Kindergarten Girl Charged with Felony

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

A 6 year old kindergartener was handcuffed, arrested, fingerprinted, charged with a felon and sent to jail. Her crime? She had a temper tantrum at school. According to the news report, Desre Watson disrupted the class with a temper tantrum. When she would not calm down, stop crying or leave the room the police were called. Seems she threw chairs and hit a second teacher who came to help the first teacher handle the situation. Columnist, Bob Herbert, spoke to the Avon Park, Florida police chief, Frank Mercurio. Evidently arresting 6 year olds is common practice there.

There are several definitions of the word felony. Most common is: "One of several grave crimes, such as murder, rape, or burglary, punishable by a more stringent sentence than that given for a misdemeanor" or "characterized under federal law and many state statutes as any offense punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year." Is having a temper tantrum now considered a felony? If so, many pro-sports figures seem to be getting away with committing them.

A tantrum is about control. A baby hungry baby cries to get fed. If the demand for nourishment is not met, the baby learns to howl more. As the baby grows and tries to learn to do simple chores, it may become frustrated and, in anger have a "temper tantrum". Something gets thrown. Adults do this too. Think: road rage. The baby has no control over when it will get fed. The toddler lacks the skills to control actions needed to do simple tasks like pick up a fork. Fussy parents who expect too much, too soon from a child will tend to add to the child's frustration. An adult has no control over the rude driver that just cut them off or slowness of traffic jams. Anger over something a baby, child, adult can not control is what sets off a fit of temper.