Mom says 6-year-old girl placed in handcuffs under school stairs for stealing teacher's candy

Mar 21, 2016

The mother of a 6-year-old girl is outraged after she says her daughter was placed in handcuffs under the stairs at school for stealing candy from the teacher’s desk.

“They hurted,” said 6-year-old Madisyn Moore of the handcuffs. “He snatched me out of my class. He made me get out in my handcuffs.”

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Marlena Wordlaw, the girl’s mother, said she arrived at her daughter’s school, Fernwood Elementary, 50 minutes after she was told that her daughter was in trouble for taking the candy. Wordlaw told NBC Chicago, she was shocked at her daughter’s treatment and confronted the school security guard.

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“I said ‘why you have my baby in cuffs?’ He said, ‘because I’m trying to teach them to stop taking stuff that don’t belong to them’.”

Wordlaw said that the situation was even worse, in her opinion, because it took place under the stairs.

“When he pulled her from under stairs she was crying,” Wordlaw said. “He told me ‘I’m doing my job, I’m trying to teach her a lesson’.”

Chicago Public Schools hasn’t made statement about the incident but the girl’s mother says the school’s principal apologized. Wordlaw says she still plans to sue.

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“I’m more angry than anything, because it’s my only daughter. I feel like anything could have happened to her. Somebody could have touched her. She’s in the dark under the stairs,” she added.