‘TRAUMATIZING ACTIONS’

10-Year-Old Black Girl Handcuffed at School Over a Drawing

The ACLU is demanding reform and $500,000 in damages after the girl was arrested at a Hawaii school for drawing an “offensive sketch” of a bully.

The Hawaii branch of the American Civil Liberties Union is demanding reforms after a 10-year-old Black girl was arrested for drawing an “offensive sketch” of a bully. After a parent complained about the drawing, the girl was handcuffed and taken out of Honowai Elementary School in Waipahu to be interrogated by cops. Her mom cried watching her daughter be taken away in handcuffs and was then confined to two rooms at the school, which the ACLU called false imprisonment. They were “singled out because of their race,” a letter from the ACLU read, “both perceived and treated as ‘more dangerous,’ less rational, and less worthy of respect for their rights than the non-Black students and parents involved.”

The “traumatizing actions” during the 2020 incident left the girl so shaken that she moved out of the state. The ACLU has demanded policy changes across the school district, including banning staff from calling police on students for minor infractions. They’re also seeking $500,000 in damages for the child and her mother.