third grader handcuffed
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A Sheriff's deputy in Kentucky is being sued after handcuffing two third graders for nothing other than them displaying the symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD/ADHD).

According to a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Children's Law Center, and Dinsmore & Shohl, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, were so young and small that the officer actually chose to handcuff them around their biceps instead of their wrists, as you can see in the disturbing video below...


Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner of Covington, Kentucky (just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio), locked the handcuffs around the children's biceps. He contorted and forced their hands behind their backs in painful positions, while they screamed out in pain.

The boy in the video is being identified as S.R., and the girl as L.G. Both children were attacked by this deputy for behavior related to ADHD disabilities.

Neither child ended up being charged with any crime, because - put simply - they didn't commit any. The officer assaulted and abused them nevertheless, and now a case is pending to that effect.

"Shackling children is not okay. It is traumatizing, and in this case it is also illegal," Susan Mizner, disability counsel for the ACLU explained. "Using law enforcement to discipline students with disabilities only serves to traumatize children. It makes behavioral issues worse and interferes with the school's role in developing appropriate educational and behavioral plans for them."

The suit claims that the Kenton County Sheriff's Office violated the Americans with Disabilities Act through its treatment of these children.

"Kentucky's school personnel are prohibited from using restraints, especially mechanical restraints, to punish children or as a way to force behavior compliance," Kim Tandy, executive director of the Children's Law Center explained. "These regulations include school resource officers. These are not situations where law enforcement action was necessary."

S.R.'s mother, T.R. said that "it is heartbreaking to watch my little boy suffer because of this experience. It's hard for him to sleep, he has anxiety, and he is scared of seeing the officer in the school."

"School should be a safe place for children," she continued. "It should be a place they look forward to going to. Instead, this has turned into a continuing nightmare for my son."

Kenyon Meyer, an attorney with Dinsmore & Shohl, broke it down even further.

"There was no public safety threat in any of these instances that warranted throwing the regulations out the window and handcuffing these children. The school resource officer's involvement was harmful and unnecessary, and it escalated rather than helped the situations. We should expect that if school resource officers are in our school systems, their roles should be focused on safety and security, not discipline or punishment of special needs children."

Read the complaint below and help get the word out, to hold this criminal cop accountable!

S.R v. KCSD-Complaint