9 year old boy with Autism arrested

http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=805042#.UGHILbJlSEc Here's the article about it so that you can see.

Now, I've heard two conflicting stories about this incident. There's the incident described in the article posted above. There's also a story going around facebook, supposedly written by the young boy's aunt. This is the statement on facebook, from the aunt:
I'm trying to bring attention to my nephew's story. If you could please share it would be greatly appreciated. Any advice you might have is welcomed.

This is Roger Jr. He has Autism Spectrum Disorder. Jr is a victim of police brutality, suffered at the hands of Officer Caulkin of the Quincy, IL Police Department and Quincy ISD. Jr had a meltdown in class at Baldwin Elementary. His teacher responded by calling the liaison Officer, Officer Caulkin, into the classroom to restrain him. When Jr tried to get away, he kicked The officer, who then responded by slamming Jr facedown onto a table. Three other adults held Jr down while the officer cuffed him. Then he was arrested and taken to the Quincy PD to be finger printed and booked. His mother was refused the right to see him while in police custody until she threatened to call her attorney. Jr is only 9 years old. Please share this in hopes to bring attention to Jr's story. Maybe we can help bring justice from the brutality he suffered when Officer Caulkin assaulted, handcuffed, and arrested a 9 year old Autistic boy.
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Now, the aunt fails to mention several key incidents which were reported in the article. I can't say 100% which is correct, but I tend to believe the news article. Here's my issue, people are assuming the officer was wrong in his treatment of the child. The child DOES have a black eye, this very well could have been caused by the officer trying to remove the child from the room divider that he climbed. If the child had been slammed into a table, I think the family (who are the ones who contacted the news) would have described how his injuries occurred correctly when reporting it to the news. I once clawed the back of Aiden's neck trying to prevent him from falling down a flight of cement steps, I grabbed whatever I could  to save him. I figured the scratches on his neck were preferable to a broken neck.

Does this mean the officer handled the situation correctly? No. But, then again neither did the school. The mother states that the school did not follow her instructions on how to deal with meltdowns. I find it hard to believe that a meltdown from a 9 year old boy required the assistance of the police. The entire situation could have been prevented had the school followed the mother's instructions for handling a meltdown. The police would have never needed to have been called.

I think up until the boy was arrested the officer acted as best as could he was equipped. He couldn't have done any better unless he was trained with how to deal with special needs children. I assume that at least ONE person in the school was trained on how to help special needs children, why weren't THEY doing their job? Why didn't the school follow the protocol the mother asked them to in the event the boy had a meltdown?

Why is everyone so quick to blame the officer when it's really the SCHOOL that failed this child? The black eye was an accident. The officer wasn't intentionally trying to hurt a special needs child and he wasn't being overly rough with him. Should he have arrested this child? No. Maybe he was trying to teach a child a lesson? It's not always obvious when a child has special needs. Trust me, I get nasty looks and rude comments about Brooklyn ALL the time. She doesn't look "different" so it MUST be my parenting. Never mind that I have tried EVERY parenting trick in the book and some out of the book. Never mind that my child is on medication to help her function properly and keep herself and others safe. Never mind that this is her SECOND round of behavior modification therapy.

Anyways, my point here is that the school didn't handle the situation correctly. We expect that when we send our children off to school that the school is going to protect them like WE would. That's one of the reasons I've given Alayna's teacher and Brooklyn's teacher student profiles listing their strengths and weaknesses and any other information that may be necessary. I even included in Brooklyn's that IF she has a meltdown at school they are NOT to restrain her, but are to call me right away and I will come down to the school and take care of it.

Back to the story, the issue here is that BOTH the school and the police screwed up. Fault is on both parties. But let's make this clear, the boy was NOT assaulted by a police officer. The officer tried to get the boy off of a classroom divider and in the process the boy hit his eye on the top. Then again, the boy did not assault the officer either.