QUEENS, NewYork - April 28, 2011 - A special-needs pupil is so traumatized by what happened that he’s wetting himself, throwing up and screaming when he hears ambulance sirens, his mother says.
NYPD cops handcuffed Joseph Anderson, 7, because he was “acting in a threatening manner” at school after becoming upset while decorating an Easter egg.
But his mother has slammed the authorities for their actions after Public School 153 in Queens, New York, sent the first-grader to the hospital because he was a “danger”.
Jessica Anderson claims the school called her at 12:30 pm last Wednesday to say Joseph was having a bad day and she said she would come to get him.
Her son, who has ADHD, speech and emotional problems, was upset because the color of the egg he was painting didn't look the way he wanted.
But staff threatened to send him to the hospital if he did not calm down - and he jumped up, saying, “I just want my mummy.” She arrived at the school at 1:45 pm but by that time he had already gone and she didn’t find out about him being handcuffed until she got to the hospital.
“Why handcuff him?” she asked. “Why get the cops involved? He's only seven.”
Since the incident, he has been wetting himself during the day, throwing up, running under the bed and screaming when he hears an ambulance. “He's really traumatised,” said Anderson. “I don't let him watch the news any more, because if he sees cops, he cries.
“I was crying; I broke down,” she said. “They know that my son is special ed. It's like they're trying to get rid of him and it worked, because I'm not sending him back there.”
Education officials say staff were only trying to protect the boy and his classmates.
“The school tried to defuse the situation and then called for outside assistance when there was a concern the child would harm himself or others,” said a city spokesman. “He started spitting and cursing at the officers. The handcuffs were used to restrain the child because of his behavior. He was a danger to himself.”
This is the third time the school has sent the boy to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation - and it has also suspended him for two weeks.
Call and express your outrage at this insane way to treat a young child! Demand the firing of the parties responsible for this un-American, un-free, unfathomable trauma forced upon a seven-year-old child!
P.S. 153 – Flushing, New York
Principal Susan Bauer
Parent Coordinator Susan Yanez
718-821-7850
District Family Advocate
718-592-3364