Nov 13, 2008 7:01 am US/Mountain
By Jodi Brooks
Denver police said a 10-year-old boy with bi-polar disorder was evaluated by a third-party youth services agency last Friday before he was detained over the weekend for allegedly assaulting an officer during a violent outburst.
The independent agency called Paramount Youth Services did an assessment according to police. It consisted of 25 questions.
Officials at Centennial Elementary School called police and emergency medical technicians on Friday when Vinni Barros was disrupting his special needs class.
Barros became violent at school and the chain of events that followed landed him in juvenile detention for three days after being arrested for felony assault of a police officer.
His mother, Shantelle Fry, was stunned.
"He doesn't understand why he was put in that situation," Fry said.
According to a letter written by a teacher's aide, Barros had been running around, screaming and knocking things off the desk.
"He picked up a metal bat, put it on his shoulder and smiled at me," she wrote.
He put the bat down and eventually calmed down.
Fry questions the school's decision not to give the boy his emergency medication.
"He completely calms out on that medication," Fry said. "It's meant to drop his blood pressure low enough that he calms out."
But it may not have been such an easy call. Bi-polar disorder is complicated and school nurses typically don't have the expertise to give out strong behavioral changing medication in the context of an emergency.
"We have to make sure that we have a viable physician's order or primary care provider order, as well as parental consent," said Donna Shocks, Denver Public Schools Manager of Nursing Services.
Faced with a clear safety issue, DPS says its staff followed all of its protocols.
"We had a student that the staff at that particular school needed support. They did call safety and security from the district, we did have a registered nurse on scene as well as a police department EMT that responded to that incident," said Alex Sanchez, DPS Spokesperson.
During the encounter, Barros allegedly kicked and spit at a police officer. That's why he was taken into juvenile detention in handcuffs and charged with a felony.
"That's policy, it's protocol," said police spokesman Sonny Jackson. "If you're going to arrest somebody, you're going to handcuff them.
"Should the child go to jail? Should the child go to the hospital? Should he be released to his parents? That's done by people who are trained professionals that make those decisions."
The district attorney's office says charges against Barros will not be filed.
"We had a Chief Deputy District Attorney look at the case facts, review the investigative file, and she made a decision to decline any formal criminal charge," said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the DA's office.
He will have to show up for his court date Friday when the case is expected to be dismissed.
Fry kept Barros out of school this week. She's not sure what to do next week.
The DA's office said it is unusual to have criminal cases against 10-year-olds. Ten is the minimum age a person has to be in Colorado to face a criminal charge.
(© MMVIII CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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This story is yet another sign showing us that we're living in the age of fascist repression. Tyranny is here and now we're seeing the growth of that seeds that were planted so many years ago. Of course, they practiced their tactics on Blacks and Hispanics. Now the tyrants are coming for the children. This is the same government that says that it's okay to torture children in front of their parents; even raping the children was greenlighted by this government, who tells the world about American values and democratic principles. Since democracy was given its origins in Greece, where the molesting of children was common, I clearly understand why this government has no problem practicing that which they do naturally.
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