Angry parents and other community members flocked to the First Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tenn., on Sunday, demanding action after at least five students, ages 6 to 10, at Hobgood Elementary School were handcuffed and detained Friday, the Daily News Journal reports.
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The students, the report notes, were accused of not stopping a fight that had happened earlier off the school grounds. Police officers reportedly watched video of the altercation and got arrest warrants for the students who chose not to intervene, according to the News Journal. The students were released from police custody later on Friday.
Murfreesboro Police Chief Karl Durr and City Manager Rob Lyons were present at the community meeting, which the church hosted.
“There are innocent kids that have been arrested, that have been entered in a system they have no business in,” said Zacchaeus Crawford, a father of three, according to the News Journal.
“Three people, three kids, all having to be arrested, all having to be processed, entered into the system, and they didn’t do anything,” Crawford said of his children, ages 9, 10 and 11, according to WKRN. The father said that his children were handcuffed and detained at a local juvenile-detention center.
“If something needs to be corrected, it will be,” Lyons told the crowd.
“Out of this, we want to learn and make things better so they don’t happen again,” said Durr, who also said that the Murfreesboro Police Department would be reviewing the situation.
“I hope we’re not setting a precedent where there’s a fight and we send everyone and their mom to jail,” First Baptist youth pastor Christopher Williams said, according to the News Journal.
Read more at the Daily News Journal and WKRN.
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