US: 6-year-old handcuffed at school for taking candy

NEW YORK (AA) – A mother filed a lawsuit Thursday after her 6-year-old daughter was handcuffed and left alone for an hour at school by a security guard for allegedly taking a piece of candy.

“You can’t treat children that way,” Marlena Wordlow told ABC7 Eyewitness News on Wednesday before she was to press charges against the Fernwood Elementary School guard and Chicago Public Schools (CPS). The candy was part of her daughter's lunch, Wordlow said.

The lawsuit alleges the guard used “excessive force” and “false imprisonment” against special needs first-grader Madisyn Moore in March, causing “intentional infliction of emotional distress.

"She was under the stairs, handcuffed, in the school, by the boilers," Wordlow said.

Madisyn has since been removed from the school and CPS has yet to enroll her somewhere else.

CPS said it was taking the issue seriously, and that the guard has been fired with a "do not hire" label in his personnel file.