Kindergartner handcuffed after throwing tantrum at school

Police in Milledgeville, Ga., say they handcuffed a 6-year-old kindergartner for safety after she allegedly threw a tantrum at school, tearing items off the principal's wall and upending furniture, WMAZ-TV reports.

According to the police report, the girl also knocked over a shelf, injuring the principal at Creekside Elementary School.

Police say the girl was crying in the principal's office when they arrived, but that she resisted when they tried to calm her, and was cuffed, WMAZ-TV reports.

The child has been charged with simple assault and damage to property.

Police Chief Dray Swicord tells the TV station that police policy is to handcuff any detainee who is taken to the station in a patrol car, regardless of age.

We are not publishing the girl's name because she is a juvenile, but you can read the full story at the WMAZ website.

The girl's father, Earnest Johnson, says he believes the school had "no business calling the police and handcuffing my child."

Police say they tried to contact the girl's mother but were unable to reach her, the TV station reports.

"She has mood swings some days, which all of us had mood swings some days," the girl's mother, Candace Ruff, tells WMAZ. "I guess that was just one of her bad days that day."

She has been suspended from school until August, the Associated Press reports.

-USA Today