DOJ weighs in on lawsuit over NKY students handcuffed by resource officer
Gov't says that the ADA applies to resource officers
The Department of Justice has issued a statement of interest in a federal lawsuit over children being handcuffed by a school resource officer in a Northern Kentucky district.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the parents of two students sued Kenton County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Sumner and the sheriff's department in August over the handcuffing.
The lawsuit was filed after an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl were handcuffed by Sumner after they allegedly acted out due to their respective disabilities. A school employee recorded video of Sumner's encounter with the boy.
Both children had been diagnosed with ADHD and the boy was also diagnosed with PTSD.
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Covington Independent Public Schools Superintendent Alvin Garrison has said Sumner complied with the district's policies, "which are designed to ensure that students do not injure themselves or others."
The DOJ statement says that the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to resource officers.
"Because the ADA is applicable, the Court should evaluate whether, through Defendant Sumner’s actions, the Defendant Kenton County Sheriff’s Office (“Sheriff’s Office”) violated the ADA’s requirement that government entities reasonably modify procedures, practices, and policies unless doing so would result in a fundamental alteration," the DOJ said.
School policies should dissuade the "school-to-prison pipeline" created by criminalizing misbehavior, the DOJ said.
"The school-to-prison pipeline refers to the use of harsh and exclusionary discipline practices that 'push students out of school and into the justice system.' In working to dismantle the pipeline, the United States has addressed discrimination in education, law enforcement, and juvenile justice," the DOJ said.
The DOJ said the statement isn't meant to take sides on the merits of the case, but to help assess claims made by the families.
"SROs, like all police officers, must respect the constitutional and statutory rights of the citizens they serve. This is particularly critical in the school context, where the impact of a police interaction on a child can last a lifetime. In considering the Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims, the Court must consider whether an objectively reasonable SRO would have handcuffed elementary school students in school under the circumstances presented here, after the children exhibited misbehavior arising out of their disabilities," the statement read in part.