--- title: Georgia School Slaps Handcuffs on 6-Year-Old Student description: The mother of a first grade student has expressed outrage at a Georgia school's decision last week to place her 6-year-old son in handcuffs. canonical: https://time.com/3625183/georgia-school-handcuffs-kid/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-09T15:24:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:56:26.319Z og:title: Georgia School Slaps Handcuffs on 6-Year-Old Student og:description: The mother of a first grade student has expressed outrage at a Georgia school's decision last week to place her 6-year-old son in handcuffs. og:url: https://time.com/3625183/georgia-school-handcuffs-kid/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc096af9ef6b691b0/69876d9a06f2c1c2c9332c0e/80991995.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 80991995 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Georgia School Slaps Handcuffs on 6-Year-Old Student twitter:description: The mother of a first grade student has expressed outrage at a Georgia school's decision last week to place her 6-year-old son in handcuffs. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc096af9ef6b691b0/69876d9a06f2c1c2c9332c0e/80991995.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Georgia School Slaps Handcuffs on 6-Year-Old Student  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Dec 9, 2014 3:24 PM UTC  Handcuffs HandcuffsGetty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Dec 9, 2014 3:24 PM UTC The mother of a first grade student has expressed outrage at a Georgia school’s decision last week to place her 6-year-old son in handcuffs. Lakaisha Reid said she found her son, a special needs student at Pine Ridge Elementary school, kneeling on the floor with his hands cuffed behind his back, Yahoo! News [reports](https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/why-was-a-6-year-old-handcuffed-at-school-104690731302.html). “The first thing I said was ‘Get those handcuffs off my kid,’ Reid said. She said the handcuffs appeared to have bruised her son’s wrists. ([**Read more:** Why Are 40,000 Children So Harshly Disciplined in Public Schools?](http://healthland.time.com/2012/09/10/time-for-a-time-out-why-are-40000-children-so-harshly-disciplined-in-public-schools/)) The school defended its decision to restrain her son, arguing that his behavior posed a risk to himself and other students. “For approximately one hour, the student was scratching, kicking and hitting school personnel and continued to exhibit violent behavior, running into walls, banging his head on tables and placing his health at risk,” read a statement from Dekalb County School District. \[[_Yahoo!_](https://www.yahoo.com/parenting/why-was-a-6-year-old-handcuffed-at-school-104690731302.html)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3625183/georgia-school-handcuffs-kid/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3625183/georgia-school-handcuffs-kid/"},"headline":"Georgia School Slaps Handcuffs on 6-Year-Old Student","datePublished":"2014-12-09T15:24:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:56:26.319Z","description":"School said first grader's son posed a risk to himself and others","url":"https://time.com/3625183/georgia-school-handcuffs-kid/","keywords":["Living","Parenting","Education","georgia","Discipline"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc096af9ef6b691b0/69876d9a06f2c1c2c9332c0e/80991995.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc096af9ef6b691b0/69876d9a06f2c1c2c9332c0e/80991995.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"80991995","caption":"80991995","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3625183/georgia-school-handcuffs-kid/","name":"Georgia School Slaps Handcuffs on 6-Year-Old Student"}}]}] ```