Crayon fight leads to felony charges
Categories: Kids 8-11, Relatives, Development, Education
A second-grader at the Royal Palm Exceptional School in Fort Myers, Florida has been charged with aggravated battery after a violent outburst in the classroom. It all started with a disagreement over crayons and ended with 8-year-old Deshawn Williams allegedly assaulting several classmates, throwing some chairs and punching his teacher in the face. Deshawn admits that he lost his temper and went too far in throwing the chairs, but claims he only hit his teacher twice and not in the face. The police believe otherwise and say his teacher has the bruises on her face to prove it.
Apparently, this isn't new behavior for Deshawn. "He gets very upset and he loves to hit," said Deshawn's grandmother Dorothy Williams. She says he often has tantrums and gets physical, but never with adults.
I think it is painfully obvious that this child needs some professional help in dealing with his anger. Unfortunately, grandma thinks all he needs is a stronger teacher. "If he was overpowering her that much, I feel like she shouldn't be in that line of work," she says. "If she can't deal with him, put him in someone else's classroom. If it's a male, whatever, and let them restrain him."
Deshawn will be arraigned next month and a judge will decide when he can return to school.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ame s 4-25-2008 @ 5:16PM
Pardon me, kid's grandma, but no teacher should be expected to put up with being assaulted. He should be expelled and sent to alternative school for an entire school year.
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Jen 4-25-2008 @ 5:21PM
As someone from Fort Myers that dealt with students just like this (eventually they come to me) I can tell you that IT IS the parents fault. You wonder why the kids are violent when most of the parents start fights on school campus. I have talked to the kids who wish the world was a safer place and say they can't help their rage. I did everything I could to help them see the light, to learn how to manage the rage but after seeing them fight and get arrested almost everyday, I quit. It is appaling what has happened to some of these families where nobody sees this as a problem within the community. Are you mad? Good, fight. Some parents even threatened to beat up their own children if they didn't beat another child and win. God help us.
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Meagan 4-25-2008 @ 5:47PM
My guess, since they were speaking to his grandmother, is that there ARE no parents. I'm certainly not saying that makes it ok, but it's kind of a little easier to understand, both from the standpoint that a grandparent is often less able to control a young child and that an older woman is more likely to expect more physical intervention from a teacher than a younger person.
Jen 4-25-2008 @ 5:23PM
ame s
Alternative schools don't work. More violence there than anywhere. He should be put into a behaviorally delayed program that will teach this boy how to function normally in society. That is his only hope.
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Judy 4-25-2008 @ 5:37PM
Can teachers even paddle children anymore? Let alone restrain one that has gone berserk?
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Jen 4-25-2008 @ 5:43PM
In Florida you can use force on a student who is attacking you.
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Jen 4-25-2008 @ 5:43PM
Edited to add that most of the time teachers do not use it (because we don't like to get sued) but what students don't know is that no, they can't deck us and we just have to sit there. Obviously with a kid this age, force wouldn't be necessary though restraining is a darn good idea.
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Jen 4-25-2008 @ 5:58PM
Meagan
This is going to sound snotty of me, and I hate that. But I would bet my bottom dollar that the Grandma is not an "older" person. Most of my students who were 13-15 years old had parents younger than me (I am 28) and grandparents that were in their early 40's. Since this is the exact same neighborhood, I am going to guess Granny was about late thirties early fourties. I am going to guess that most of my friends that had children in their mid thirties and are probably older than granny would disagree that they are not as able to control younger children.
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eugene 4-25-2008 @ 7:03PM
If I were a parent at his school, I would demand he be expelled regardless of what happens with the felony charges. I do not want my child going to school with a classmate who in defending himself could say, "but i didn't hit the teacher in the face."
And Franklin, you miserable excuse for a human being, I blame the parents in this case as well.
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Jessica 4-27-2008 @ 7:48AM
I don't know the school specifically, but I'd be willing to bet, by the name, that it is an Alternative Charter school. This was his last resort, I'd think. Sad. He will surely end up in prison.
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Jenny 4-29-2008 @ 12:39AM
Come on!! He is a little boy! What is wrong with this picture? This 8 year old CHILD (have none of you any compassion? Mercy?) needs to learn how to be in the world, not treated like a criminal, handcuffed and hauled off in a police car. Why doesn't this school system have adequate staff with appropriate training to help him learn how to control his emotions? I'll bet one reason is that there's not enough money. Do you know that more of your tax dollars go to prisons than to schools...? Are we trying to create criminals here? If so, Florida is on the right track.
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Alice 4-30-2008 @ 6:00AM
“Come on!! He is a little boy! What is wrong with this picture? This 8 year old CHILD (have none of you any compassion? Mercy?) needs to learn how to be in the world, not treated like a criminal, handcuffed and hauled off in a police car. Why doesn't this school system have adequate staff with appropriate training to help him learn how to control his emotions? I'll bet one reason is that there's not enough money. Do you know that more of your tax dollars go to prisons than to schools...? Are we trying to create criminals here? If so, Florida is on the right track.”
The reason, Jenny, that he has been “treated like a criminal”, and "hauled off in a police car" is because society is so sue-happy these days that the poor teachers - you know, the ones who have to deal with this mess day after day after day - are not ALLOWED to touch the children. It doesn’t matter that in some states laws have been/are being brought in to allow restraint. In Britain they have the same law, and guess what? They still can’t. Because if they do, they will be sued or threatened with some form of legal action. That's how it works now. It wouldn't matter what the kid was doing when restrained: that's neither here nor there. The point that is now focused on is that the teachers 'hurt' the kid by restraining him/her. It’s sad, disgusting in fact, but it is unfortunately true. And these children, these poor, misunderstood young people who should supposedly be treated with “mercy” know it. The children who are causing disruption and misery in schools in Britain - and for society as a whole - KNOW that they are untouchable, and that there will be NO consequences whatsoever for their actions.
More than that, badly behaving youths are now being REWARDED, as an ‘initiative’, the government says, to ‘encourage’ them to be good. Never mind the kids who already ARE well behaved, and WANT to learn, and who have to suffer their lessons being constantly upset by one or more of their peers; oh no, THEY don’t matter. Let’s hand out treats to the bad kids instead and show the good kids that crime really does pay. GREAT idea chaps: big bonus to go to whichever genius thought of THAT one.
As the daughter of an extremely successful, popular and brilliant supply teacher who has insider knowledge of the educational system in Britain and what is currently happening to it, I can tell you that the futures of at least 50% of children across the country are being systematically flushed down the toilet because of the problems kids like the one in the article, along with constant government interference and the continuing removal of funding and authority of the teachers. And I’m willing to bet good money that it’s the same in America.
More and more teachers are leaving the profession, some with their health permanently damaged dye to the stress and overwork. Personally think the only, the ONLY way to stop the complete destruction of state education – education that supposedly every student has the right to receive - is if EVERY teacher in EVERY school in BOTH countries were to come out on strike at the same time to demand that the power teachers once had to be given back to them by the government. One or two little strikes here and there involving a handful of staff will not work. It needs to be all of them.
But of course, they won’t all go out of strike. Everybody is too busy trying desperately to survive.
…And people wonder why I don’t want kids?? Sheesh…
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erose 5-23-2008 @ 12:31AM
I think the situation is sad and there need to be some kind of intervention in the school system that helps young children deal with anger problems and I also think the grandparent need to take more responsibility for the boys behavior. The teacher has enough to deal with on a daily basis, maybe there is something else wrong with him maybe he is a special needs child. I think he went too far with hitting the teacher but I don't see why felony charges would be filed against a young child, behavior problems start in the home if thats what he sees at home that is what he is bound to bring out.
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