{"id":52501,"date":"2020-08-12T09:31:44","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T16:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theaegisalliance.com\/?p=52501"},"modified":"2026-08-27T13:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T20:23:54","slug":"florida-police-place-8-year-old-boy-in-handcuffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/2020\/08\/12\/florida-policia-lugar-8-anos-nino-en-esposas\/","title":{"rendered":"Key West Police Tried to Handcuff a 64-Pound 8-Year-Old; a Federal Judge Later Dismissed the Family&#8217;s Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>KEY WEST, FLORIDA \u2014<\/strong> Officers at Gerald Adams Elementary tried to put steel on an 8-year-old who weighed 64 pounds and stood about 3-and-a-half feet. His wrists were too small. The officer gave up. The boy had allegedly punched a teacher in the chest in the cafeteria over how he was sitting. The teacher had no obvious injury. Police still booked him at the Monroe County Detention Center on felony battery \u2014 fingerprints, DNA swab, mugshot, a cell. His mother, Bianca Di Gennaro, fought nearly a year before the Monroe County State Attorney declined to prosecute in October 2019.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-twitter\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Unbelievable!! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KWPOLICE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@KWPOLICE<\/a> used \u201cscared straight\u201d tactics on 8yo boy with special needs. He&#39;s 3.5 ft tall and 64 lbs, but they thought it was appropriate to handcuff and transport him to an adult prison for processing!! He was so small the cuffs fell off his wrists! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/iSTlXdKas6\">pic.twitter.com\/iSTlXdKas6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AttorneyCrump\/status\/1292671725214347264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 10, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>Ben Crump asked the only question that mattered: <strong>\u00abWhy would you do that to a child? He&#8217;s biracial, and you just say, &#8216;Why? Why were they picking on this kid?'\u00bb<\/strong> Key West Police Chief Sean T. Brandenburg said standard operating procedures were followed. Juli\u00e1n Castro called it a stunt to \u00abscare him straight.\u00bb<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-twitter\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Unbelievable.<\/p>\n<p>Police in Key West tried to put an 8-year-old boy in handcuffs and transport him to jail to \u201cscare him straight.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police should have no role in punishing our kids or pulling traumatic stunts like this in our schools. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2gFzHlvwLL\">pic.twitter.com\/2gFzHlvwLL<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Juli\u00e1n Castro (@JulianCastro) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JulianCastro\/status\/1292822519234215938?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">August 10, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>The clip sat next to the 2019 Orlando booking of 6-year-old Kaia Rolle. Di Gennaro&#8217;s federal civil-rights suit named the city, the Monroe County School District, officers, a teacher, and two principals. In March 2021 U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore dismissed the claims against the three school employees. In June 2021 he sided with the City of Key West and the three officers, finding the brief cuff attempt caused no pain and that the child was walked to the patrol car unrestrained. The courthouse closed. The question did not: whether booking a 64-pound child in a mental-health crisis is a school&#8217;s job, or a cop&#8217;s.<\/p>\n<div class=\"epyt-video-wrapper\">\n<div  style=\"display: block; margin: 0px auto;\"  id=\"_ytid_95288\"  width=\"480\" height=\"270\"  data-origwidth=\"480\" data-origheight=\"270\" data-facadesrc=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i2MF6u4uTcw?enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com&#038;autoplay=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0&#038;cc_lang_pref=&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;loop=0&#038;rel=0&#038;fs=1&#038;playsinline=0&#038;autohide=2&#038;theme=dark&#038;color=red&#038;controls=1&#038;disablekb=0&#038;\" class=\"__youtube_prefs__ epyt-facade epyt-is-override  no-lazyload\" data-epautoplay=\"1\" ><img decoding=\"async\" data-spai-excluded=\"true\" class=\"epyt-facade-poster skip-lazy\" loading=\"lazy\"  alt=\"Video: Florida police tried to handcuff 8-year-old\"  src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/i2MF6u4uTcw\/maxresdefault.jpg\"  \/><button class=\"epyt-facade-play\" aria-label=\"Play\"><svg data-no-lazy=\"1\" height=\"100%\" version=\"1.1\" viewBox=\"0 0 68 48\" width=\"100%\"><path class=\"ytp-large-play-button-bg\" d=\"M66.52,7.74c-0.78-2.93-2.49-5.41-5.42-6.19C55.79,.13,34,0,34,0S12.21,.13,6.9,1.55 C3.97,2.33,2.27,4.81,1.48,7.74C0.06,13.05,0,24,0,24s0.06,10.95,1.48,16.26c0.78,2.93,2.49,5.41,5.42,6.19 C12.21,47.87,34,48,34,48s21.79-0.13,27.1-1.55c2.93-0.78,4.64-3.26,5.42-6.19C67.94,34.95,68,24,68,24S67.94,13.05,66.52,7.74z\" fill=\"#f00\"><\/path><path d=\"M 45,24 27,14 27,34\" fill=\"#fff\"><\/path><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Related from The AEGIS Alliance: <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2017\/10\/03\/florida-law-unfairly-treated-court-case-dalton-berling-brevard-county\/\">Brevard County and Florida law<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/2023\/03\/14\/lawsuit-14-year-old-girl-illegally-strip-searched-at-oklahoma-school-for-nicotine-vape-pen\/\">Oklahoma school strip-search lawsuit<\/a>, and more <a href=\"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/category\/news\/us-news\/\">U.S. News<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key West police tried to cuff a 64-pound 8-year-old at Gerald Adams Elementary, then booked him on a felony. The charge was dropped. A federal judge dismissed the family&#8217;s civil-rights suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52563,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,196370,24],"tags":[195845,197013,188262,204510,66],"class_list":["post-52501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-crime-news","category-us-news","tag-crime-news","tag-crimes-against-children","tag-florida","tag-key-west","tag-police"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Florida-police-place-8-year-old-in-handcuffs-lawsuit-filed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52501"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198686,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52501\/revisions\/1198686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}