Last Updated on December 12, 2023 by BVN
S.E. Williams
By any standard for an 11-year-old Black child (or any child for that matter) with disabilities to be tackled and handcuffed by school police is alarming.
But, that is exactly what happened in the Moreno Valley Unified School District (MVUSD) during 2019, not once, not twice, but on four separate occasions to the same student.
Watching a video of one of the incidents that occurred in early October 2019, tears at the fabric of human decency and our shared sense of humanity and compassion for children.
In the video you see the child sitting at his desk with his head down as the officers question him, give him commands and then within 30 seconds, grab him by his arms and shoulders, before proceeding to drag him from his desk, force him to the ground and place him in handcuffs. Even worse, you can see one of the officers use his knee to pin the child to the ground.
As might be expected, a federal lawsuit was filed against MVUSD, former District Superintendent Martinrex Kedziora, Riverside County, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco for harm caused to the student.
We subsequently learned that MVUSD officials did everything in their power to obfuscate and delay discovery for nearly two years, in essence impeding the progress of the case, until a federal judge stepped in and ordered compliance. It is believed they did so based on an abundance of fear related to the possible impact it could have when the information became public.
It is so unseemly that these officials would work so hard to protect themselves but they gave little, if any consideration, to the mental health and wellbeing of this disabled child who suffered the abuse and potential impact it could have on him in the future.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reported that nearly 72 percent of children in this country will have experienced at least one major stressful event — such as witnessing violence, experiencing abuse, etc. before the age of 18. As a nation, however, we invest more in school policing than in mental health services in our schools.
“Judging a child who has special needs doesn’t define who they are…it defines who you are.”
A Very Special Needs Resource
According to a report by the ACLU, funding for police in schools has been on the rise, while public schools face a critical shortage of counselors, nurses, psychologists, and social workers. The recommended Student-to-Counselor Ratio is 250:1. Here in California however, the ratio is 682.1.
I agree with advocates calling for the redirection of funds away from school police to mental health services. Data shows the presence of school-based mental health providers not only improves outcomes for students, but can also improve overall school safety.
By contrast, there is no evidence that increased police presence in schools improves school safety.
In the meantime, you can almost take it to the bank that as with any issue involving Riverside County deputies, Sheriff extraordinaire, Chad Bianco, will find his way to a camera for an opportunity to comment. The fiasco in the Moreno Valley Unified School District is no exception.
Last week, during an interview with KCAL News related to this issue Bianco was asked by the news host, “Does any child that small need to be handcuffed?” At the time of the four incidents that occurred in 2019, the child was only four feet, eight inches tall and weighed about 70 pounds.
After pausing and nodding his head up and down silently for several awkward seconds, Bianco finally responded with a one word definitive answer, “Yes.”
Bianco then added with a straight face, “On that video I saw nothing that would cause me, as the sheriff or leader of deputies, that could have been handling that, that would have caused me to say ‘Oh my gosh, What did he do?”
As is sometimes the case, in the interview it seems Bianco strives to have it both ways. On the one hand he’s purportedly said previously as paraphrased by the news host, ‘you can’t go by what one sees in a video… that no one can fairly assess that need with one piece of video, one snapshot, one perspective.’ And yet, in this instance Bianco asserts that what he sees in this video is enough to make a judgment. That what he viewed in the video was enough to state that nothing he saw would cause him concern as sheriff.
Is Bianco the only one who gets to have an opinion?
In other words, Bianco is challenging us with the old adage, “Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?” Here is a clip from Bianco’s interview. I encourage you to watch it.
After reviewing the interview clip I also encourage you to then take a moment to read this week’s feature where you will find a link to a video of the incident involving the 11 year old child with disabilities described above and learn why the federal court just made a landmark ruling that the Moreno Valley Unified School District broke the law and violated the American With Disabilities Act.
You be the judge.
Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.
