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Eight-year-old arrested in school for fifth time

An 8-year-old special education student in Florida was arrested this week and now has a mug shot and a rap sheet after he allegedly threw sticks at his teacher.

According to Orlando TV station Local 6, it's the "fifth time since November that he has been arrested after being accused of fighting with teachers at the school, but according to police reports, none of the teachers suffered serious injuries." Police reports say he bit a teacher and chased and threatened his classmates.

The boy is due in court today on a battery charge. Riverside Elementary administrators told the channel law enforcement is called to the school on a case-by-case basis. The associate superintendent for exceptional education students Anna Diaz tells The Lookout that teachers are trained to physically restrain students if they are afraid they may hurt themselves and are not responding to verbal commands. If the physical restraining technique doesn't work, the principal can choose to call law enforcement, she says.

If a child is continually getting into these situations, administrators may decide he should go to a school with more services to help him, Diaz says. Educators cannot talk about individual student discipline cases. Watch Channel 6's video report on the incident here.

An Appleseed Texas report (pdf) examining 22 of the largest school districts in Texas found that infractions like disrupting class and using profanity were increasingly being punished with Class C misdemeanor tickets and a court appearance instead of a trip to the principal's office, even for kids as young as six.

The report found that where a child went to school--as opposed to the specific nature of his infraction--was a more accurate gauge of whether he would be disciplined by an educator, or by cops and the court system.