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Largo Parents Upset Child Detained For Mental Tests

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The Associated Press

Published: February 15, 2009

LARGO - The parents of a 7-year-old in Largo are outraged their child was taken out of school and hospitalized under a state mental health law.

The boy spent a night at Morton Plant Hospital before being seen by a child psychologist. Under Florida's Baker act, authorities can hospitalize someone involuntarily if they're a serious threat to themselves or others.

Authorities say the boy threw a tantrum so severe in his second grade class that it had to be evacuated. He allegedly stepped on a teacher's foot, tore up the room and "battered" a school administrator.

Barbara Smith says she could have corrected the situation if she were simply allowed to. She says she's now keeping him and a 9-year-old sister out of school because they're "scared to death" to return.

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