Covington Independent School District is standing behind Kenton County Sheriff’s Deputy and School Resource Officer Kevin Sumner after footage from last fall recently emerged showing Sumner handcuffing an 8-year-old boy to a chair. That footage has prompted a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union against the Kenton County Sheriff’s Department.
In a letter to parents last Thursday, Covington Independent School District Superintendent Alvin Garrison said an independent investigator hired by the school district concluded that Sumner did not violate school policy.
“After a thorough review of this matter, including numerous interviews with witnesses and other research, the investigator concluded that Deputy Sumner and Covington school personnel complied with school district’s restraint policies, which are designed to ensure that students do not injure themselves or others,” Garrison wrote in the letter.
The federal lawsuit filed by the ACLU in partnership with the Children’s Law Center claims that the department violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. “Shackling children is not okay. It is traumatizing, and in this case it is also illegal,” said Susan Mizner, disability counsel for the ACLU, in a statement. “Using law enforcement to discipline students with disabilities only serves to traumatize children.”
The footage shows an 8-year-old boy, identified as S.R., a student at Latonia Elementary School, crying and screaming “Ow, that hurts,” as Sumner handcuffs him by his biceps to a chair. The boy has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and a history of trauma.
The lawsuit also claims that another 9-year-old girl identified as L.G., a student at John G. Carlisle Elementary School, was also handcuffed behind her back by her biceps twice by Sumner. The girl also has ADHD and other special needs, according to the ACLU.
The lawsuit asks that additional training be required for school resource officers to work with special needs children and an unspecified amount of compensatory damages.
S.R.’s mother, identified as T.R. by the ACLU, claims that since the experience, her son has had difficulty sleeping, anxiety and a fear of seeing the officer at school.
According to a 2014 Department of Education study, children with disabilities make up 12 percent of the national student population but are 75 percent of the students physically restrained by school employees.
Garrison says in his letter that Covington ISD was not included on the ACLU lawsuit and that the school was looking into restraint processes used in the schools. (Natalie Krebs)
This article appears in Aug 12-18, 2015.
