Cop handcuffs 9-year-old boy at Florida school, suit says. ‘Do you want to go to jail?’
The parents of a 9-year-old boy say excessive force was used when a police officer handcuffed their son at a Florida elementary school in February. Now they’re suing over the incident captured on police body camera footage.
The boy, who the parents say was in fourth grade when an Oviedo police officer handcuffed him in the mailroom of Stenstrom Elementary School on Feb. 2, had a behavior intervention plan in place for when he showed “physical aggression,” a complaint filed Sept. 27 says.
When he displayed such aggression — including “hitting, kicking, pushing, throwing items and property destruction” — school staff were supposed to “not engage in any conversation other than having (the boy) complete” a task he was engaged in and to “limit the level of attention directed to him” as part of the plan, according to the complaint.
On Feb. 2, after the child became aggressive, staff took him to the school’s mailroom, where school resource officer Yashira Moncada arrived and turned on her body camera, the complaint says. According to a police report, the boy was “cursing, screaming and throwing things,” WSVN reported.
“This is why I can’t be an SRO,” Moncada says, asking the boy “if he wants to go to jail” before calling officer Scott Moseley for backup, according to body camera footage cited in the complaint.
After Moseley arrives, he says “I am going to handcuff him,” after a school counselor advised Moncada against doing so, the complaint says.
“You can do that, I can’t,” Moncada tells Moseley, then Moseley handcuffs the boy behind his back, according to the complaint.
While handcuffed, the officers tell the boy to settle down, WSVN reported, citing the body cam video.
When the child asks to go home with his hands behind his back, Moncada tells him “you’re not going to go home, so do you want to go to jail?” the complaint says.
After about 13 minutes, the handcuffs were removed, WESH reported.
The boy’s parents are suing the city of Oviedo, Moncada and Moseley on several causes of action, including excessive force and “battery/unnecessary force,” the complaint shows.
They are seeking at least $75,000 in damages.
“Nine-year-old children with special needs should not be handcuffed by police officers at school,” attorney Drew Moss, of Miami-based law firm Kutner, Rubinoff & Moss LLP, who is representing the family, said in a statement to McClatchy News on Oct. 9.
The city of Oviedo declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 9 due to the pending litigation. McClatchy News also contacted the Oviedo Police Department for comment on Oct. 9 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
Stenstrom Elementary School is a part of Seminole County Public Schools, which declined a request for comment from McClatchy News on Oct. 9 as it is not involved in the litigation.
Moss said the city “failed to reach out to the family and make any effort whatsoever to address this unfortunate situation.”
“It was not my clients’ preference to initiate litigation, but the city’s failure to investigate this incident and the officers involved left them no alternative,” Moss said.
Parents demand a jury trial
After the boy was put in handcuffs, his parents met with school staff and Moncada, according to the complaint.
During this meeting, Moncada is accused of telling the parents they’re “lucky that she did not arrest” their son and that “this is why I don’t want to be” a school resource officer, the complaint says.
As a result of the incident, the child “has suffered physical and emotional abuse and injury, mental anguish, violation of (his) right, humiliation, discomfort, embarrassment, loss of dignity, aggravation of an existing disease or mental defect, and medical expenses,” the complaint says.
The city and Seminole County school board has a school resource officer agreement banning the use of handcuffs on “disabled students” through fifth grade, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit also cites an Oviedo Police Department general order, which, according to the complaint, says: “Juveniles less than 12 years of age are NOT placed in handcuffs or other restraints unless they pose a risk or danger to themselves, the officer, or others.”
The parents are demanding a trial by jury, the complaint shows.
Their lawsuit was filed more than a week after an amended complaint was filed over the 2019 arrest of 6-year-old Kaia Rolle, whose wrists were bound with zip ties by police officers at an Orlando charter school, McClatchy News previously reported.
Kaia’s family filed their lawsuit against the city of Orlando over her “cruel, senseless and terrorizing arrest,” according to the amended complaint.
Nearly two years after her arrest, the Kaia Rolle Act went into effect in Florida — prohibiting children younger than 7 from being arrested in the state.
Oviedo is about 20 miles northeast of Orlando.
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