Children With Disabilities Arrested For Behavior

[Guest guest]

Story out of Minnesota. Okay, can WE have that $900 a day taxpayers

are paying to jail these kids?

Children With Disabilities Arrested For Behavior

Reporting Amelia Santaniello Dec 12, 2008 11:05 pm US/Central

http://wcco.com/crime/children.disabilities.arrested.2.886567.html

(See video) (WCCO, Minnesota ) For parents of children with special

needs, outbursts can be a problem, and they don't stop at home.

More Minnesota kids with autism and developmental disabilities are

actually getting arrested for having tantrums at school. That's

landing students in treatment centers, where they live alongside the

worst sex offenders.

" I dropped him off for band, and when I came back to pick him up, his

teacher motioned for me to come in, " said mother son.

son told the I-TEAM she knew something was wrong when

she arrived at lin Middle School in Thief River Falls to pick up

her son.

" He was really upset, sobbing and really upset. And she (the teacher)

said 'You're not in any trouble Dakota, you're not in any trouble,' "

she recalled. " Two hours later I think it was, we get a call from the

assistant principal saying Dakota's in trouble. "

Dakota had a pocket knife in his coat. He didn't threaten anyone, but

bringing any kind of weapon to school is a felony in Minnesota. While

most kids understand why you wouldn't want to do that, Dakota did

not.

" He's 13 and he's autistic, " explained his mother.

Children with autism can have trouble understanding rules. His mom

says he was just trying to be like his dad, .

" is on the volunteer fire department, carries a knife hooked up

to his belt, so he kind of likes to emulate his dad, " said son.

Police and the Pennington County Court weighed Dakota's Autism

diagnosis, but still charged him with a felony that ended up on his

record.

" I was very afraid. I was hoping it was a dream, that's what I was

hoping, " said Dakota. "

Brinker didn't understand why he was arrested either.

has fetal alcohol syndrome. At 19, he threw paint on a teacher's

sweater during a tantrum at his District 287 school.

was cited for disorderly conduct. His father told the I-TEAM

the school never told him about it.

" I was not notified of the citation, and was living at a group

home at the time, " said father Brinker.

After missing a court date, was arrested and put in the

Hennepin County Jail.

" I was just furious at the school that they would involve the

judicial system as behavior management, " said Brinker.

The disorderly conduct charge was eventually dropped after was

found incompetent to stand trial. That was just the beginning of the

Brinker's ordeal.

" They recommended that he went to the METO program, " said Brinker.

METO is the Minnesota Extended Treatment Options program. Its one

place courts send people to live if their developmental disability

turns dangerous. ' family doesn't think throwing paint rises to

that level.

" I had to sign a piece of paper in fact, [saying] that I knew there

were sexual offenders on the premises, " said Brinker. " He got to METO

because of a court system that failed him, a school that definitely

failed him. "

a Opheim is the state's ombudsman for Mental Health and

Developmental Disabilities. She told the I-TEAM shouldn't have

ended up there, but a lot of people like him do.

" When they don't or can't participate in their own trial, they are

sometimes sent to mental health facilities, " she said.

Opheim recently reviewed the METO program and found problems with the

frequent use of metal handcuffs and leg hobbles.

" It became so routine that people didn't even identify it as a

problem, " she said.

was restrained on one occasion.

" There always used to be a premise in the law that you had to have

the criminal intent to harm someone. We've lost that standard, " said

Opheim.

" Intent is important, but I think it's very difficult for us to

evaluate and render that judgment, " said Wade Setter.

Setter runs the Minnesota Center for School Safety which helps guide

school resource officers. He said school resource officers go through

no special training to handle children with special needs.

The I-TEAM learned no uniform policy exists as to what schools can

and should share from a student's medical history with police.

There's all sorts of restrictions at the federal and state level

about sharing different types of information, which is a particular

challenge, " explained Setter.

Teachers sometimes don't follow their own behavioral intervention

plan for how to calm down a particular student. Setter wants school

resource officers to see those plans and to be trained in emotional

disorders.

We're in the process of developing it, " said Setter.

is spending more time with his family and is about to be

released from the METO program into a new group home. Dakota is still

struggling.

" I sometimes try not to think about it, but sometimes it just pops up

in my mind and it just makes me feel sad, " said Dakota.

Dakota's felony drops off his record after six months, if he doesn't

bring another weapon to school.

is still at the METO facility for throwing paint. His care

costs taxpayers more than $900 a day.