MN: Children With Disabilities Arrested For Behavior

Reporting Amelia Santaniello
Dec 12, 2008 11:05 pm US/Central
http://wcco.com/crime/children.disabilities.arrested.2.886567.html


(WCCO, Minnesota ) For parents of children with special needs, outbursts can be a problem, and they don't stop at home.

More Minnesota kids with autism and developmental disabilities are actually getting arrested for having tantrums at school. That's landing students in treatment centers, where they live alongside the worst sex offenders.

"I dropped him off for band, and when I came back to pick him up, his teacher motioned for me to come in," said mother Kathryn Jacobson.

Kathryn Jacobson told the I-TEAM she knew something was wrong when she arrived at Franklin Middle School in Thief River Falls to pick up her son.

"He was really upset, sobbing and really upset. And she (the teacher) said 'You're not in any trouble Dakota, you're not in any trouble,'" she recalled. "Two hours later I think it was, we get a call from the assistant principal saying Dakota's in trouble."

Dakota had a pocket knife in his coat. He didn't threaten anyone, but bringing any kind of weapon to school is a felony in Minnesota. While most kids understand why you wouldn't want to do that, Dakota did not.

"He's 13 and he's autistic," explained his mother.

Children with autism can have trouble understanding rules. His mom says he was just trying to be like his dad, Brian.

"Brian is on the volunteer fire department, carries a knife hooked up to his belt, so he kind of likes to emulate his dad," said Jacobson.

Police and the Pennington County Court weighed Dakota's Autism diagnosis, but still charged him with a felony that ended up on his record.

"I was very afraid. I was hoping it was a dream, that's what I was hoping," said Dakota."

Thomas Brinker didn't understand why he was arrested either. Thomas has fetal alcohol syndrome. At 19, he threw paint on a teacher's sweater during a tantrum at his District 287 school.

Thomas was cited for disorderly conduct. His father told the I-TEAM the school never told him about it.

"I was not notified of the citation, and Thomas was living at a group home at the time," said father James Brinker.

After missing a court date, Thomas was arrested and put in the Hennepin County Jail.

"I was just furious at the school that they would involve the judicial system as behavior management," said Brinker.

The disorderly conduct charge was eventually dropped after Thomas was found incompetent to stand trial. That was just the beginning of the Brinker's ordeal.

"They recommended that he went to the METO program," said Brinker.

METO is the Minnesota Extended Treatment Options program. Its one place courts send people to live if their developmental disability turns dangerous. Thomas' family doesn't think throwing paint rises to that level.

"I had to sign a piece of paper in fact, [saying] that I knew there were sexual offenders on the premises," said Brinker. "He got to METO because of a court system that failed him, a school that definitely failed him."

Roberta Opheim is the state's ombudsman for Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities. She told the I-TEAM Thomas shouldn't have ended up there, but a lot of people like him do.

"When they don't or can't participate in their own trial, they are sometimes sent to mental health facilities," she said.

Opheim recently reviewed the METO program and found problems with the frequent use of metal handcuffs and leg hobbles.

"It became so routine that people didn't even identify it as a problem," she said.

Thomas was restrained on one occasion.

"There always used to be a premise in the law that you had to have the criminal intent to harm someone. We've lost that standard," said Opheim.

"Intent is important, but I think it's very difficult for us to evaluate and render that judgment," said Wade Setter.

Setter runs the Minnesota Center for School Safety which helps guide school resource officers. He said school resource officers go through no special training to handle children with special needs.

The I-TEAM learned no uniform policy exists as to what schools can and should share from a student's medical history with police.

There's all sorts of restrictions at the federal and state level about sharing different types of information, which is a particular challenge," explained Setter.

Teachers sometimes don't follow their own behavioral intervention plan for how to calm down a particular student. Setter wants school resource officers to see those plans and to be trained in emotional disorders.

We're in the process of developing it," said Setter.

Thomas is spending more time with his family and is about to be released from the METO program into a new group home. Dakota is still struggling.

"I sometimes try not to think about it, but sometimes it just pops up in my mind and it just makes me feel sad," said Dakota.

Dakota's felony drops off his record after six months, if he doesn't bring another weapon to school.

Thomas is still at the METO facility for throwing paint. His care costs taxpayers more than $900 a day.