A 12-year-old girl was handcuffed at a Bronx middle school following an altercation with another student last month, police said Wednesday — as her mom demanded answers over the ordeal.
The saga involving the sixth-grader unfolded at the Intermediate School 584 on St. Anns Ave. in the South Bronx after she got into the “physical altercation” back on Nov. 19, according to the NYPD.
A school safety agent had initially tried to place the student in Velcro cuffs after she became “increasingly agitated” and allegedly started hitting the officer and a school administrator just before 2:30 p.m., cops said.
When she wasn’t compliant, the safety agent resorted to metal handcuffs, police said.
“The child was in handcuffs for approximately 15 minutes and was then released to her mother,” a police spokesperson said, adding that the mom was already at the school and was “provided information regarding the incident.”
The chain of events, however, is at odds with what the outraged mother, Christine Henson, said she encountered when she arrived to pick up her daughter, Faith, that day.
In an interview with the Daily News, Henson claims the pre-teen was cuffed for three hours — and that no one — including school officials or police — have explained to them yet why she was even restrained in the first place.
“I asked the school safety officer, ‘Why is she in handcuffs? Can you please take those off of her? She said, ‘She’s not going anywhere,’” Henson told the outlet of the moment she saw her upset kid in the chair.
“My daughter was treated like a criminal. She was really violated. It doesn’t make sense,” Henson continued, adding she snapped a photo and video of her daughter with her hands cuffed behind her back.
Faith, too, claims she doesn’t know why the school safety agent — who is employed by the NYPD — collared her.
“It was just out of nowhere,” the pre-teen said. “They did it sneakily. I was confused on why they did it. It felt terrible. It didn’t feel right. They just did it. They didn’t say why. Now my wrist hurts.”
The girl, who went to urgent care the next day because of pain in her wrist and neck, now wants to transfer schools because she’s “frightened” and doesn’t want to go to class.
Her mom added that her child wasn’t subjected to any disciplinary action following the alleged incident and she is planning to slap the school with a lawsuit.
“The school just glossed it over and expected me to bypass it as if nothing occurred. They want this to disappear,” Henson told the outlet.
Details about the alleged altercation with the other student, or what led up to it, weren’t immediately available.
A spokesperson for the city’s Department of Education told The Post that school officials were reaching out to the family.
“It is critical that every student and family is safe and respected in school,” said the spokesperson.
“School and district leadership is reaching out to this family to ensure they have the supports they need, and mental health and emotional supports are available at every school. We are taking steps to ensure that these resources are known to this student.”
Education officials said the use of restraints on students was at the discretion of the NYPD.
The Post reached out to Henson for comment.
