Wilcox sees fault on both sides in handcuffing

After viewing a tape of the incident, Pinellas' superintendent criticizes the girl as well as the policeman.

	[Handout video]
	This frame from a videotape shows Officer Roberto "Tony" Rolon and Ashley Marie Mitchell during the incident where he handcuffed her aboard a school bus in Safety Harbor.

ST. PETERSBURG - The 13-year-old girl handcuffed aboard a school bus last month was disrespectful and "making this scene that didn't need to be made," school superintendent Clayton Wilcox said Friday.

"The officer clearly asked the kids on the bus several times to calm down. She didn't," Wilcox said in an interview after viewing an unedited videotape of the incident. "The whole time he was on the bus she was talking to her friends, she was moving around, looking behind. I don't think she was respectful."

Even so, Wilcox said, Officer Roberto "Tony" Rolon probably should not have handcuffed the girl, Ashley Marie Mitchell of Clearwater.

"I would have thought that throughout that department it would have been kind of a last resort," Wilcox said, referring to the handcuffing of a kindergartener earlier this year in St. Petersburg - a case that drew international attention.

Ashley's father, Luis Mitchell, said Friday he was concerned that his daughter was disrespectful but maintains Rolon's actions were over the top. "He was so upset," Mitchell said, "that he left his emotions get to him."

The incident happened Nov. 11 along a Safety Harbor roadside. Rolon, 43, boarded the bus after a student threw a hard object, believed to be a golf ball, out a window. The object caused a car to swerve and nearly hit Rolon's motorcycle as he drove home from work.

A videotape from the bus shows Rolon walking to the back after Mitchell stands and shouts she was not the student he was looking for.

A portion of the video was released to the news media, but it was partially obscured to protect the identity of other students.

Wilcox viewed the unedited version, and said it provides a fuller context for what happened.

"The policeman didn't ask anybody to deny who did it," he said. "She stood up, animated - "I didn't do it.' He didn't ask who didn't do it. He asked for help. "Who did do it?' She's just making this scene that didn't need to be made."

The tape shows Rolon twisting Ashley's arm behind her back and marching to the front. "I don't play. ... I don't play," he says. He handcuffed her to the railing in the bus stairwell and continued asking questions. A 13-year-old boy later confessed to throwing the object.

Ashley, a Safety Harbor Middle School student, was turned over to Pinellas sheriff's deputies, who notified her parents she faced a charge of disorderly conduct.

Earlier this week, prosecutors said criminal charges appear unlikely, but a final determination had not been made as of Friday.

Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant in the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, said Wednesday that Rolon did not set a good example, calling his reaction hotheaded. Bartlett based his opinion at the time on the edited videotape.

The St. Petersburg Police Department is reviewing the incident as well and offered no comment Friday. But Chief Chuck Harmon said it might be worth looking into department policy on use of handcuffs. Some area agencies, including the sheriff's office in Pinellas and Pasco, prohibit handcuffing a subject to a vehicle, for safety reasons. St. Petersburg does not offer guidelines to officers.

"It may be something we may want to look at," Harmon said.

Rolon did not return a phone call seeking comment, though officers generally do not talk when an investigation is under way.

Luis Mitchell said he demands respect from his children and spoke sternly to his daughter about her role. Yet, he said, she was not the only one acting out on the bus, and nothing should excuse Rolon's behavior.

"We hope that all this will go away," he said. "We're not bad parents."

--Staff writer Steve Thompson contributed to this report.

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