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Posted by: kttref

ST. LOUIS (Dec. 16) - The board of a St. Louis charter school on Wednesday placed a principal on leave after he had police handcuff a 5-year-old and drive him around the block in a squad car to curb his unruly behavior.

Principal Sam Morgan is on leave from Thurgood Marshall Academy pending an investigation into last month's incident, board attorney Wayne Harvey said.

Morgan declined to comment Wednesday, but last week said he had spent more time on the boy "than any kid in this building, trying to steer him straight."

He said he had police "put the handcuffs on one arm, put him in the back seat of their car and drive him around a little bit."

Morgan added: "This kid is heading for the Department of Corrections at 5. He fights, strikes somebody practically every day on the bus. He's a constant disruption."

Morgan, a longtime principal at East St. Louis High School in Illinois, also spent eight years working in the Department of Corrections.

The boy's mother, Aroni Rucker, said Wednesday her son had trouble adjusting to his first year of school and may have been disruptive, but he did nothing to warrant such treatment.

"They put handcuffs on my baby," Rucker said. "That's for adults who murder and kill. He's 5. He's in kindergarten."

Rucker said she was planning to pull the boy and her second-grader from the school at the end of the semester when Morgan told her last week that the kindergartner could not come back.

St. Louis police spokesman Richard Wilkes said the department was looking into the incident. "Handcuffing 5-year-olds is not a practice of the department," he said.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis announced in August that it would end its sponsorship of the charter school, meaning the school must find a new sponsor by June or close. The university placed the school on probation twice, citing fiscal mismanagement, board corruption, poor academic performance and high turnover in leadership - seven principals in five years.

University spokesman Bob Samples, part of the sponsorship team, said only that "it's inappropriate to handcuff a 5-year-old."

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Posted by: mpd61

It's O.K.
The principal can always go back to his old job in corrections, and then he can get the cop a job there too when he's let go...............

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Posted by: dcs2244

Well, handcuffs may be for adults who "murder and kill", but just give your welp 10 years, Miss Rucker...

BTW, was anyone else surprised by Miss Rucker's ability to distinguish between "murder" and "killing"?

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Posted by: stm4710

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcs2244 BTW, was anyone else surprised by Miss Rucker's ability to distinguish between "murder" and "killing"?

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Posted by: Sgt.berniedo

A little scared straight may help this boy and his future victims as he gets older and stronger.
But do these cops always take orders from that principal, when he can't handle a five year old? Well, at lease they didn't taser him.

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Posted by: kttref

I mean hell, the last time I checked, cuffs were also put on people who have drugs, maybe the kid had pot that he stole from his brilliant mother....but you know, murder and killing, those are the big ones

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