Why Handcuffing a Child with Asperger's Is Wrong

Please remember to discuss the issue without name calling and personal attacks. If you have questions about this, you can email me: denise@blogher.com

not only should the police have been better trained to handle this situation, but the day care failed this child and his mother. that mother chose that day care because she felt that her son would be treated with love and compassion and respect, instead he was treated like he was doing something wrong. he doesn't process his emotions the same as a typical child, so his tantrum isn't wrong to him... it just is. i would punch a cop in a heartbeat if one ever put my autistic son in handcuffs for having a tantrum. i hope she sues... and wins huge.

Janet....how is it you can call someone ignorant and then turn around and make blanket comments about Canadians vs Americans? Hypocrite.

The story is definitely disturbing, but blaming the police is absurd. The daycare center was supposed to be trained to handle this child. The police handled it according to training and protocol. Unfortunately, it is impossible to train police to handle every single type of person they may encounter. Being a police officer is a thankless job, they are exposed to the most horrific of human behavior. I think most people forget that.

Where is the "dislike" button?

I'm so tired of hearing about kids, especially those with special needs, who are locked up by themselves, abused, or restrained. It is unacceptable. Yes, every child needs to be safe but chances are the actions of both the day care and the police made things worse. A little training, compassion and respect go a long way.

I can see both side of the issue and really feel for the mother of this child and how this has unfolded. However I really don't think the rights of this one child in this situation to attend daycare should trump the needs of all of the other children in the facility. Who truthfully knows what set this child off and how out of hand it could have gotten in an instant? Sure it could have been handled differently but what if another child had been in the way of his tantrum? Who advocates for the safety of the other children? The police are not the bad guy here. It is clear this boys needs were not and probably could not be met in the facility. Who in their right mind would lock a child in an empty room and then watch the issue escalate? Obviously the answer is the care givers in this facility -who are clearly unqualified to care for this child.

The poor child. First to be bullied by his peers and than to be thrown into an empty classroom and than to end up being put in handcuffs. Why weren't the staff better trained to handle a child like this? They should have had someone sit with the child until his mother came to pick him up. My child doesn't have aspergers but if he was bullied and than locked in a classroom by himself he would loudly express how he felt about that. I hope this story coming out means there will be changes made. I am grateful they didn't taser him.

This is unfortunate and my heart does go out to the boy with Aspberger's and the parents, but vilifying the police department, while an easy bandwagon to jump on in any and every case where police are involved in any capacity whatsoever, isn't taking into account eh entire story. Is this a fact or is this heavily slanted to one side "That the police responded with such over-the-top force in a non-critical situation where no one was at risk of immediate harm is a clear sign that the Toronto Police Service has work to do with its officers around understanding how to approach individuals with autism spectrum disorders." Over-the-top force? The "threat" was neutralized without force but with restraint.

Though it is clear that daycare center is neither trained nor equipped to handle this child. But wow, what ignorant comments on the article. I have this idealized notion that Canadians are far less ignorant than the kind of Americans who comment on the Internet, but I guess I was wrong.

There are other ways to restrain a child besides untrained cops slapping handcuffs on him.

If the kid is posing a threat to himself or others, what are they to do? Let him harm himself? Let him harm other kids or staff? Allow him to destroy property until he's had enough? Allow him to violate the rights of others in order to preserve his own rights? I agree that handcuffing him is an undesirable outcome that probably did scar him (although I doubt "forever"), but what else is to be done? They tried putting him in a room by himself to let him calm down, to no avail. Are they just supposed to let him run rampant until his mom get there and does--what? Puts herself in danger in order to calm him? I'm not claiming to have the answer, but I do think there are two sides to every story.