Mary M. Reeves

mmreeves@dnj.com

A report issued Thursday on the arrests of 10 children at Hobgood Elementary School in Murfreesboro described a chaotic, fast-moving bureaucratic nightmare marked by disputes among officers and threatened resignations.

There was no clear command oversight, multiple officers strongly objected and concerns from the school principal and Murfreesboro Child Services were ignored, according to the Murfreesboro Police Department's after-action review of the April 15 incident.

Officers bickered with each other at the scene, argued on the phone, attempted in vain to reach key supervisors and failed to inform each other of the situation or an overall plan, the report details.

Immediately afterward, one officer who was ordered to participate in the arrests threatened to resign; another called out sick.

On Wednesday Police Maj. Clyde Adkison, commander of Administrative Services, was placed on administrative leave with pay.

“He’s the one responsible for the Administrative Services division, and the majority of the officers were assigned to him,” Police Sgt. Kyle Evans, public information officer, said Thursday.

Adkison, a 37-year MPD veteran, was the highest-ranked officer who knew of the arrests before they took place and did not pass the information up the chain of command, according to the report.

“He will be on administrative leave pending the outcome of the internal affairs investigation,” Evans said.

Adkison has been with MPD since 1978 and attended the FBI academy in 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. He has a master's degree in Criminal Justice/Law Enforcement Administration from MTSU and has taught there as an adjunct professor.

He did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Repeatedly, the report refers to the actions of School Safety Education Officer Chrystal Templeton, the driving force behind the arrests.

She has been reassigned, Evans said, but her work status remains unchanged.

Her supervisor, Police Sgt. Greg Walker, took a vacation day the Friday of the arrests and failed to inform his bosses. Walker also was apparently unaware of Templeton’s intention to arrest the children.

What comes next

“Upon review of the After-Action Committee report, I remain committed to addressing all concerns and policy issues identified,” Police Chief Karl Durr said in prepared comments that accompanied the report.

“This report is not the end of this investigation. The Office of Professional Responsibility is conducting an internal affairs investigation regarding this incident. Accountability is key to maintaining public trust and confidence, and just as we are accountable to the community, our supervisors and officers are accountable to the policies of the agency.”

Metro Nashville Police will assist in the internal investigation and also provide a peer review once the investigation is complete.

Evans said he did not know when the internal affairs investigation would be complete.

The arrests and handcuffing

The ages of the juveniles taken into custody ranged from 9 to 12 years old, the report says — not 6 to 12, as previously reported. One juvenile was handcuffed and transported to Juvenile Detention and one was initially handcuffed but taken out of handcuffs before being placed in a police car.

Two other juveniles were transported from the school and were not placed in handcuffs at any point. One of those juveniles was mistakenly transported to Juvenile Detention and was released immediately when it was discovered that no petition existed for this juvenile.

The incident that led to the controversy occurred away from the school's campus, according to the report. The juveniles were charged with "criminal responsibility of another," according to a petition charging the children viewed by The Daily News Journal.

At one point, SSEO Christopher Williams was sent to Hobgood and asked to make the arrests. Williams protested to several superiors, finally speaking with Adkison, who told him to proceed.

As the arrests progressed, Williams again called Adkison and said he was concerned about the arrests and was considering resigning. Adkison told him to calm down and wait over the weekend and then speak to Walker on Monday.

Hobgood Principal Tammy Garrett expressed concerns several times about making any arrests before school dismissed to minimize embarrassment for the children.

She asked officers to not interview any students until she was present at the school, and she repeatedly asked Templeton not to arrest the children during dismissal, the report said.

Schools Communication Director Lisa Trail expressed concern about tensions resulting from a previous arrest at Hobgood.

Despite those requests, the children were arrested, with some of them handcuffed, during dismissal.

Police Lt. Steve Teeters said that in hindsight he should have slowed things down and halted the arrests because the time had run out on effectively making the arrests before dismissal.

CLICK LINK TO VIEW FULL REPORT

Report Redacted 5MAY16.pdf

Report recommendations

The report identified multiple areas of concern or improvement, among them:

Handcuffing and transporting prisoners.

Establishing protocols for juvenile operations in school.

Review and decision making for handcuffing, including in all use-of-force training classes.

Develop reports specifically designed for use with juvenile victims and suspects.

Chain of command notifications by administrative division supervision.

Addressing conflicting orders across divisional lines.

Assessment for proper urgency.

Operations and on-scene supervisory control at time of arrest.

Impact on children

The incident caused lawmakers, church leaders and social justice experts across the country to question the rationale behind handcuffing and booking children that young.

They pointed to the scarring effects on the student and their peers, as well as the societal pattern of pushing kids, especially the most at-risk, out of classrooms and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems.

Any contact between the child and the system, "no matter how benevolent the mission," is "extremely damaging to a child's self-image and psychology," said Vanderbilt University law professor Terry Maroney, who serves as co-director of the George Barrett Social Justice Program.

And to be arrested at school, she said, is a "uniquely stigmatizing thing because it happens in front of your peers." It is humiliating, and it often sticks the child with a brand of criminality that can be hard to shake.

"Once a kid gets a label of being a 'bad kid,' other kids hold on to that label and the kid himself will hold on to that label," Maroney said. "It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Jessica Bliss of The Tennessean contributed to this report.

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