ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner with her arms behind her back after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action as a safety measure.

The girl's family demanded Tuesday that their central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by the ordeal.

While it's unusual to see a young child handcuffed in school, it's not unheard of. School officials around the nation have wrestled with the issue of when it's appropriate to call police on a student.

Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing books and toys in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School in Milledgeville, according to a police report.

Police said a small shelf thrown by the child struck the principal in the leg during the fracas. The child also jumped on a paper shredder and tried to break a glass frame, the police report states.

The school called police. When an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted, police say. She "was restrained by placing her hands behind her back and handcuffed," a police report states.

A juvenile complaint was filed, accusing the girl of simple battery and damage to property.

The police department's policy is to handcuff people when they are taken to the police station, regardless of their age, interim Police Chief Dray Swicord said. He said the child was restrained with steel cuffs, the only kind the department uses.

"The reason we handcuff detainees is for the safety of themselves as well as the officer," he said Tuesday.

The girl's aunt, Candace Ruff, went with the child's mother to pick her up from the police station. She said Salecia had been in a holding cell and complained about the handcuffs.

"She said they were really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists," Ruff said. "She was so shaken up when we went there to pick her up."

The police chief said the girl was taken to the police department's squad room, not a holding cell, and officers there tried to calm her and gave her a Coke.

Officials at Creekside Elementary did not immediately return calls Tuesday.

The girl was suspended and can't return to school until August, her mother, Constance Ruff, told WMAZ-TV, which first reported the story.

"We would not like to see this happen to another child, because it's horrifying. It's devastating," her aunt told The Associated Press.

Milledgeville is about 90 miles southeast of Atlanta.

Elsewhere in the U.S., incidents involving students, police and handcuffs have raised difficult questions for educators, parents and policymakers.

In Florida, the use of police in schools came up several years ago when officers arrested a kindergartner who threw a tantrum during a jelly bean-counting contest. Since then, the overall number of student arrests in Florida has declined, but those for minor offenses have increased on a percentage basis. A bill was proposed this year to restrict police from arresting kids for misdemeanors or other acts that do not pose serious safety threats.

Annette Montano, a mother in Albuquerque, N.M., said her 13-year-old son was arrested last year after burping in gym class. After more problems, she said, she pulled him from the school in November. It took her three months to get him placed elsewhere.

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Associated Press writer Jeri Clausing in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this story.

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Information from: WMAZ-TV, http://www.wmaz.com/

Don't blame the police,blame the school. Really you cap the police because of a kindergarten? Sounds like someone cant handle their job.

Don't blame the police,blame the school. Really you cap the police because of a kindergarten? Sounds like someone cant handle their job.

I imagine it is horrifying to see another student out of control throwing things and injuring people and no one does anything about it as well.

Blame the parents, blame the system.

Sounds like it is the parents problem of making a spoiled brat. Kids will go through a tantrum phase but that is overboard, that is like the spoiled kids had done this plenty of times before and got away with it. While I agree that some police go too far, I would say they were in line with doing there job in this story...

They should have tazed her.

Blame whoever you choose, but the fact is that the little girl was behaving in anti-social behavior. Permitting it will only encourage other children to mimmic her, so it was necessary to control her. I don't much like the thought of handcuffing a child, but perhaps it will help to discourge that type of behavior from her--and possibly any kids who witnessed it--in the future.

I think any cop who hand cuffs a little kid is weak and needs an *** beating. Now, look at the kid and see what issues she has. Maybe she is bipolar! At the very least they should have removed her from the class kicking and screaming then had her mom or dad pick her up and take her in for an evaluation.

back atcha

Once upon a time Jeremy (me) was being a little ****. I was throwing a temper tantrum, and my father decided to gently pick me up and take me into my room to scream it out. He did not jerk me or otherwise try to really harm me, but with my struggling and him having a firm grip on my arm he dislocated my shoulder from its socket requiring medical attention, and to this day I have issues with that shoulder.

Handcuffs sound better than that.

I was working at a McDonalds years ago and this man came in with a young boy who started acting up while he was ordering their food. He looked at me and "excuse us" took the boys hair at the nape of his neck and gently lifted the boy onto his toes and walked him outside, came back in after 20 minutes or so and the boy was as charming as could be. It takes a real moron to think handcuffing a kid is necessary.

I was not there, you where not there. The liability involved with restraining a child that will not stop acting up is HUGE these days.

If anyone other than the parent had done what you describe, just imagine the media circus.

The Police officers job description does not include getting bitten / scratched by somebody's bad kid. Being handcuffed for a short time would help to calm the situation and prevent the kid from stabbing someone in the head with a pencil (which happened to my step-son). The whole "OH! Let's reason with the little darling!" didn't do jack for my kid or his teacher who got stabbed twice in the stomach with a pencil.

I gotta agree with spider. You cant seriously expect an officer to be permitted to pick a child up by their hair. If a child is in danger of hurting other students, it sounds like they did a fine job by calling the police. Sounds like there were no injuries too, unless I missed something. There could have been serious injuries if they had not restrained her. School officials may not have the permission for that.

Before she was restrained she was already throwing shelves and glass. Serious injury could have taken place so the family suggesting she was treated badly sounds a tad ridiculous to me.

Outside of a special needs situation, the teacher shouldnt have to spend instructional time on 'protecting' the class from a child who will not control themself. If it was a teenager, they'd have been suspended too.

If this is typical for the child, they should put them on a behaviour plan. Maybe they already are, dunno.

...and omg, sorry to hear bout the pencil bit spider.

F**k the police comin straight from the underground...

Id say if she was posing a danger to herself and others, restraining her was the right thing

and any physical restraint they would have used would have been criticized, but reasonable when logically thinking about the safety of the child and others

I am guessing they didn't even really use handcuffs but probably zip ties since normally a pair of handcuffs barely fit in a 14 year old let alone a 8 year old.

With that said I have taken my share of kids into custody and doing my job for over 14 years I very rarely handcuff juveniles and I have never handcuffed a kid under the age of 14 and only cuff them if they try to fight when I identify myself.

I think this situation might be a little overboard. You can talk down or restrain an 8 year old in other ways.

Since the teacher gave her to the principal who then called the police, I gotta think this is the exception. Principals have tons of experience with younguns even if the teacher was green.