NEW YORK, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- The mother of a 5-year-old boy says he was handcuffed and taken to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation for misbehaving at his New York City school.
Jasmina Vasquez said that her son now refuses to go to school at P.S. 81 in Queens. She has enrolled him in a private school.
"He's 5 years old. He was scared to death," she told the Daily News. "You cannot imagine what it's done to him."
Dennis Rivera reportedly suffers from asthma and attention deficit disorder and has trouble talking. His mother said that he was sent to the principal's office for losing his temper in class.
When Dennis knocked some items off the principal's desk, a school security guard handcuffed him, Vasquez said. She got a call at work saying he was being taken to a hospital.
Vasquez left for the school and also asked Dennis's babysitter to go there. Sandy Ortiz said she found Dennis still in cuffs when she arrived, and officials refused to let her take the boy away.
