The ACLU is suing the Flint Police Department over its handling of an October 2015 incident in which a 7-year-old boy was handcuffed and officers allegedly lost the keys.
Cameron McCadden, a Flint student in a K-3 school with ADHD, was running around the bleachers and acting hyper at an afterschool program. That's when the police were called. Cameron had no other incidents on his record. "Kids are gonna horseplay," she said at the press conference.
Police and McCarron's mother both arrived within 10 minutes. Police got there first and had placed Cameron in handcuffs before his mother arrived.
She asked officers to remove the handcuffs, but they replied that they "had no key" to unlock the handcuffs and remove them, the ACLU says. Cameron was detained, in handcuffs for over an hour. His mother said that as soon as she approached her son, he burst out in tears.
They say he was humiliated and is now traumatized and has had trouble sleeping.
The organization says Cameron weighs only 55 pounds "and did not at any time pose a danger of physical harm to himself or anyone else."
The lawsuit is claiming police violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the U.S. Constitution.
The ACLU and the family are asking for police to be taken out of elementary schools in Flint.
