Despite diagnoses of schizophrenia, obsessive oppositional disorder and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, a nine-year-old girl in Fort Myers, Fla., has been charged with two counts of felony battery against teachers at her special-needs school.
According to the Fort Myers News-Press, the girl “was spitting at her teachers … and lashing out against efforts to restrain her” among other violent actions. With no other options available at the school for adequately controlling the girl, she was arrested and placed in a criminal holding cell.
Recent budget cuts have targeted mental health services, leaving schools and other facilities lacking the resources necessary to deal with the mentally ill.
The deplorable response is not unique. According to lawyer David Utter, quoted in the Lakeland, Fla., Ledger, “Florida schools sent almost 23,000 students to the juvenile justice system in 20062007 school year, even though decades of research shows that detention harms young people and can contribute to future delinquency.”
