The family of a Key West boy who was charged with felony battery at the age of eight is filing a federal civil rights lawsuit. The child was accused of punching his teacher in the chest after being reprimanded for not sitting properly in the cafeteria and police were called.
The December 2018 arrest was captured by Key West Police body-cameras.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump says the child is special needs and the officers, school district and city are all at fault. "Everybody at the school knew about his mental illness. He was on medication, but yet the system still wanted to criminalize this little boy of color."
The Key West Police Chief believes standard operating procedures were followed. Attorney Devon Jacob finds it hard to believed the Chief defends the officers who handcuffed a child with diagnosed mental illnesses because he was in crisis at school. "The Police Chief may believe that he did nothing wrong, and that his officers did nothing wrong. That's scary that he doesn't understand the Federal Constitution, so we are going to make sure through this lawsuit that he does," says Jacob.
The criminal charge against the boy was dropped about nine-months later, but his mother, Bianca Digennaro says, "I'm just here for my son because I refuse to let them make him a criminal and a convicted felon at the age of eight-years-old."
She adds her son, who has diagnosed ADHD, anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder and depression, was having a breakdown at school. Because of a medial condition, "I wasn't there to protect my son from getting arrested, going to an adult jail, being fingerprinted, having his mouth swabbed for DNA, and having been taken a mug shot."
The Monroe County School District is not commenting because of the legal action.
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