Jacob Fenston
Montgomery County has paid $275,000 to the family of a kindergartner who was berated by county police officers. The payment is part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by the child’s mother, Shanta Grant.
The incident occurred on Jan. 14, 2020, when the child left East Silver Spring Elementary School and wandered .2 miles away down a residential street. School officials called the police, who arrived and within minutes began yelling at the small child.
“I don’t want to go,” cried the boy, as one of the officers grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the police cruiser, according to footage captured by one of the officer’s body-worn cameras.
During much of the 51-minute video, the child can be heard sobbing and coughing. The officers repeatedly said that the boy, who is Black, should be beaten. At one point one of the officers put handcuffs around one of the child’s wrists.
“These are for people that don’t want to listen and don’t know how to act,” said the officer, Kevin Christmon. “If someone tells you to sit down and shut up, any adult, you better sit down and shut up.”
In August, 2021, Grant filed suit against Christmon and the other officer, Dionne Holliday, as well as the county board of education. The lawsuit alleged 20 counts, including assault, battery, false arrest, false imprisonment, and negligence.
“You can obviously see in the video the distress,” said James Papirmeister, one of the lawyers who represented the family. “We weren’t even needing to call the little boy as a witness: You could see him literally choking on his tears and gasping for breath because he was so catatonically traumatized.”
County Executive Marc Elrich welcomed the settlement in a statement emailed to DCist/WAMU.
“We are pleased to see that the parties involved in this case reached a settlement; I had been pushing for this for quite some time,” Elrich said. The county has thoroughly reviewed the incident, Elrich said, including through an external audit.
This review, Elrich says, “has led to changes in officer training, incident reporting processes, and clarification of how officers should interact with students in our schools.”
The incident drew widespread outcry from county residents and officials, many of whom blamed Elrich’s administration for not taking swifter action. The County Council released a statement after release of the body-cam footage, saying lawmakers were “blindsided” by the video release and “exasperated” with the executive branch.
The funds paid to the family came out of the county’s $87 million self-insurance fund. Of the $275,000 total, $220,000 was paid on behalf of officers Holliday and Christmon, while $55,000 was paid on behalf of the board of education.
“This is life changing money,” says Matthew Bennett, the other attorney representing the family. “It will go into a trust account and it will earn interest. When the youngster is ready to go to college, he’ll have a large chunk of change to pay for his college.”
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