So, here’s an interesting story that was passed our way. An 11-year old boy was arrested and handcuffed for doing what his therapist told him to do…draw. The original story and follow-up videos are below. It’s an interesting dilemma and people seem to be on both sides of the fence on this one.
Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Original News Report Video
Follow-up News Report Video
Transcript of Original News Report
An 11-year old following orders from his therapist, only to be cuffed arrested, and hauled off to jail.
Julie Hayden:
This boy’s parents and doctors don’t understand why Arvada (Colorado) police treated an 11-year old they way they did. Now his parents don’t want us to use their real names or show their faces.
Eleven year old Tim was only doing what his therapist told him to do.
Dr. Patrick Bacon – Psychiatrist
We will often ask kids to draw about their feelings.
Julie Hayden:
Tim is being treated for ADD and his therapist told him to draw pictures when he got upset rather than disrupt class…so that’s what he did. Last October Tim drew a stick figure of himself with a gun, pointed at 4 other stick figures with the words “teachers must die.”
Mother:
It was what his doctors had told him was the right thing to do.
Julie Hayden:
He felt calmer and was throwing it away when his teachers saw it and sent him to the principal’s office. Now the school determined Tim wasn’t a threat, notified his parents and sent him back to class. But his mom was horrified when Arvada police showed up that night, arrested her son, and hauled him away in handcuffs.
Mother:
It was heart-wrenching to see my son walk out my front door , my 11-year old son, walk out my front door in handcuffs and get in that police car.
Julie Hayden:
Police put Tim in a cell, took his mugshot, fingerprinted him and wouldn’t let him see his parents. He says he thought he was going to jail and never going home again.
Mother:
I think it’s violently unfair to these little guys and it’s traumatic.
Julie Hayden:
According to the police report, the school at first said it did not want to press charges and Tim told officers he would never hurt teachers or anyone. A juvenile assessment report says he’s never been in legal trouble before and is at low risk to reoffend. But he’s being charged with interfering with staff and students at an educational facility. The system says it’s doing what’s in the best interest of the child, but Tim’s therapist says handcuffing him and putting him in a cell does much more harm than good.
Dr. Patrick Bacon – Psychiatrist
I really don’t get that at all. To me, it doesn’t seem like there’s any victim to this. He was doing what he thought he should. He’s only eleven. He’s not posing a serious threat to anybody. I mean that is just bizarre to me that they would respond this way.
Julie Hayden:
Now Arvada says because today is a holiday they were not able to get hold of everyone involved or pull all the reports, but they will have a response tomorrow.
Transcript of Follow-up News Report
An 11-year old boy handcuffed at his family’s home and taken to the Arvada police department over a drawing. Tonight, police are saying they did nothing wrong. Investigative reporter Julie Hayden has more…
Julie Hayden:
Eleven-year old Tim was doing what his therapist told him to do.
Mother:
It was what his doctors told him was the right thing to do.
Julie Hayden:
He drew a stick figure picture of himself pointing a gun at 4 other stick figures with the words “teachers must die.” The drawing helps let out angry emotions. Tim, his parents, and his therapist say it was not a threat and he would never hurt anyone.
Dr. Patrick Bacon – Psychiatrist
I never saw him as dangerous at any time.
Julie Hayden:
The principal, who knew Tim was seeing a therapist, determined he was not dangerous, sent him back to class and notified his parents.
Mother:
He had calmed down, everything was fine and they were sending him back to class. Then I thought that was the end of it.
Julie Hayden:
That’s why Tim’s mom was horrified when the Arvada police showed up at her house that night, arrested her son, handcuffed the 11-year old and hauled him away in the patrol car.
Mother:
I said, “well can I just ride him down to the police station? Can I follow you or can you follow me and they said no m’am we need to take him into custody.”
Julie Hayden:
At the police department they wouldn’t let him see his parents or get any dinner. He was put in the cell, had his mugshot taken and fingerprinted. Instead of going home, the eleven-year old was sent by ambulance to a mental hospital in Colorado Springs for three days. According to his parents, doctors there determined he was not a threat…they let him go home and said the whole thing was being blown out of proportion.
Dr. Patrick Bacon – Psychiatrist
I think it’s more a question was this potentially harmful to him to have such a big reaction to basically just drawing a picture.
Julie Hayden:
Arvada police say they have discretion on how to handle these cases and felt the circumstances here justified their actions.
Susan Medina – Arvada Police
They both had made the determination that the safest most effective route possible for this individual was to be booked through on the charge he faced and then proceed through the process.
Julie Hayden:
But Tim’s therapist and his mom say the way police treated the 11-year old did more harm than good.
I believe the police were irresponsibly over reactive.
This family should sue all involve in traumatizing this young child and his family.
Remember Columbine? That happened nearby. It was reasonable to take action, but the choice of actions was wrong. The therapist and parents should have been called to a conference at the school. Safety of the teachers and students needed to be assured. But arresting an 11 year old and putting him through that experience was cruel and needless.
I concur completely with Elizabeths comment! I just read an article yesterday outlining a legal case involving art therapy… interesting!
Through the eyes of the law: What is it about art that can harm people? International Journal of Art Therapy: Formerly Inscape Volume 13, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 65 – 73
Author: Neil Springham
free download at http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all?content=10.1080/17454830802489141
Agreed. It’s reasonable to take action, but the police? Three days at a mental institute in Colorado Springs?! Uncalled for. Better to sublimate these feelings on paper than other real violent ways. We Have more work to do in educating everyone about our work.
This is really unfortunate. :/
Wow, this poor kid was just trying to draw out his frustrations and doing what he was told to do by his therapist. Why were the police even contacted in the first place. I agree with the above post, the parents should have been called in with a counselor to discuss what was going on. Did the school contact the police? I don’t remember hearing who did. I think that sending him to a psychiatric facility was a little over the edge as well. Don’t schools have a procedure or an assessment to follow when they think the child is having issues?
Drawing is NOT doing. Most art therapists understand that. I question the communication between the school, the parents, the child and the therapist. A little bit of “Tommy has been encouraged to draw out his frustrations and anger so as to dispel the energy behind that and calm himself enough to participate effectively” may have averted this problem. Ahh…integrated care, anyone?
When a child expresses a strong feeling like this and it is observed by a responsible adult, there is a need to communicate with that child and understand the expression rather than simply react. This child did not have a real gun, was not outwardly threatening anyone, and according to the article he was calm at the time (not disrupting the class). Images are powerful, and often times adults react to children’s images in a concrete fashion without realizing its potential as a safe release. This is not to say that the image should have been ignored, but clearly this was an unprofessional and exaggerated reaction. This is a perfect example of how a school art therapist would have been beneficial here. As professional art therapists, we are all able to look beyond the manifest content and assess the potentiality of whether the child’s image represents potential harm to himself or others. There was a similar case as this in Florida many years ago with a much younger child… he drew himself punching another child and the teacher called the police and had him arrested in the classroom. As an ATR-BC I have been invited to talk with teachers and school counselors about childrens’ art and school violence. It was a great discussion and it seemes that through education and communication they felt more able to know how to respond to a piece of art they questioned.
So… I’m confused. The principal sent him back to class for the rest of the day and THEN after school was out they called the police? If they thought he was such a risk why in the world would they send him back to class?
I think the school should of contacted his parents, the parents should of contacted his Psychiatrist, then there should of been a conversation between the adults about what kind of risk he truly was to himself or others and a plan on how best to help this kid deal with whatever was frustrating him.
I can’t imagine the damage this did to him. All because the adults did not handle it rationally. I also don’t think we can use Columbine and the tragedy that happened there as a justification to overreact to every angry child who is learning how to express himself.
Having said all that… a kid that is drawing pictures like that is definitely asking for some help. Unfortunately now he’s going to need even more. I hope he gets the support he needs.
This story is truly sad and frightening to me on a multitude of levels. Many years BEFORE Columbine, I had a young man walk into my office with a “violent,” image he had drawn. As an expressive arts therapist and LCSW, I took a deep breath and asked him how the image had meaning for him. For the first time in his life this 17 year old young man was able do tell someone he “heard voices,” and needed help. After a full assessment, I made a contract with him until we could get him the support he needed. If I had over reacted the young man may never have gotten the help he needed. That is why we do assessments. The child in this video was already in treatment, why not contact his psychiatrist first? Locking him up? Could this get any more traumatizing?
What has now happened is this child has learned NOT to share his feelings. In his mind, he probably felt the feelings, he’s likely had a very hard time in the classroom if he suffers from ADHD…FEELING feelings is very different than acting on the feelings and it’s when we STUFF the feelings that things like “Columbine,” actually happen.
I am truly saddened by this event and for his family and I hope that they get the support they deserve through the publicity of this event. I think it speaks to the need for education within school systems for art therapy and expressive arts techniques.
I really think this kind of hysterical reactivity to a child’s drawings could only happen in the US.
However I do suppose it would be the only place on the planet where it is legal for everyman to possess a gun.
Unbelievable! I agree with the mom and therapist, this experience was probably traumatic for him!
I think sometimes when we leave our childhood behind we also leave behind the frustrations that we felt as children and the ways we dealt with them. I am sure if most of us look back we will see that one of the healthy ways we dealt with frustrations at school or home was to doodle. While a drawing of someone shooting another in todays society is something not to be ignored. We need to remember that asking questions first, finding out the facts is still the best way to start ‘fixing’ something. I hope this does not set back all the progress that was made with therapy and cause him to be afraid to draw.
wtf so if the principal didnt tell the police then who did
the principal was lieng clearly they just made up the story so the school woulnt be sewed plus what showing your frustration thru art is dangerous what the fu its clear to me the principal wont tell the truth and the fu**in teacher was over reacing plus people should be encouraged to express them selves so you wont do nasttins
sorry bout the ba spelling daddy is calling
It is very, very common for young boys to draw violent scenes. I’m sure plenty of those police officers did the same thing as children but do not remember. Very much and over-reaction and the poor child is probably very traumatized now.
Maybe some child in his class told his or her parent what happened in school that day, and the parent freaked and called the police, due to a child’s over-exaggeration? Not sure..
It is here where they should take the “Cannibal Corpse” defense. Cannibal Corpse is a death metal band whose lyrics, and even song titles, are extremely violent and explicit. When the band is confronted with this, they simply respond, “It’s a release of frustration. Would you rather metalheads actually go out and commit these horrific offenses?”
Proximity to Columbine should have had no bearing on their decision to /arrest/ the child. It was an overreaction, plain and simple.
By the way, I do enjoy listening to Cannibal Corpse. I am not sure how the parents who read this blog would react to it though. Probably something between disgust and revulsion. 😉