Special Needs Child Arrested On Two Felony Charges

An 8-year-old special needs child is facing two felony counts after running away from his learning center. Edward Hart has documented “anger issues” according to his stepfather, Robert Bluhm. After running away from the Hillside Learning and Behavior Center in Allegan, Michigan, the little boy was found at a nearby party store by school staffers.

Hillside Learning and Behavior Center staffers called the local police department to send a unit to the party store and drive the special needs boy back to school. After being placed in the back of the police cruiser, Edward Hart allegedly cursed at the Allegan police officer and “verbally assaulted” him. The 8-year-old special needs child is also accused of breaking a camera housed inside the police cruiser. Hart now faces two felony charges for resisting and obstructing and for the destruction of police property.

Robert Bluhm had this to say about his stepson’s felony charges:

“He has special needs. He has anger issues. They know this, and they’re going to throw him in the back of a cop car all by himself? If they had him under control, why didn’t they ride with him in the back of this cop car so this incident would never have took [sic] place?”

Frederick Anderson, the local prosecuting attorney, refused to comment on the pending felony counts against the special needs student because Hart is a minor. Anderson did state that the student would have to go to counseling before court where the levied felony charges would be “pursued further.”

When asked by the local media is the special needs child was disciplined at home for running away from school and the behavior inside the police cruiser, Bluhm said:

“We disciplined him majorly. H has a day in a timeout chair. He had one week with no TV and he lost his Nintendo DS for life. We took it away because if we have to pay for this camera and pawn that off.”

The stepfather called the Hillside Learning and Behavior Center to question why it was decided that a teacher the child knows did not ride in the cruiser with the boy back to the school campus. Bluhm stated that after the phone call, he was still not given any answers. According to local WXMI News, Edward Hart was not suspended from the school for running away and acting up inside the police cruiser.

What do you think about the special needs child being charged with two felonies?

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