Shackling of child provokes debate

An 8-year-old with emotional problems is handcuffed, and a loop on his legs is hooked to the cuffs.

By CURTIS KRUEGER

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 22, 2000

PINELLAS PARK -- After an 8-year-old boy became disruptive at school and allegedly spit on an officer, police handcuffed him and strapped him in a restraint that encircled his ankles and connected to the handcuffs behind his back.

His parents say the boy was "hogtied," and they're seething.

"He should have never been hogtied," said the father of the 8-year-old, who goes to the Richard L. Sanders school for "severely emotionally disabled" students.

But Pinellas schools spokesman Ron Stone said the officer, Spencer Gross, was operating in strict accordance with procedures of the Campus Police, the school system's in-house police force. The procedure is designed to prevent children from damaging property or hurting themselves.

"They did what they call a leg restraint. It's not hogtying in any stretch of the imagination," Stone said.

Stone said restraints such as this one are necessary because "the nature of some students especially nowadays, has become more violent. We're seeing kids as young as kindergarten age that have had to be restrained and removed from campus because of violent outbursts."

Jack Levine, president of the Tallahassee-based Center for Florida's Children, said he does not minimize such concerns. "But we have to be able in our adult world to have better training and better techniques than such, what appears to be, brute force."

A reporter and photographer who saw the boy at Pinellas County's Juvenile Assessment Center after his arrest on Friday observed red marks on his wrists and a scratch on his cheek. His mother said she and her husband met Monday with the officer and school officials, and the officer denied seeing any injuries on the boy when he transported him to the assessment center.

Asked if the boy had suffered any injuries at the center, administrator Tom Camp said he was not aware of any such incident.

The names of the boy and his parents are being withheld, in keeping with the Times policy of not identifying juvenile offenders except in special circumstances.

Campus Police Chief Joseph Feraca could not be reached for comment, and Stone declined to describe the entire incident in detail because it was considered an ongoing investigation. But this account of the incident emerged from interviews with the boy, his parents and Stone:

The boy had been disruptive in some way at school and then climbed a fence next to a construction project on campus. He spit on Officer Gross.

The boy was arrested, handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car. He allegedly kicked the inside of the car repeatedly, including the windows, and continued spitting.

So Gross put the boy in a device that Stone called a "hobble." Stone described this as a nylon cord with a loop on one end and a clip on the other. The loop is strapped around a suspect's ankles, and the clip is attached to the handcuffs, linking the two behind the suspect's back, Stone said.

Bill DeVane, president of RIPP Restraints in Orange City in Central Florida, markets a device called "the Hobble" that is similar to what Stone described. He said it's different from hogtying, because in hogtying, a suspect's ankles and wrists are held closely together, and the suspect may have difficulty breathing. With his device, a suspect can sit upright, because the polypropylene strap does not keep the wrists so close to his or her ankles.

He also stressed there are other ways to use the device that do not require officers to connect the ankle loop to the handcuffs. He said Los Angeles police had banned using the device in the way described by Stone.

The Los Angeles Times reported that, "In October, 1992, when the LAPD amended its hobble restraint policy, it spelled out the risks. "Recent medical evidence suggests that use of the cord-cuff leg restrainer (on certain arrestees) can result in serious injury or death,' the policy noted."

The Pasco Sheriff's Office uses the Hobble. St. Petersburg police spokesman Dan Bates said he was aware of no similar devices in use at SPPD. The Pinellas Sheriff's Office is studying the matter.

The 8-year-old boy has had behavior problems, and is being evaluated but has no diagnosis so far, his mother said.

He was eventually charged with battery on a law enforcement officer, battery on a school official, intent to trespass on a posted construction site, disruption of a school function and resisting arrest with violence.

The child's father pleaded no contest in 1993 to sexual activity with his stepdaughter, who was then 15. He vigorously denies it, but said he pleaded no contest on the advice of his attorney. He was sentenced to five years' probation and released from probation early.

- Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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