Overview

• In Wicomico County, Maryland, students as young as 5 are being handcuffed and taken to hospital emergency rooms for psychiatric evaluations, a process that has been used at least 750 times over the past eight years.
• The state law allowing these removals is intended for severe mental illness cases endangering lives but is allegedly being misused to handle behaviors prompted by bullying or frustration over assignments.
• Black students and students with disabilities are more frequently subjected to these removals than their peers.
• Despite a 2017 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, the number of mandated trips to the emergency room has increased.
• Parents, educators, and advocates argue that a lack of resources, trained staff, and a punitive culture in some schools are behind the misuse of emergency petitions.