: Six year old being arrested. Freaking arrested do you think she knows the proper protocol on being arrested. Heck I’m an adult and I don’t believe I would know how to be calm when being arrested. I’d be scared out of my mind to be arrested. Now how do you believe a six year old is supposed to handle that. The mere fact that they have charged this against her is crazy. WITHOUT VIOLENCE. Ok so if she did it without violence, which I don’t know how a six year old can be violent towards an officer, then why even charge this against her? She resisted, of course she did! Her mother isn’t there, some dude in a blue, black or brown suit is taking her away from school without permission, heck this is a STRANGER!!! children don’t go with strangers, not without mom or dad’s permission, just exactly how did they expect her to act? This is just bullcrap! Simply bullcrap! And any judge who would seek to punish this child legally needs to be pulled from his bench. No probation, no charges, NOTHING!
The school did a terrible job handling this young lady. For them to go “zero tolerance” on her after no reports of ever having behavior like this is not acceptable. And if I were her mother, you’d never hear the end of it.
Your thoughts?
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I hope this is an April Fool’s joke, because this is absurd. Calling the cops on a SIX YEAR OLD GIRL? That’s just wrong on so many levels. I can’t believe the cops even went along with it. Please tell me this is just joke….
This is unbeleivable. Where is this world going into? Calling cops on a 6year old? Thats just being crazy!!!! If the school cant handle a 6 year old, they dont deserve to be a school. They better close their door n find themselves a new business!
I am a white 54 -yearl-old male, conservative on moral issues, liberal on social issues. I agree with you totally, 100%, regarding the 6-year-old girl and I feel it is insane that she was arrested and charged as a criminal. The proper way to treat her (assuming she did misbehave as they assert) would be to just leave her in a room by herself until she calmed down. Better, put a gentle adult teacher with her to just be there and watch her and talk gently and lovingly with her until she quieted down. Then have the parents deal with it.
Is the world crazy or is it us? I would have been in prison for life with the stuff I did in school. Thankfully, the ADULTS knew the difference between discipline and cruelty. (Well, mostly.)
This little girl and her family will hopefully get their day in court and hopefully the school and the police will have to re-evaluate their responses to this kind of thing.
These people are totally insane. I don’t know about Ohio, but the normal rule of law is that a six-year-old doesn’t know the difference between right and wrong and therefore is legally incapable of committing a crime.
There is no set of facts on which this poor child could ever be convicted of the crimes for which she was arrested, and the police should know that. They had absolutely no cause to arrest her.
Were I this child’s mother, I’d be suing for false arrest and intentional infliction of severe emotional distress.
I hate how everybody and their brother sues for stupid stuff all the time. but I hope this little girl’s mother sues everybody involved in this horrible fiasco for everything they’ve got. I can’t believe what they did to this poor little girl. when a kid has a meltdown, you can’t force them to calm down. if you try, it just gets worse. let them be, and they will get over it, and then you talk to them. these ‘adults’ at this school are idiots, and the police are no better. everyone with kids should move out of avon park and leave it a ghost town to rot.
Wow, amazing as I am a kindergarten teacher and I can’t imagine a child at the ripe age of 6 being charged with such a crime. The parents need to start being responsible for their children. Regardless of race, who are the adults here, no child should be charged with such a crime. This is an age where many children are still learning to tie their own shoes, I am currently dealing with a child who exhibits similar behaviors as this child did. I was researching information to help him and this site was listed. I would also like to bring up something to ponder… What if your child was a in a class where a child was disruptive and violent and your child was hurt? The child I am dealing with will have “tamturms” at any given time, he can not be redirected or reminded about anything or he has an outburst. He recently threw chairs, hit me, took various items in the room and threw them and too many more to mention, including aggression towards other students. I certaintly don’t want him to hurt himself or anyone else so I remove him from the group untill he calms down or is sent to the office.
Bullying behaviors such as these can effect a child for the rest of his or her life. I don’t agree with the sentence against the child, but parents must be responsible for their children and have a number to be contacted in case of emergency. Does it take an event such the mascare in Colombine or the many that followed to bring awareness to how important it is to have a number or more than one to be reached during the day in case of an emergency. Many times in emergency situations at my school there was no way to contact anyone.
When my student has an outburst my number one concern is the safety of all of my students, many times he will act out upon fellow students. You have to understand, as an administrator, teacher, or anyone working with a group of children, your number one concern is the safety of all students. I feel the parents should have been charged not the child. By charging this child who is only six, they are setting her up for failure by “giving” her a record before she was ever given a chance.
To my dear friend Evelyn, not all “adults” in schools are idiots, and I do realize you did say “this” school but many of us are hard working individuals who continue our education by going back to get our graduate degrees, spending endless nights preparing our lesson plans and curriculum to best meet our students needs, spend hundreds of dollars on our classrooms, and follow vigoruous expectations under “No Child Left Behind” set in place by the Bush administration. You very correct when you said you can’t force them to calm down.
Unfortunately more and more incidents of violence are occuring in schools regardless of race or location. I currently have a student ( I am a kindergarten teacher) suspended for four days. This child is six years old, it really worries me and I have been doing research to help him. He hit me various times, threw items, blocked a fellow teacher’s door who is pregnant and would not move from the door when she had to go to bathroom, began destrying my our classroom, attempted to run out of the school, went into the faculty rooms and began taking items for sale and throwing them on floor, and began taking items in the principal office and hit her. This is an extreme case but I have had a quite a few students like this.
Finally, the teacher who teach children at this crucial age play a huge role in their views about school and learning. This was ridiculous sentence for a child, but it is important that parents are being responsible by having a phone number where they can be reached in case of emergency.