I reckon the neighbour - 2 years older- who went running to mommy will get a proper kicking when he gets to school. 1. For being beaten by a kid 2 grades below. 2. For being a grassin' b'stard!

The kid who was arrested on the other hand will be seen as some kind of hero. Probably the only kid at school to be arrested. - Weirdly, a kind of reward for bad behaviour..

As he now probably has less fear of authority than before (familiarity breeding contempt annd all that) he can move on to bigger and better things, like arson, housebreaking and listening to rap music (a criminal act in my opinion). Probably best to put him in the chair now and save a lot of police man-hours in the future....;)

Well I sort of see your point, having a record that starts when you're eight would cause you to loose sense of authority because he's been in and out of juvie for so long.. But.

"The victim's mother called police."

This tells me the police had to act, perhaps the issue wasn't the little boy beating up the other little boy but it was mommy's fear of getting in trouble for removing the trouble child from her child. I know that if it was my little boy beating up someone else's little boy I had better be the one removing my little boy or I would be pissed.

"It was the second time in recent weeks that a north Florida elementary school student has been booked by police for fighting. A 7-year-old in neighboring Jefferson County was arrested at school Sept. 1 for allegedly fighting another student, hitting a teacher and scratching a police officer."

Sounds like this is a trouble neighborhood or at least has two trouble kids, the cops might just have been trying to scare other kids... Like "teen boot camp" episodes of Oprah. Sends a warning out that the cops mean business. And if I were a cop, I would want kids to know I mean business... Getting scratched by a kindergardener isn't my idea of a good day on the job.

So maybe the police are justified in arresting the kid, but maybe they aren't. I mean afterall, I think that taking a kid to juvie and keeping him WAY past his bedtime is probably not the best idea, maybe a ride in the cop car and a booking to scare him.

But the were apparently within the rights of the law it seems.

In this day and age of liability, calling the police is the only acceptable course of action. No doubt the parents of the 8 year old would try and sue the victims parents for so much as touching their son in attempt to get him to stop beating up on their own son. Or they might not, but if they don't know the parents then all they do know about them is that their son's a delinquent who obviously hasn't been disciplined enough by his parents.

1) This isn't exactly the first problem this young man has had.

2) The parent(s) of this young man has/have done nothing in the past to correct his behavior.

3) The kid's had lower-level disciplinary action taken before, to no avail.

My mom actually teaches first grade in a ghetto school in Tallahassee, and this sounds a lot like one of her students. She constantly has had to break up fist fights, and regardless of how she punishes kids the parents never respond. When they do respond, it's to defend "their baby" who obviously wasn't the problem.

The only time she could even get parents to come and talk to her is when she would send home a letter saying, "your child will not be advanced to the next grade". Generally, this has brought in angry parents whose first response was - "woman, my baby ain't dumb", which is usually followed by an accusation of racism. A lot of the kids in first grade have parents that are only 22 to 23, meaning they had kids when they were 16 or 17.

Maybe an arrest was the only way to get the message across to this kid? It seems like the only thing that can get to a kid if the parents aren't participating.

I don't blame the police. If they don't arrest when a crime has been committed they get flak. If they do - they get flak. It just seems crazy that a schoolboy fight becomes such a serious issue. Hell if I'd been arrested for every little bout of fisticuffs when i was kid, I'd still be inside! I'm not a big fighter, but I had a fair few tussles when I was 8-12. Just part of growing up...and you grow out of it!

Apparently the cops were more ticked with the kids mom so they did the only thing they could to resolve the situation. [link]

The police say something about they wanted the kid off the streets that night. Could they not threaten the mother with arrest for endangering a minor, by not ensuring he was kept in?

Now i'm confused. Was the arrest for destruction of property (the racket) or for violence against the other kid? Why would paying for the racket make a difference when the kid was charged with battery for beating the other kid?
Maybe the racket got all bent up while the 8 year old was walloping the 10 year old with it.

That's the scary thing, there's probably alot of kids who don't make it past that stage and even more who don't grow out of it.

It sounds like the cops were going to cut the kid a deal. Just tell the parent to give the kid a really stern talking to and to pay for the racket, and that would be done.

Instead, the parent denied responsibility (wanted the cost of the racket split? Why, her kid bent it), and refused to deal with the cops. The cops probably warned her, "look, if you aren't able to handle this, we'll have to arrest your child, we're trying to make a deal with you here" which she most likely did not believe.

Here's the scenario:

1) Cops show up at the front door with kid, mother becomes angry, "what you doin' with my baby like that?"

2) Cops inform mother of the charges - "Ma'am, your child was taken into custody after beating another child and destroying a tennis racket. We know he's a little kid, but this is serious. We can't have kids beating up other kids and breaking things that don't belong to them."

3) Mother says, "My baby didn't break no tennis racket!"

4) Cops - "yes, ma'am, I'm afraid he did (rattles off evidence). Now, we can settle this if you agree to pay for the tennis racket and you talk to your son."

5) Mother - "I ain't payin' for no tennis racket! My baby didn't break no tennis racket!"

6) Cops - well, your boy broke it, so you'll need to pay for it or we will be forced to detain him

7) Mother - "you ain't gonna detain my baby! And I ain't payin' for no racket!"

Repeat 6 and 7 many times.

I've worked as a volunteer several times for the school where my mom works, and I can't tell you how many times I've heard the above conversation occur. Some punk kid causes trouble, a parent comes in to defend their child because "their baby" does no wrong, parents refuse to acknowledge anything, try to cast blame on everyone else, and ultimately nothing gets done. The loser in this whole scenario is the child - he or she learns that nothing is their fault.

It had to have been bad enough for the mom to call the police. Maybe it will teach kids they cant get away with it.
Like others have already posted kids need to take responsiblity for their actions. Or at least know that there are consequences. "8" is young but violence knows no age.

I would have to say that there is a lack of quality parenting on the part of the accused's parent(s). For a child to react to another with violence is a normal part of growing up. Children get into fights. However, when a child is constant with the violence and is seen as being the bully in school, then in most cases it is a result of parental neglect. The child has unfavorable behavior in order to get attention. Attention that otherwise he/she may not recieve. Which brings us back to a lack of quality parenting. It is a vicious cycle that begins and starts again with the original parents starting the behavior and the child making it to adulthood and starting again.
I, for one, would pull my son/daughter aside at the first sign of abnormal violence and talk to him/her about thier issues. If the first little talk doesn't work and junior decides to "act up" again then he/she is going over my knee.
As for the cops thing- it does seem a little over the top. unless the tactic was used to scare the child into being good. Which actually doesn't work for what it's intended.

Is nobody going to comment on the fact that this eight year old was still in first grade?

lmao. I realized that but didn't even think about mentioning it.

seeing as how the 8 yr old is in first grade and it's possible that the 10 yr old is in fifth grade then one could conclude that the fifth grader got his butt kicked by a first grader. Fucking pathetic. :eyemouth:

I have a seven year old that was charged in school with assaulting th principal, after she yanked him from line and got down low face-to-face with him. He has since been diagnosed with autism, which actually explained his aggressive over-reaction to her intervention. And yes, I am a concerned mother who was desperately trying to find out through the slow process of evaluations why my son reacted in this manner to people who get in his space. Please do not blame the parents immediately-sometimes they are trying to find answers that are too slow in coming. I knew how to deal with him when I saw signs that he was unable to handle his environment (pacing, yelling, crying) but the school did not and neither did they take my advice in handling him. He also was identified by the school as mentally retarded, with no suggestions to us as to what we should do next. I am not suggesting that this behaviour be tolerated or condoned, but sometimes root causes need to be looked at, and it is not always bad parenting to blame. Happily he is on medicine to help him focus less on distractions that irritate him and he is a happy and well behaved student (while we teach him the skills needed to handle things in more appropriate ways).

Even if he were not autistic, the no tolerance crap does not take into account that small children are still learning to control their impulsivity. It is simply absurd to think that we should expect children to behave in a way that often even adults cannot when things are not going their way.