Kentucky Police Officer Kevin Sumner Is Being Sued For Handcuffing Students With Disabilities By their Biceps

Kentucky Police Officer Kevin Sumner Is Being Sued For
 Handcuffing Students With Disabilities By their Biceps

BHR Hollywood Reports..........A Kentucky police officer has been named in a federal lawsuit filed Monday alleging that he illegally handcuffed and restrained two elementary school students with disabilities.

Student Identified As S.R And
Officer Kevin Sumners

In an extremely disturbing video, school resource officer, Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner, can be seen handcuffing a sobbing 8-year-old boy, referred to in court documents as S.R. The child is so small that Sumner has to lock the child’s biceps together behind his back. What makes the case even more appalling is that the child has a history of trauma and has been diagnosed with ADHD.

The other child named in the lawsuit, a girl named in the suit as L.G., was twice handcuffed in the same manner as S.R. She is a special needs student and has also been diagnosed with ADHD.

Neither child was accused of criminal conduct nor were they arrested or charged with a crime, but were being punished for behavior issues.


According to the lawsuit, Kenton County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Sumner used handcuffs last fall to restrain an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, placing the cuffs on their biceps behind their backs.

 Sumner allegedly did so after the students failed to comply with directions given by school authorities.

Officer Kevin Sumners trying to
 calm down S.R

Both students had previously been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the boy had also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of the students by the Children's Law Center in Kentucky, Dinsmore & Shohl, and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The suit alleges Sumner violated the students' civil rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Two videos accompanying the lawsuit show a November 2014 incident in which Sumner tells an 8-year-old Latino student to "Sit down like I asked you to" while handcuffing him as the child cries and expresses that he's in pain.

 Earlier that year, Sumner allegedly detained L.G., a 9-year-old African American student, in the back of his cruiser, after she disrupted the classroom and was requested to be escorted to an in-school suspension room.

The lawsuit also details two subsequent incidents in which Sumner handcuffed L.G., one of which resulted in L.G. going to a hospital for psychiatric assessment and treatment.

The lawsuit comes amid growing concerns about the conduct of police officers serving inside the nation's K-12 schools; as Mother Jones reported recently, in the last five years at least 28 students have been seriously injured, and one student killed, by school cops.

The lawsuit underscores the gaps in oversight and inadequate training for officers assigned to schools, as well as the disproportionate impact of school policing on students of color.