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Introduction
In early 2013, Nehemiah Keeton got a phone call from his niece's elementary school near St. Louis, Missouri.1 His niece was having a tantrum: something that had happened several times before,2 something that every 8-year-old does from time to time. He headed down to the school to check on her.3 While he was on his way, he got a call from the police saying that his niece was in custody.4
Officers had arrested Jmiyha Rickman at school and held her in a police car for two hours.5 "When I get to the police station to pick her up," Mr. Keeton recounted, "her eyes were just so swollen from her crying, and crying, and crying."6 Rightfully appalled, he described how she was "shackled"7: handcuffed at her wrists and ankles.8
Mr. Keeton insisted this punishment was "above and beyond" what any 8-year-old deserved-what any elementary student with a disability deserved.9 Jmiyha has autism, separation anxiety, and depression.10 Due to her previous tantrums, the school was familiar with her behavior habits and how they were typically resolved.11 Mr. Keeton said he came down to the school every time the staff called him for help.12 The school had no reason to call 9-1-1.13 On that day in 2013, Jmiyha Rickman became one of far too many Black and brown children with disabilities who are wrongfully restrained, secluded, and arrested in schools.
But children of color with disabilities are at risk of harmful and unlawful arrest outside of school too. In early 2021, in Rochester, New York, Elba Pope called 9-1-1 because her 9-year-old daughter was suicidal and threatening to kill Pope and her unborn child.14 As white officers tried to restrain her daughter, Pope repeatedly told them that her daughter was having a mental health episode and urged them to call a specialist, instead of trying to detain her child.15 The young girl continued calling out for her father, asking for a female officer, and telling the police they were pulling too hard on her.16
When Pope's daughter refused to cooperate with police directives, one officer yelled: "You're acting like a child."17 She responded: "I am a child!"18
In less than 90 seconds, police had handcuffed the 9-year-old girl, shoved her in the back of a police car,...