A shocking video documenting a 9-year-old autistic boy being arrested and handcuffed by the police at school after a playground fight has the child’s father outraged.
On August 30, the police were called to Needham Elementary School in Franklin, Indiana by the teachers. The authorities’ assistance was requested in order to break up a fight.
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When the cops arrived, the school was put on “lockdown.” The police went to the boy’s classroom and put him in handcuffs, charging him as a juvenile with battery.
A video of the incident was taken by the boy’s father and shows officers placing his crying son under arrest and leading him to a police car.
“Watching my nine-year-old autistic son being handcuffed was very disturbing,” the boy’s father, Ronnie Shepperd told Daily Mail. “He’s very traumatized by it.”
“My son was being bullied by another kid and he told staff several times about it,” he continued. “Nothing was done so when the kid hit him twice in four days he fought back. Since he is autistic, he went into defense mode when he got hit so he hit a teacher after she broke up the fight. But when he calmed down he said sorry to the teacher.”
Shepperd then went on to explain that this was the second time that his son had been fighting off the bully that week.
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“The second fight in four days broke out when my son was trying to kill a locust and the bully shoved him and said ‘stop killing that bug.’ So he got up and the bully punched him in the eye so the fight was on again,” Shepperd said.
Another student spoke out about the fight with RTV6.
“The nine-year-old kid went behind [the other boy] and pushed him down and then started choking him,” the student said.
Franklin Police Chief Tim O’Sullivan explained the charges against the child.
“The student was arrested for criminal mischief to school property, battery on another student and two teachers,” O’Sullivan said.
Shepperd concluded by saying that his son has been “traumatized” by the incident.
“He’s watched the video several times. He still talks about it,” Shepperd said. “He’s pretty traumatized over the whole ordeal. Any nine-year-old that’s being arrested, they don’t know what’s going on.”
Dr. David Clendining, the Franklin Schools Superintendent, says that the principal made the right decision to call the authorities because the safety of other students was threatened.
