Michigan 7-year-old handcuffed by officer on school grounds

Chrystal McCadden is seeking answers, and justice, after her 7-year-old son was handcuffed by a police officer on school grounds.

McCadden was told over the phone that she needed to come pick up her son, Caden, from his after-school program at Brownell STEM Academy in Flint, Michigan, on Oct. 12. The New York Daily News reports that, when she arrived, she found the “tiny boy” handcuffed and alone in a school hallway.

“He don’t deserve to be in no handcuffs,” McCadden told a local NBC affiliate about her son. “He ain’t in here with no knife. He ain’t in here with no gun.”

Caden was diagnosed with ADHD and is “sometimes hyper in class,” per the Daily News, but when was the last time you heard of an elementary schooler getting handcuffed and detained by a police officer as punishment for being hyper? Data from the Department of Education suggests that black kids are disproportionately punished in schools compared to their peers of other races; is Caden’s situation representative of this racial disparity?

The Flint Police Department said in a statement to NBC25 News that the officer handcuffed Caden out of concern for his safety and the safety of others. Flint Community Schools Superintendent Bilal Tawwab told reporters that the district is “working in partnership with the Flint Police Department to get to the bottom of this incident.”