Judge Who Handcuffed And Harassed Field Trip Student For Sleeping Could Face Consequences

One of the challenges that comes with teaching high school students is classroom management. Imagine a student falls asleep while you’re trying to wow them with your wisdom about career choices. How do you handle it? Do you:

a) Let them catch some Zs and check in on their well being after class?

b) Tactfully get a student next to them to nudge them awake?

c) Have everyone in the room start clapping to see if they wake up and join in the applause?

d) Realize that this is the acting opportunity you’ve been waiting for and make the most of it by handcuffing said student, making them change into a prisoner’s jumper, and appoint some nearby lawyer to play as their counsel on your ersatz version of “Scared Straight”?

If you answered A or B, good on you. C isn’t the best answer, but it is funny. If you answered D, you’re probably District Judge Kenneth King. That actually happened, by the way. Judge King may have had the expectation that judicial immunity would bless his theatrics at the back of his mind, but it looks like that excuse may exit stage left. Law360 has coverage:

U.S. District Judge David M. Lawson said that while judicial immunity is broad, the teen — identified as ELG in the order — has pled enough facts to potentially support that 36th District Judge Kenneth King’s actions of having her arrested and put through a livestreamed mock trial in front of her peers occurred when court wasn’t in session and when he wasn’t performing a judicial role.

Judge Lawson said that while it could be determined Judge King was performing a function of a judge when he “reconvened his court to discipline ELG” for falling asleep during his lecture — the teen was in court as part of a field trip — the most recent complaint’s allegations could support another conclusion: “that Judge King was retaliating against an adolescent who had the temerity to doze during his recounting of his career, using his courtroom as a prop for his own devices.”

Judge King’s artistic and punitive pursuits may ultimately be protected by judicial immunity, but let’s hope not. We’ve already seen enough stories of judges handcuffing children to make unnecessary points about discipline — who knows how many more tired children Judge King will handcuff and share on YouTube if no one has the common sense to decide that that isn’t judge-like behavior. Thankfully, Judge Lawson has already made some key points of departure from normal judicial duties in this fact pattern:

“The judicial function, as traditionally understood, does not include teaching, much less disciplining students who appear before a judge in a didactic relationship,” Judge Lawson said. “And the fact that Judge King allegedly commented to the media that ELG required his ‘mentorship’ suggests that he understood his actions to be non-judicial in nature.”

To think — all of this could have been avoided if Judge King put aside his ego and let a kid nap.

Detroit Judge Can’t Yet Invoke Immunity Over Teen’s Mock Trial [Law360]

Earlier: Okay, Judges Really Need To Stop Putting Innocent Kids In Handcuffs

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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