12-year-old boy with autism tackled, handcuffed by SRO at DeLand Middle School

12-year-old boy with autism cuffed by SRO

A Volusia County mother says her 12-year-old son was left scarred after an encounter with a school resource officer last month.

DELAND, Fla. - A Volusia County mother says her 12-year-old son was left scarred after an encounter with a school resource officer last month.

"They were very sorry for what took place, but it doesn't fix what you've done to my child," Danielle Torres said Tuesday.

According to a DeLand Police Department incident report Torres shared with FOX 35, back on Sept. 12 at DeLand Middle School, her son AJ, who has autism, was having a "crisis."

A teacher told the SRO AJ "will not comply with school admin and has battered several staff members," the report stated.

Police overheard him making threats to others and himself, and as he ran out of the school and into the front of the parking lot, the SRO "was able to cut him off and tackle him to the ground."

"Why would you tackle him? Why couldn't you just grab him? Obviously, he's not a six-foot child. He is only a four-foot-eight child," Torres said.

AJ was handcuffed for at least 30 minutes and at one point "attempted to pull the handcuffs apart," causing "red marks and bleeding to [his] wrists," police said.

Before taking her son into custody, school staff said, according to a Volusia County Schools restraint incident report, AJ "had been wandering campus for over an hour" and "was trying to elope from school and run into oncoming traffic."

"He does stuff out of anger that he doesn't realize he's doing because he has a processing issue," Torres said.

Since the incident, she says her son was expelled from the school. She wishes the school staff and the SRO would have handled the situation differently.

"I want justice for AJ. I want to see that there's more training for these officers, [that] they have what they need for these children," Torres said.

FOX 35 News reached out to DeLand Police regarding the matter. A spokesperson said the department plans to release the body-camera video of the incident on Wednesday.

A Volusia County Schools spokesperson was looking into the matter but, as of Wednesday evening, had not yet responded.