You're Under Arrest

Published July 17, 2009 @ 02:41PM PT

handcuffs by And-rey
Autistic girl arrested; family wants damages is the head line in yesterday's MSNBC. Back in January, 8-year-old Evelyn Towry was arrested at Kootenai Elementary School after staff said that she "spit on and inappropriately touched two instructors." She was handcuffed---

Wait a moment. She is an 8-year-old girl.

And there's more: Evelyn, who has Asperger's Syndrome, was taken to the county juvenile lockup and released to her parents. The charges against her were dropped by a county prosecutor. Now her parents, Charles and Spring Towry, wants the school district and county to pay more than $500,000 in damages.

Scandalous and out of proportion, and yet that headline describes something that many of us, parents and self-advocates feel. Individuals and students with disabilities may not actually be, as Evelyn wrongly was, arrested (though it has happened to at least one other student on the spectrum). But they are daily subjected to discrimination and daily have their rights and dignity trampled upon in a multitude of ways (like the financial abuse that Dora wrote about recently).

No wonder restitution or its equivalent, and justice, must and is being sought.

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Comments (6)

Sometimes when I see those stories I wonder if I even live in the same world as the people who think that it's appropriate to arrest children (autistic or not). Remember the 5 year old girl who was arrested in Florida a few years ago when she "acted up" in her kindergarten class? (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/04/25/earlyshow/main690601.shtml)

I hope that Evelyn's family is well-compensated, and even more, that protocols are put into place so that this can never happen again.

Posted by Jen Niebler on 07/18/2009 @ 03:41AM PT
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Yes, I remember the Florida Kindergarten mess. It happened in Port St. Lucie, FL and it involved a little 5-year-old boy, Alex Barton. He was not arrested, but his experince was terribly traumatic. His teacher, Wendy Portillo, led her kindergartners to vote 14-to-2 to kick out Alex from his class. The teacher made the boy stand in front of the class and prompted his classmates to tell how they felt about his behavior. Earlier, Alex had kicked a table leg and threw some crayons -- appropriate behavior for a time out, not to be humiliated in front of the class and then thrown out forever. Alex also has autism. The school board suspended this teacher without pay for one year and took away her tenure. But now, it's changed. Even though a judge ruled against her in her appeal, somehow she's got her tenure back and will teach again in the Fall. Another class of vulnerable kindergartners under her control. Ethic Soup has an excellent article on this at:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/06/teacher-reinstated-after-autistic-boy-voted-out-of-kindergarden.html

And there's another good article on little Evelyn Towry in Sandpoint, Idaho, being handcuffed, arrested and jailed by police. What was it that started the broohaha for the third-grader? She didn't want to take off her favorite jacket. The teachers were so aggravated over this that they ended up holding down both her arms and legs -- leaving thumb size bruises. It's simply disgusting that we have such teachers, You can read another good article on Evelyn Towry's experience at:

http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/07/autistic-8yearold-girl-arrested-and-jailed-for-touching-teachers.html

Posted by Sharon McEachern on 07/18/2009 @ 06:35AM PT
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Actually the "Florida mess" that I was referring to was a 5 year old NT girl, who had a temper tantrum in her kindergarten class and was arrested and put into a police car before being released (the original link is above). The Alex Barton incident was appalling, without doubt.

Posted by Jen Niebler on 07/18/2009 @ 08:24AM PT
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The training and protocol changes that ought to flow naturally from these types of cases seem often to be missing. I wish judges would mandate them at the same time as compensation. Changes also need to be made when there are out of court settlements, but the lack of press coverage it never seems to happen. If the system isn't changed it's bound to happen again.

Posted by Cornelia Rivers on 07/18/2009 @ 06:39AM PT
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That's the most frustrating thing about these situations- the lack of follow-up. Maybe judges have different rules in the U.S. so that they can't direct follow-up actions or something? I would hope that Evelyn's family does get compensated (although my guess is that it will take more than money for them to recover from something like this), but if there aren't any changes enforced on the school/police system, then how is it ever going to change?

Posted by Jen Niebler on 07/18/2009 @ 08:27AM PT
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Remember in most states, there is still no law against capital punishment for any child. I think its important to also remember that sometimes persons go into teaching for nonaltruistic reasons.When you can't function appropriately among adults its easier to boss around small children. Most teachers are good people, but when they allow the abusive in their midsts then they do disservice to themselves. Millions are spent every year to pay teachers with tenure, who have been removed from the classroom because of abuse. Somethings have got to change.

Posted by Elise Butowsky on 07/19/2009 @ 03:54AM PT
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Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.