Zacchaeus Crawford, parent of three children who were arrested at Hobgood Elementary.
Parents in Murfreesboro, Tennessee are furious after their children were arrested at school for not intervening in an earlier neighborhood fight. At least five children – ages 6 to 11 – were placed in handcuffs at Hobgood Elementary School and taken to a juvenile center April 15. They were released later that same day.
Daily News Journal reports First Baptist Church hosted a community meeting April 17 about the incident. Approximately 150 parents and supporters attended. Police Chief Karl Durr and City Manager Rob Lyons each spoke at the gathering.
“Out of this, we want to learn and make things better so they don’t happen again,” Durr said at the meeting.
He added that he will investigate if what police did was legal and, if so, if it was necessary.
“We will take a look at this and say how can we do things better? How did we error and what can we do different next time?”
Durr told attendees he would meet with his staff April 18 to talk about the way the situation was handled.
Lyons told the crowd, “If something needs to be corrected, it will be.”
Angry parents seem to think a change is necessary. Zacchaeus Crawford told News 2 his three children were booked into Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center Friday. They are ages 9, 10 and 11.
“Three people, three kids all having to be arrested, all having to be processed entered into the system and they didn’t do anything,” Crawford said to the crowd. “They are getting carted off and being detained for something they didn’t have anything to do with. My anger is not just festering. I’m not going to lie to you, my anger is over boiling.”
Crawford told the station only one of his kids was a bystander when a neighborhood fight occurred. He said a video of the brawl prompted the arrests. Some parents said they were not notified about their children’s arrests.
Officer Christopher Williams was present when the arrests were made. He apologized to the crowd of city leaders and parents.
“On behalf of myself and so many others, I’m sorry. I apologize,” Williams said to families. “My wife has seen me cry twice. She saw me once when my grandfather died, and she saw me cry Friday. The principal shed tears, the vice principal shed tears, and the office staff shed tears.”
Black children face arrests and punishments at a disproportionate rate compared to white students.
In Wisconsin, Black children are arrested four times more than white kids. The state has the second-highest youth arrest rates nationwide. Many children are apprehended for minor infractions like running in the street or picnicking in the wrong area of a park.
There are also studies that show 19 states in the country allow corporal punishment in schools and Black students get the brunt of it.
Watch the entire news report below.
