Scoop away9/4/2023 ![]() Under the terms of a 2014 legal settlement, schools are only supposed to call 911 in the most extreme situations, when kids pose an “imminent and substantial risk of serious injury” to themselves or others.Īnd yet an investigation by THE CITY and ProPublica found that city schools continue to call on safety agents and other police officers to manage students in distress thousands of times each year - incidents the NYPD calls “child in crisis” interventions. New York City officials have promised for years to stop relying on police to respond to students in emotional crisis. She must be misunderstanding, she thought. Looking now, Paul’s mom could see red marks where the handcuffs had rubbed Paul’s wrists raw. Do they call 911 on students in crisis? Are there enough social workers and guidance counselors? Use our lookup tool and enter your school name below to find out. We tracked dozens of data points on mental health support in NYC public schools. “I said, ‘What are you talking about? No one is going to handcuff you.’” “Mommy, don’t let them handcuff me,” he begged. Then he recognized his mother’s voice and jumped into her arms. She touched his back, and he screamed and tried to scramble away. When she made it into the school building, she found Paul lying facedown on the floor of a computer room, his whole body heaving with sobs. Why had the school called 911 instead of calling her? Was her child hurt? Had something gone terribly wrong? She wanted to run the last few blocks to the school, but her legs felt frozen. The day of the message, in early December, Paul’s mom was so panicked that she couldn’t fully make sense of what it said. Since the end of first grade, he’s been in a special public school classroom in Brooklyn that integrates disabled and nondisabled kids. Like a lot of kids with developmental disabilities, he also has very big tantrums, hitting, spitting and throwing things when he gets upset. He loves to cuddle with his mom and help take care of his baby sister, and he’s wild about Greek mythology. Paul - that’s his middle name - has a neurological disorder. Paul’s mom remembers the physical feeling of dread, like ice under her skin. Paul’s parents could contact the main office for more information, the message read. It was almost time for school pickup when Paul’s mom saw the text on the classroom messaging app: Paul - her 7-year-old - “ended up running out of class today and it escalated rather quickly.” Someone at the school had called 911. This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with THE CITY.
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