成人抖阴

Sydney is having a mental breakdown in a special education classroom when the 9-year-old girl tries 鈥� but fails 鈥� to pelt a police officer with a cracker. 

鈥淣ot very good aim,鈥� responds Randy Boyden, a school resource officer with the police department in South St. Paul, Minnesota, called in for backup that day by school staff.

鈥淲hat are you going to do?鈥� the brash fourth-grader spits back before taking another shot. 

Sydney, a victim of child abuse and neglect whose real name 成人抖阴 is shielding, suffers from multiple disorders and, as a result, struggles to regulate her behavior and emotions. She fell into an hours-long fit of rage that day after not wanting to go to Spanish class, including wielding a pair of scissors, throwing a chair against a classroom window and biting and kicking her teacher. She landed blows on several of the adults in the room and by the time the cops arrived, school staff had already restrained Sydney in an effort to de-escalate the situation.

鈥淚f you get it into my mouth, I鈥檒l eat it,鈥� Boyden tells the overwrought girl in an exchange that student disabilities experts saw as taunting and one called 鈥渞eally disturbing.鈥�

Sydney throws two more crackers before she climbs onto a high cabinet, rips a speaker off the wall and flings it to the ground. At this moment, it seems most likely the student could hurt herself, yet it isn鈥檛 until she scampers down and jabs a SMART Board with a marker that the adults move in.

Special education teacher Tony Phillips and school Principal Terry Bretoi grab her by the elbows, force her to walk in circles and then lower her to the ground. As they press down on her arms and shoulders, Boyden and another police officer, Mellissa Cavalier, join in. The officers hold Sydney to the carpet by her kneecaps as she tries to break free, squirming and whimpering in distress. Eventually, she lets go of the marker, stops resisting and her 75-pound body goes limp. 

The final physical struggle inside her elementary school involving the police lasts for nearly six, difficult-to-watch minutes. Students like Sydney, Black and in special education, are among the most likely in the U.S. to be physically restrained in school. Except for the occasional cell phone video, however, the highly controversial tactic is rarely witnessed by outsiders. In Sydney鈥檚 case, the video documentation recorded on police body cameras is even more remarkable because it captures the second time in little more than a week that educators and those same two officers physically restrained the disabled girl during a mental health crisis.

Just eight days earlier, after she ran out of school, six adults dragged her by the limbs and forced her into the back of a police car where they locked her inside as she put words to her misery. 

鈥淚 hate school, I hate work and I want to die,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what鈥檚 wrong.鈥�

This story is based on records provided exclusively to 成人抖阴 by Sydney鈥檚 adoptive parents, including the police body-cam footage, audio recordings, police reports, special education reports, disciplinary records and other documents. The videos, after being edited to obscure Sydney鈥檚 identity, were shared with experts who commented for this story. 成人抖阴 sought out the officers and school staff in the videos, some of whom have since changed jobs or plan to soon. They either did not respond or declined to be interviewed.

After watching videos from both incidents, special education attorney Wendy Tucker said they reaffirmed 鈥檚 opposition to police presence in schools, particularly when it comes to their interactions with children who are disabled. When George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in nearby Minneapolis, it generated a national conversation about police use of force. Dozens of districts nationwide cut ties with the police, who

鈥淭his video demonstrates front and center the problem of mixing kids with disabilities and police officers,鈥� said Tucker, the national nonprofit鈥檚 senior policy director. 鈥淭his girl is the poster child for removing law enforcement from schools.鈥� 

Imminent danger vs. property damage

For Sydney鈥檚 adoptive parents, whose real names were also changed to protect their daughter, the video footage from the two incidents in the winter of 2019 spurred a years-long campaign to hold officials accountable for the girl鈥檚 cuts, bruises and mental scars. In response, the Minnesota Department of Education found that school staff violated state law, but officers never faced similar sanctions. In late February, the education department sent a letter notifying Sydney鈥檚 parents that they would investigate an allegation that she 鈥渕ay have been mentally injured鈥� by school staff.

Robert, the girl鈥檚 father, said that educators and police had only intensified his daughter鈥檚 struggles 鈥� a reality he said reflects America鈥檚 bleak mental health system. Rather than understanding the girl鈥檚 disabilities and calming the situation, he charged, they responded with excessive force and a desire to take control. It remains unclear the degree to which the two school resource officers were trained in how to de-escalate situations involving children with disabilities.

鈥淧olice aren鈥檛 designed to respond to this type of thing, it鈥檚 not their job,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淭heir job is to find the killer, it鈥檚 to stop the speeding car that robbed a bank. It鈥檚 not necessarily to respond to the school for a 9-year-old that鈥檚 having a mental health crisis.鈥� 

Educators and police were clearly placed in a volatile situation with Sydney. Federal law requires school officials to accommodate Sydney and other children with special needs, but some educators have acknowledged they struggle to support students with the most significant behavioral health issues. Sydney鈥檚 case highlights those complexities and the challenges educators face when thrust into these highly fraught interactions. 

Sheldon Greenberg, a former police officer and education professor at Johns Hopkins University, offered a different assessment of how the police interacted with Sydney. Good officers have 鈥渁n incredible sixth sense about people鈥檚 behavior鈥� and follow a 鈥渦se-of-force spectrum鈥� that begins with verbal persuasion and moves up to physical confrontation. Officers can generally de-escalate situations without physical force, Greenberg said, and in responding to Sydney, the officers 鈥渇ollowed the spectrum beautifully.鈥� 

鈥淭hey were patient, there was gentle talk in the beginning,鈥� he said. Ultimately, he said that officers must assess crisis situations and prevent them from escalating. 

Sydney, already debilitated by childhood trauma, said she tries hard to forget about the times school staff and campus cops grabbed her arms and legs and held her down 鈥� at times in violation of state education law. 

鈥淚 just feel comforted knowing that I鈥檓 out of that school,鈥� said Sydney, who switched elementary schools just weeks after the incidents and is now in middle school. She reflected on the source of her outbursts, which have grown less frequent. 鈥淚 feel unloved and stuff, and a lot of sad and dark feelings.鈥� 

Thousands of students in Minnesota and across the country are despite efforts to curtail a practice that鈥檚 led to injuries and, in rare cases, death. In Minnesota, state law only allows educators to restrain disabled children in emergency situations where someone is in imminent danger of physical harm. Experts questioned whether Sydney鈥檚 behavior had reached that threshold and said that school officials appeared more concerned with preventing property damage. 

During the part of the incident inside the special education classroom captured on video, officials didn鈥檛 use physical force until she stabbed at the costly SMART Board. The state banned student in 2013. 

Robert believes that physical restraints are necessary when children present imminent danger to themselves or others. But in their interactions with Sydney, he believes the adults responded excessively. Rather than protecting Sydney, the police and school staff assaulted her, Robert alleged, and falsely imprisoned her when they secluded her in the back of the squad car.

鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 just the police trying to force her into the back of a police car,鈥� Robert said, adding that school staff were similarly at fault. 鈥淲hy, in this case, are they saying to the school employees, 鈥榊eah, let鈥檚 force her into the back of the car 鈥� you can help.鈥欌��

The South St. Paul Public Schools acknowledged that they changed their practices after the state Education Department found they violated the law in restraining Sydney. The district said student privacy rules prohibited them from discussing the case further. The South St. Paul Police Department cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, the police chief said.

鈥楽uch an extreme鈥�

Both of the officers had interacted with Sydney before and knew at least some of her history. One of them, Cavalier, was there on one of the worst days: When the little girl was placed into foster care. Yet in the footage, she dismisses the girl鈥檚 distress as a desire to stay home and watch movies. 

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the whole thing,鈥� Cavalier says while Sydney is locked in the car, 鈥渟he doesn鈥檛 want to be in school today.鈥� 

Sydney was born with fetal alcohol syndrome to a mother whose losing battle with addiction had forced the family into homelessness. A victim of physical abuse and neglect, she was placed with her adoptive family after school staff watched her biological mother hit Sydney with a belt during a February 2017 meeting on campus, according to police records. Though school officials called police 鈥� including Cavalier 鈥� to the scene, Robert said their failure to immediately intervene shattered his adopted daughter鈥檚 trust in them.

鈥淣obody in the room made attempts to stop that from happening,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he principal was there and didn鈥檛 stop it immediately.鈥�

On the same day Sydney was beaten by her mother and humiliated at school, Robert and Julia, who had begun the process to become foster parents, got the call: Sydney was in need of emergency placement. The couple scrambled to open their home as refuge to a child they knew little about. They fed her McDonald鈥檚, collected her belongings 鈥� a teddy bear, hair brushes and clothes that had grown too tight 鈥� in a small pink bin and introduced her to their dogs Lucy, Finley and Lola. Lucy, a Pomeranian seemingly aware of the girl鈥檚 recurring nightmares, slept in Sydney鈥檚 bedroom every night for a year. 

By that time, Sydney, then 6, already had a history of school suspensions for aggressive behavior. First-time parents, Robert and Julia learned almost immediately that Sydney was struggling to identify and control her emotions. 

鈥淗er body doesn鈥檛 know what the emotion she鈥檚 feeling is,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e having this emotion and you don鈥檛 know what it is, she would tend to panic and freak out. Instead of going, 鈥業 feel sad, I feel happy,鈥� she didn鈥檛 know what those emotions actually were.鈥� 

In addition to fetal alcohol syndrome, Sydney was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, ADHD and , a serious condition that results when children鈥檚 basic needs for comfort, affection and care are not met. She was placed in special education, but Sydney鈥檚 parents said that school staff failed to fully comprehend the root causes of her outbursts, and instead wrote them off as willful misbehavior. The can mimic misbehavior, and Tucker, of The Center for Learner Equity, said it鈥檚 critical for educators to recognize that such actions are a form of communication. 

鈥淲hen they鈥檙e communicating that they鈥檙e struggling or they鈥檙e having a hard time, the worst thing that you can do is exacerbate that by physically holding them down and taking more control from them,鈥� she said. 

Sydney, who attends myriad therapies, said she鈥檚 鈥渏ust matured a little bit鈥� since the incidents in the video. Her parents say she鈥檚 made significant progress and they are not aware of any restraints in school since then. To her, there was no confusion about the source of her meltdowns. 

鈥淚 guess some trauma,鈥� the self-aware 11-year-old said in an interview, adding that her biological mother was frequently absent and in jail. 鈥淪o I guess, kind of neglect.鈥�

Once in her new home, Sydney’s outbursts continued and Robert and Julia were getting beaten up as they tried to calm her, including the time Julia had to get stitches after getting hit in the lip. Such scenes may have deterred others, but for the couple, who would adopt Sydney in 2018, the bond had already been forged.

鈥淲e fell in love with her the first week she was here,鈥� Robert said. 鈥淚t was 鈥楾his kid is so cool, I love this kid.鈥� Part of me didn鈥檛 want her to ever leave.鈥�

Still, her behaviors were a force to be reckoned with, so they signed up for a training program on crisis prevention, which included instruction on de-escalation and how to use physical restraints. Parents don鈥檛 generally enroll in the program, which is designed for special education teachers and emergency responders. The course, Robert said, was 鈥渙ne of the best things that we have done.鈥�

Ironically, at the same time the couple was attending a December 2019 , school staff called to report that Sydney was in crisis. Once they obtained the police body-cam footage of her getting pinned to the floor in the special education classroom, Robert and Julia said it was their training that allowed them to conclude that the restraints placed on their daughter differed drastically from what they had been taught.

鈥楴owhere in [the training course] does it say 鈥榟old down their kneecaps and their elbows and their wrists, and twist them up,鈥欌�� Julia said. 鈥淵ou have four adults on her already. Why do they go to such an extreme?鈥�

鈥楧o we need to handcuff you?鈥�

On the day she would find herself locked in a cop car, Sydney had been struggling in math class, so she fled. Overwhelmed, she bolted from school and stood in a nearby street, where she attempted to get struck by oncoming traffic. 

Yet officials don鈥檛 use force until she throws what her suspension report describes as 鈥渓andscaping blocks.鈥� One block comes close to striking Phillips, the special education teacher. Another clobbers a parked pickup truck. 

That鈥檚 when officer Cavalier gives Sydney an ultimatum 鈥� go back to school or wait in the back of her squad car 鈥� before tugging on the girl by her arm. 

鈥淲e can鈥檛 damage people鈥檚 property and we can鈥檛 hurt anybody,鈥� Cavalier says before the girl tries to kick free and drops to her knees in the middle of the street. Together, Cavalier, Boyden and four school employees grab her arms and legs and force her into the car, where she puts up a fight. As she tries to escape from the back seat, Sydney at one point reaches for Boyden鈥檚 gun. 

鈥淒o we need to handcuff you?鈥� Cavalier asks Sydney in response. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to do that but you can鈥檛 just start grabbing things that don鈥檛 belong to you.鈥� 

Greenberg, the Johns Hopkins professor, said the public generally sees police use-of-force during extreme, worst-case scenarios. Though he said the video footage involving Sydney provides a limited window into those incidents, he felt the officers 鈥渟howed incredible restraint before applying restraint.鈥� 

鈥淵ou can tell when someone is reaching a point that harm to self or harm to others is about to occur,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou just know it, you feel it and you know you have to do something to minimize that harm.鈥�

Police officers who are stationed inside schools full time generally are given much greater discretion than educators in how they respond to disruptive students. Just last year, efforts in Minnesota to adopt modest regulations to officers鈥� restraint practices in schools fell short. State legislation would have prohibited cops from placing students in the face-down 鈥減rone restraint,鈥� 鈥� like the one used on George Floyd 鈥� and would have required them to receive the same training as school staff. The state education department, which endorsed the reforms, will continue to promote the changes, assistant commissioner Daron Korte, who oversees student support services, told 成人抖阴.

鈥淲e just wanted to make sure that there鈥檚 at least a minimum level of training,鈥� that officers know how to use safe restraint techniques and understand 鈥渢hat this should be used in a last-ditch emergency situation,鈥� he said. 

While some advocates oppose all forms of student restraints, Robert and Julia believe that physical holds are necessary in some emergency situations if done properly. When Sydney was in the street, for example, school staff could have used a brief hold to move her to the grass. They also could have moved her to a room in the school with a padded floor and a mini-trampoline. Instead, they dragged her by the limbs and locked her in the back of the police car.

鈥淲hy would you let a child who says 鈥業鈥檓 going to kill myself鈥� and 鈥業鈥檓 going to go sit in that street and I鈥檓 going to get hit by a car,鈥� why wouldn鈥檛 you restrain them at that point so they don鈥檛 commit suicide?鈥� Julia asked. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not necessarily against restraint, but you have to have trusted people who are well trained, who are doing it with dignity and have the right intentions.鈥� 

Similar situations have come up in the past. In 2015, the American Civil Liberties Union sued a Kentucky sheriff鈥檚 deputy for handcuffing two elementary school students above the elbow who were acting out as a result of their disabilities. One incident was captured in a viral cell phone video. That case ended with . In 2020, the city of Flint, Michigan, a lawsuit accusing an officer of excessive force when he handcuffed a disabled 7-year-old boy for roughly an hour after he ran around on school bleachers and kicked a supply cart during an afterschool program. 

In Sydney鈥檚 case, West Resendes, a legal fellow with the ACLU鈥檚 disability rights program, said school staff used improper restraint techniques in both incidents to control the girl鈥檚 disability-related behaviors and shouldn鈥檛 have called the police for help. In their interactions with Sydney, he said that officials treated her 鈥渘ot as a human being but as an object鈥� and were unclear about why she was being restrained.

“Seeing the male officer egg her on about not having good aim or wasting crackers was really disturbing 鈥� and it predictably and directly led to an escalation of the situation,” Resendes said.

鈥楳ake sure that this doesn鈥檛 happen again鈥�

Sydney is Black and her adoptive parents are white 鈥� a reality the couple said gave them a new perspective on the police and racial bias. On multiple occasions, her outbursts have prompted aggressive police responses. 

During one episode at the Mall of America, officers accused Robert of trying to abduct his daughter, he said. On another occasion, Robert had a gun pulled on him by a cop who mistook an exchange in the family car between him and a distraught Sydney as an assault. 

Though officers backed off once they understood the context, Robert thought the cop might shoot him. In 2016, that same officer was involved in the fatal shooting of a man in crisis outside a McDonald鈥檚 restaurant. He was shot 15 times. 

Sydney鈥檚 parents and special education advocates said that race was a likely factor in how educators and police responded and believe she may have been treated differently if she were white. 

Dave Webb, the district superintendent, declined to be interviewed but said in an email that the district does not use physical restraints to discipline students. He acknowledged they had to update their restraint procedures to match state law after the two incidents with Sydney but said they had not been held liable for using the tactic in a way that is racially discriminatory. 

鈥淭he district takes its obligation to comply with the laws governing restrictive procedures very seriously and provides ongoing training to its staff to comply with those legal requirements,鈥� Webb said. 

Years of federal education data have found that students of color 鈥� especially those with disabilities 鈥� are disproportionately restrained in schools. In Minnesota, Black students were 11.8 percent of students in special education during the 2019-20 school year but were subjected to 27 percent of the physical holds documented in schools, . 

That school year, the latest for which state data is available, student restraints dropped by 25 percent, a change officials attributed to the pandemic as students learned from home during the second half of the year.

Initially, educators鈥� responses 鈥渓ooked textbook鈥� when they talked calmly and tried to comfort Sydney, said Joshua Ladd, a staff attorney at the Minnesota Disability Law Center, but he faulted school staff for allowing police officers to take the lead in both situations as if they 鈥渉ad given up and just decided to start watching.鈥� Ladd said that school staff were clearly unable to support Sydney鈥檚 needs and that her behaviors 鈥� such as bolting from class 鈥� were a form of communication. 

鈥淚 would describe her communication as saying 鈥業鈥檓 not safe here and I can鈥檛 trust adults because adults have let me down my entire life,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥溾�業 have learned to protect myself and take care of myself because the adults around me have failed me.鈥欌��

After acquiring the body-cam footage, Sydney鈥檚 parents filed a formal complaint and a state education department investigation found that school staff broke the law when they restrained the girl in 鈥渘on-emergency鈥� situations, among other violations. The officers never faced any repercussions. Both incidents were investigated but no disciplinary action was taken against the two school resource officers, South St. Paul Police Chief William Messerich wrote in an email. He declined to comment further.

District officials were required to undergo training and update school policy to make clear that staff could not restrain kids to 鈥減revent serious property damage鈥� consistent with state law. They also required school staff to reassess Sydney鈥檚 special education services. 

鈥淚t already happened, there鈥檚 nothing you can do to go back in time to stop that from happening,鈥� Korte, the assistant commissioner, said of the incidents. But moving forward, district staff were required to develop a strategy 鈥渢o make sure that this didn鈥檛 happen again.鈥�

Sydney鈥檚 parents were left longing for more. The interventions did little to help their daughter鈥檚 suffering, they said, or to hold officials accountable for pinning her to the ground. Robert, a mechanic, and Julia, a teacher, considered suing the district and the police, but were discouraged by the cost of hiring an attorney. 

A could result in educators losing their licenses. Robert said he filed multiple complaints against the educators who restrained Sydney but the state initially declined to open an inquiry. He said that changed just weeks ago after Sydney鈥檚 therapy team submitted a report stating that she suffered trauma directly related to the restraints at school. 

The investigation raises the possibility that Sydney鈥檚 parents may get confirmation of something they’ve long maintained 鈥� that their daughter was abused in a manner that went beyond poor training or outdated policy.

They realize 鈥嬧�媜ther parents of disabled children never get near that level of resolution 鈥� and believe they may not have either without video evidence.

鈥淗ow many kids, how many nonverbal kids, does it happen to?鈥� Robert asked. 鈥淜ids that can鈥檛 go home and tell their parents 鈥榊eah, there were four adults pinning me to the ground today.鈥� They just come home and destroy the house and the parents are left wondering what is going on.鈥�

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