Kissimmee, FL – A 10-year-old boy with autism was handcuffed on the hot trunk of a police car a couple of weeks ago, when he threatened to harm himself in school.The boy received a heat rash from the incident.
The father of the boy, Moses Maldonado, was shocked at the way police treated his son.
The situation started when Moses was called to Cypress Elementary because his son Ryan was melting down.
Police Chief, Lee Massie, was quoted by WFTV 9 as saying that Ryan had threatened to;
“Stab himself with a pair of scissors, cut off some of his fingertips.”
Moses wanted to intervene so that he could try to calm his son down, but the police would not allow it. In an interview with WFTV 9 Moses said:
“I’m his dad. I know how to deal with him. He was screaming for help and screaming for daddy,”
When the threats continued, the police thought that the best course of action was to handcuff Ryan in order to get him evaluated. Police Chief Massie claims they used the trunk of the police car, because the only other option would have been to lay Ryan down on the hot pavement.
Ryan was released from the evaluation two hours later and didn’t return to school.
Moses is upset that the school would not allow him to help. In a released statement, the school district says they handled the problem according to protocol and could not give further details.
The original news article on the WFTV 9 News website here