New York Local News

NEW YORK (CBS) ― A Queens mother is demanding answers after her 5-year-old son was handcuffed at his public school for allegedly misbehaving.

The child, Dennis Rivera, a kindergartener at a Public School 81 in Ridgewood, was put on a chair after apparently acting up and handcuffed behind his back by a school safety agent, said Jasmina Vazquez, the boy's mother.

"I think it was excessive force. It was unnecessary what they did to my son," she told CBS 2.

Vasquez said her son, who suffers from asthma, has speech problems, and may have attention deficit disorder, was handled brutally.

The incident happened on Jan. 17 around 11 a.m., when the boy allegedly threw a tantrum and was taken to the principal's office where he apparently knocked items off of a desk.

"They were holding me again and didn't let me go," the child said.

Vasquez, who works in Manhattan, called her babysitter in Queens, who went to the school.

"He was sitting on a chair with handcuffs behind himself like a common criminal," Vasquez said.

According to the mother, school officials would not release the child to the babysitter. Rivera, who had two other tantrums in the previous week, was transported by EMS to Elmhurst Hospital, for psychiatric evaluation.

"I think that handcuffing a child to a chair is over the boundaries and it should never have gone that far," said Vasquez.

The Department of Education is investigating, as are the police who are responsible for school safety agents.

Rivera has now been enrolled in a private school in Manhattan. His mother says he's been suffering from nightmares since the incident. Their attorney is planning legal action. 

Parents were stunned when they learned what happened to Rivera.

"How are you going to put handcuffs on? You know the impact that's going to have on his mind?" said Zenaida Medina, one concerned parent.

The police report says the child was "punching his teacher and swinging wildly at school aides, that he smacked the assistant principal in the face, ran into a corner, and began to throw things on the floor."

"The reality is something had to be done," said Gregory Floyd of the City Employees Union, which represents the school safety officer. Floyd said cuffing the child was the last resort.

CBS 2's Sean Hennessey asked Floyd how there was no other option, no other teachers or adults who could control the boy.

"I'm saying this 5-year-old, not every 5-year-old, this 5-year-old could not be controlled," Floyd said.

But critics laugh at that suggestion and say system wide, school officers have a history of going too far.

"The situation with school discipline is out of control," said Donna Lieberman, Executive Director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Lieberman said the incident is another example of what the union calls the "criminalization of the classroom."

"There's something fundamentally wrong when school safety agents are handcuffing a kid who is 5-years-old for having a tantrum," she said.

New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein said cases like Rivera's involve judgment calls.

"I find it troubling when you see a young kid in handcuffs, it's got to bother you," he said.

Meanwhile, the female safety agent, who was substituting that day, is back on the job and her union said it doesn't expect any disciplinary action to be taken after the NYPD finishes its investigation.

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