Shocking video
“Next on the nightly news, a shocking video of excessive force used on a young, mentally handicapped child. We warn you that the video you are about to see is disturbing. It shows two adult males (a middle school administrator and a teacher) forcefully wrenching the arms of a much smaller 13 year old Special Ed. student as they slam him into a chair.”
Wow! Is your righteous indignation heating up? Are you ready to abandon due process and fire those vicious adults? Or did you ask yourself, ‘Does the video really show the whole story?’
Questions regarding excessive force
Claims of excessive force have been in the news of late and it seems to me that not enough details are being discussed to give a genuinely clear picture of when force is necessary or what force is necessary. I’m not talking about the clear cut cases where someone has submitted to authority and then suffered a beating – that is excessive. I want to examine the cases where it is obvious that the suspect or child is not compliant. I want to ask these questions of all those advocates out there, “How many fights have you ever broken up? Have you ever been in a situation with a child where safety of the child or others was at stake and the child refuses to comply with your authority? What did/do you do?” I call this ‘Catch 22’ situation ‘extreme behavioral management’.
I don’t have the video of the situation I described in the first paragraph but I will tell you about it. I was the teacher!