GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Grand Rapids Public Schools are investigating after a mother said her 11-year-old son was handcuffed and slapped by a school security officer.
"I'm mad," mother Lawanda Bryant told 24 Hour News 8 Tuesday. "I'm trying to keep it together, but this is my baby, this is my child. You don't put hands on kids."
The district acknowledged that the child was put in handcuffs, but said it is still unclear if an assault occurred. Grand Rapids police conducted its own investigation, which has been passed along to the prosecutor's office, which will decide what, if any, charges are appropriate.
Bryant said she is worried about backlash for speaking out, but that she doesn't want the incident to get swept under the rug.
"He (my son) was like, 'He (the school security officer) slammed me down to the ground,' had his knee in the back of his neck — like had his whole body weight on him to the point where he was like, 'Mom, I thought I was going to go the bathroom on myself,'" Bryant said.
Two weeks ago, she said, she received a call from Westwood Middle School saying that she needed to get there because her son was handcuffed. She says she rushed there to find her son in a locked room, still cuffed.
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