Florida Boy, 14, Handcuffed, Arrested For Refusing To Go To Middle School

A Florida middle school student was arrested this week for refusing to leave bed and go to school.

The 14-year-old boy’s mother called police Tuesday morning for assistance when her child refused to go to R.J. Murray Middle School in St. Augustine (where the school year opened August 18).

When St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived, the teen’s 42-year-old mother said that she had taken away her son’s laptop and cellphone, and disconnected Internet service in their residence in response to her son’s refusal to attend classes.

The teenager--who recently moved to Florida from New York with his mother--did not appear concerned when deputies told him he faced arrest. “Do what you gotta do,” the teen said. “I’m not going to school.”

Deputies then arrested the boy--who was sitting on his bed--for resisting without violence/obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. The child was handcuffed and transported to the county jail (from which he was later released into his mother's custody).

The woman told deputies that her son “failed grades in New York for skipping school, as well as being in trouble with the law.”