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Mother Of Handcuffed 5-Year-Old Sues Pinellas School Board

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By YOLANDA FERNANDEZ | News Channel 8
and STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 1, 2009

Four years after a girl, then 5, was handcuffed at a Pinellas County elementary school, her mother has filed a lawsuit against the Pinellas County School Board.

The mother, Inga Akins, is seeking more than $15,000 in damages, according to the lawsuit, which was filed March 12.

On March 14, 2005, Akins' daughter, Ja'eisha Lashay Scott, began to act out at Fairmount Park Elementary School in St. Petersburg, and she struck a teacher and assistant principal Nicole Di Benedetto, St. Petersburg police said.

She first was restrained with steel, standard-issue handcuffs but slipped out of those, he said. She then was bound with plastic flexible cuffs but continued to struggle, kicking at officers as they walked her out of the school to a squad car, police then said.

She was put in the back of the cruiser but continued kicking one officer in the arms and legs, so another set of handcuffs was used to restrain her legs, a police report says.

When officers called the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office, they were told prosecutors would not charge the girl with battery on a school employee or anything else.

A videotape of the incident, which was released by the attorney then representing Akins, made national news and resulted in the disciplining of the officers involved and a new policy at the St. Petersburg police department.

According to a factual summary accompanying the lawsuit, school officials opted not to try and calm the girl down once she became upset. Rather they evacuated the classroom. Akins was called and warned if she didn't pick up her daughter, police would be called.

Jim Robinson, the school board's attorney, said the school system has not yet received a copy of the lawsuit. He noted it was filed just days before the expiration of the 4-year statute of limitations.

"The decision to file this lawsuit is an unfortunate one," Robinson wrote in en email to WFLA News Channel 8. "The School Board is obviously not liable to the plaintiff and will defend the suit."

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336. Reporter Yolanda Fernandez can be reached at (727) 536 8283.

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