By now, many people know that there exists in this country high school pipeline to prison pipelines, but  few people are aware  that the

pipeline sometimes begins in elementary school, at least for minority students.

An 8 year old girl was handcuffed and jailed after she threw a tantrum at school, according to KMOV-TV.  Little Jmyha Rickman’s troubles began when the Love Joy Elementary School student in Alton, Ill, reportedly threw a tantrum at school, and someone at the school responded to the 8 year old’s actions by calling the police.

Rickman reportedly has a history of throwing tantrums at school, and instead of dealing with the tantrum as trained professionals, officials at Rickman’s elementary school passed the little girl off to police.

After the police arrived, the little girl was handcuffed, put in the back of a police car, and driven to jail like a common crook, where she remained for 2 hours.

Rickman’s guardian said the girl was handled inappropriately by police, and had welts on her arm and swollen eyes from crying once she was released from police custody.

Kristie Baumgartner, assistant superintendent of the Alton School District, responded by saying she could not comment on specifics of the incident, citing Illinois privacy laws regarding children. However, she did acknowledge school district policy, which says that if a student is at risk of harming themselves or others.

Baumgartner also admitted that the school did call police.

“As a last resort we sometime have to involve law enforcement”  she said. “They take the student into protective custody when the parent refuses to pick up the child.”

– Your Black World