Boy, 10, handcuffed after hitting principal, officer

A 10-year-old boy is back with his parents after being taken from Jefferson Elementary School in handcuffs.

The boy faces juvenile court proceedings for assault, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Barry Hovis said Thursday.

Problems with the juvenile began about 1 p.m. Tuesday when principal Mark Cook was called to the boy's classroom because he was being disruptive, Hovis said. When Cook directed the boy to the school office, the child began swearing at his principal and, when they reached the office, punching the principal.

After leaving the child alone in the office, Cook called officer Jeff Bonham, the DARE officer for Cape Girardeau schools. When Bonham entered the office, the child began using profanity again and making threats.

Bonham "told him to stop doing what he was doing, that he had to come with him because he had assaulted the principal," Hovis said. At that point, the child began assaulting Bonham by punching him.

Bonham placed the child in handcuffs and transported him to juvenile detention, Hovis said. "The youth continued to make threats, up to and including that he was going to kill" Bonham.

Officers don't like to handcuff young children, said Hovis, who spent six years as the school resource officer for Cape Girardeau. But the child would not calm down and Bonham was forced to restrain him for his own safety as well as that of the child, Hovis said.

"I have had the option of doing both with children that age, and there have been some truant kids I have hauled to juvenile who I had to handcuff because they were so out of control," Hovis said.

If the child had not been handcuffed, he could have continued attempting to assault Bonham and created the danger of an automobile accident while being transported, Hovis said.

Cook did not return a call seeking comment Thursday evening.