14-year-old student arrested after too many school absences

MUSKOGEE, Okla. — A junior high student in Oklahoma was put in handcuffs and taken to an intervention center because the school believed he had missed too many days of class.

The student's mother, who wished to remain anonymous, is outraged, but the Muskogee public school system says it's all perfectly legal.

"It's my fault, exactly. It's not my 14-year-old son's fault. He doesn't have a car to get himself there," the mother of the boy told KOKI. She's upset her son, a student at Alice Robertson Junior High, was treated like a criminal. "I could visibly see marks on his wrists," his mother said.

The student was taken to the Community Intervention Center located behind the Muskogee County Jail after missing too many days of school.

His mother claims most of the days her son missed were excused with doctor's notices.  As for the others, she said, "Kids get sick, and they don't always have to have a doctor's note."

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Steve Braun, the Director of Communications for Muskogee Public Schools told KOKI, "Four absences in a four week period can lead to a possible citation. That's Oklahoma state statute. It has been on the books for decades now."

Muskogee Public Schools says they can't comment on specific cases, but Braun says on the fifth  absence, a citation is issued and parents must sign, which he says they typically do. "Parent comes in, signs the citation, and goes about the day."

If they don't sign, Braun says, students are taken to the CIC, where parents are forced to pick up their kids and sign the citation. The mother, in this case, says she understands, but she believes the school could have handled it a different way. "I am willing to take responsibility for the days that he did miss," she said. "Them arresting him, putting handcuffs on him and leaving marks on him, and traumatizing him, in my perspective, is unacceptable."

CNN/KOKI