The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit Monday against a Kentucky sheriff's deputy who handcuffed children with ADHD as punishment for their misbehavior at school, violating their rights.
Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner and Sheriff Chuck Korzenborn are named in the lawsuit for their alleged connection to two events involving "excessive physical restraint" on children with ADHD, according to ABC News.
A video accompanying the lawsuit shows Sumner handcuffing a boy with ADHD and a history of trauma. The child is shown crying as Sumner handcuffs the boy's biceps behind his back (because his wrists are too small), according to the Huffington Post. School records indicate the boy was handcuffed for about 15 minutes, according to the complaint.
"You don't get to swing at me like that," Sumner tells the boy. As he shackles the third-grader, who weighs 52 pounds, the boy starts to cry, saying the officer is hurting him.
A second student, a 9-year-old girl, was also handcuffed twice in the fall of 2014, according to the lawsuit.
In the first incident, the girl was taken to her school's "isolation room" because of her refusal to follow instructions in the classroom. Upon trying to leave, she was restrained by administrators, who called Sumner. When she was handcuffed behind her back, she "experienced a severe mental health crisis" and was taken by ambulance to a hospital for a psychiatric assessment, the complaint states, according to the Washington Post.
Three weeks later, the girl was handcuffed again after she was told to go to the cafeteria by Sumner, but ran away instead. The girl was caught and left kneeling on the floor, handcuffed and struggling, for about 30 minutes until her mother arrived.
A spokesman for the Kenton County Sheriff's Office said he was not aware of the lawsuit and declined to comment until he could review the complaint. Sumner also claimed to not have sen the lawsuit and declined to comment.
