Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By David M. Baum, Attorney and David Wolf, Attorney
Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
In Dolton, Illinois a special needs child was assaulted by a police officer, at a school. The police officer’s actions and abuse were captured on videotape. Apparently the police officer became upset when the special needs child, Marshawn Pitts,15, had his shirt untucked. The fact that this child’s shirt was untucked became the reason for this inexcusable assault on a brain damaged child is beyond comprehension.
Both public and private schools should be safe havens for children. This is especially true for young children as well as special needs children. It is important for a child to know that school is a place for learning and nurturing rather than a place for violence, assault, battery or attack.
The police officer ulitmately resigned over this incident. There was a videotape of the assault of this special needs child. Unfortunately, many personal injuries and attacks on children in the Illinois school system are not addressed by the action of removing the attacker from the school. Furthermore, many attacks go unnoticed and are not videotaped. As such, there are a great number of other attacks on school-aged children that school officials, parents, teachers, law enforcement and the community do not learn about.
You can read more about this story at Special Needs Child: An Unfortunate Victim of School Violence at the Hands of a Police Officer.