Mom: ‘Having to fear daily for your baby, it’s not a good feeling’
Two years ago, a week into the academic year at Clarence Edwards Middle School in Charlestown, an 11-year-old boy was handcuffed while still on his special needs school bus and taken to the police station.
The dean of discipline had tried to coax the sixth-grader — who suffers from anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and attention deficit disorder — back into school to discuss an altercation he’d had with another student that day, according to his mother and a police report.
“Instead of calling me, they called the school police and dragged him off the bus in handcuffs,” said Solimar Alvarez-Quinones, who wanted her son to remain anonymous.
The boy erupted in obscenities and then lashed out physically when a police officer tried to remove him, the police report states.
“From there, things went from bad to worse,” his mother said. “He didn’t trust anyone at the school. He didn’t want to go to school.”
A Boston Public Schools spokesman said the district cannot comment on specific incidents due to privacy concerns.
The district, a spokesman said, “works with the families of all students, including those with special needs, on making sure their individual needs are met in order to foster the best possible learning experiences in a safe, welcoming and sustaining environments.”
A recent Ruderman Family Foundation report found the highest adolescent suspension and arrest rates in the Boston area were in schools for students with mental illnesses and social disorders.
According to Alvarez-Quinones, her son is just one example of public schools failing children with emotional disorders, defaulting to threats rather than offering help.
Her son’s issues stemmed from a difficult home life, his mom said. He had lived in a violent neighborhood and frequently heard gunshots. There was conflict at home, and his father was ill.
Despite getting good grades, the boy lashed out in school, often refusing to listen, and became easily agitated.
“Every day I was waiting for a call from the school. I was always on my toes,” she said. “Having to fear daily for your baby, it’s not a good feeling.”