11-year-old has criminal and felony charges against him for kicking trash can in school

1903

1903

Kayleb Moon-Robinson is autistic. This school year is sixth grade for him—at Linkhorne Middle School in Lynchburg, Virginia. In the fall, when Kayleb was still 11 years old, he was admonished for bad behavior when he kicked a trash can.

A police officer assigned to the school witnessed the tantrum, and filed a disorderly conduct charge against the sixth grader in juvenile court.

Just weeks later, in November, Kayleb, who is African-American, disobeyed a new rule — this one just for him — that he wait while other kids left class. The principal sent the same school officer to get him.

“He grabbed me and tried to take me to the office,” said Kayleb, a small, bespectacled boy who enjoys science. “I started pushing him away. He slammed me down, and then he handcuffed me.”

The cop took Kayleb, in handcuffs, to juvenile court. The cop filed two charges: second misdemeanor disorderly conduct and felony assault on a police officer. Seriously. But, according to The Center for Public Integrity:

US Department of Education data analyzed by the Center for Public Integrity show that Virginia schools in a single year referred students to law enforcement agencies at a rate nearly three times the national rate. Virginia’s referral rate: about 16 for every 1,000 students, compared to a national rate of six referrals for every 1,000 students. In Virginia, some of the individual schools with highest rates of referral — in one case 228 per 1,000 — were middle schools, whose students are usually from 11 to 14 years old.

The Education Department didn’t require that schools explain why, during the 2011-12 school year, they referred students to law enforcement. And a referral did not necessarily have to end in an arrest or charges filed, at least not immediately. But by definition, it did mean that students’ behavior was reported to police or courts.

States at the top of this school-to-prison pipeline attitude, in descending order: Virginia, Delaware, and Florida. The link is from Daily Kos diarist teacherken. It's a very good primer on the concept of "school-to-prison pipeline," if you aren't familiar with it already.

Kayleb has been found guilty, and at 12 years old has a felony assault of a police officer on his record. His mother is appealing the felony charges having waived a plea deal.

Kayleb is in an alternative school now and has to return to court in early June to hear what the judge wants to do with him. Doss said the judge had a deputy show him a cell, and told him if he gets into trouble again he could go straight to youth detention.

“He said that Kayleb had been handled with kid gloves. And that he understood that Kayleb had special needs, but that he needed to ‘man up,’ that he needed to behave better,” Doss said. “And that he needed to start controlling himself or that eventually they would start controlling him.”

All of these authority figures talk about manning up and yet they all break out into cold sweats about how scared they are when it comes time to atone for their actions.