'The school failed': Allentown mom speaks out after son arrested at middle school
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (CBS) -- JC has rhythm. The 12-year-old, whose name we are withholding to protect his privacy, keeps the beat going at his Allentown church on Sundays.
The last year has been hard — the 6th grader was arrested and charged with assault in March.
"He was fingerprinted, mug shot, ankle bracelet, juvenile detention," Kristen, his mother said.
Kristen says four years ago her son was diagnosed with ADHD and oppositional defiance disorder.
On the day JC was arrested at Francis D. Raub Middle School, he was in class and upset.
"The assistant principal actually came at him to remove him from the classroom, grabbed on him, and now you're grabbing on a child with mental health who already shows aggression when he reacts so he wound up hitting her," Kristen said.
Court documents his mother provided to CBS3 allege JC was disruptive and cursing at staff. The arrest records, filed by Allentown Police, claim JC hit a vice principal in the chest and arm with a closed fist and kicked her.
Court papers indicate she had redness on her body and was evaluated by the school nurse.
His mom says JC should have been in what's known as a partial hospitalization school -- a facility with a concentration on behavioral health.
She believes such a facility would have offered a highly therapeutic environment for JC.
"They kept saying they didn't have any placement, they didn't have any room…every excuse under the sun," Kristen said. "No one would help me."
Arrests of young people - even in elementary schools - are more common than you may think. A CBS News analysis of the most recently available data from the U.S. Department of Education Civil Rights Division shows the Allentown School District in referred disciplinary matters to police more than any other school district.
And as for arrests, data from 2017 to 2018 shows Francis Raub Middle School sits at the very top of the list. That's JC's school.
While a district spokesperson said they couldn't specifically comment about JC -- we were pointed to a memorandum of understanding between the district and Allentown Police.
Approved last year, it spells out when police should be called and shows the school has discretion when notifying police given a child's age, and if the child has a disability, and if that disability has an impact on the child's behavior.
JC's mother showed us texts -- pleading with teachers if her son were ever to become combative, they should call 911 to send him to the ER for crisis intervention — where professionals would de-escalate the matter.
Instead - JC was arrested and charged. He faced the prospect of juvenile detention.
"I know his attorney, they wanted us to take a plea deal. Just to drop it down and they saw all the loopholes of how wrong they were … and how much they wronged him," Kristen said. "Plea deals, as if we are talking to an adult."
Reached for comment -- Allentown police told us: "There are at least three instances involving this juvenile in a short time frame. In each instance our detective consulted with the Lehigh County District Attorney's Office and the appropriate outcome pursued."
But mom believes had JC been in a more appropriate school setting or if administrators had worked harder to de-escalate the situation, her son would never have been arrested.
Kristen: "Special education found that the school failed as far as his IEP."
Joe Holden: You've just described a whole string of failures."
Kristen: "Yes."
Holden: "You've been yelling about this over and over. Any answers?"
Kristen: "No."
Holden: "And not until court intervention did your son get moved to an appropriate setting?"
Kristen: "Because I want to get rid of him because it solved and got that weight off of their hands. They were done with it, move on."
Holden: "And he's 12?"
Kristen: "12."
The Lehigh County District Attorney did tell us charges of aggravated assault were first filed against JC because he says the attack on that vice principal involved someone in a "protected class" given her job in school.
The school district declined to make the vice principal available for questions, saying they couldn't talk about the case.
As for the data on arrests in Allentown schools, the district attorney's office disagreed with the numbers uncovered by CBS News.
They argued figures from the state showed lower arrest rates. That's something we continue to look into.
As for JC -- he did plead guilty to a lesser charge of simple assault. He is now on juvenile probation -- in a diversionary program -- and doing better at a new school, according to his mom.
