Anybody who has been a teacher or nursery worker understands the difficulty of dealing with defiant children, particularly when the children come from broken homes.

Still ? isn't it just a tad excessive to handcuff a six-year-old girl, fingerprint her, and charge her with a felony -- for acting out in Kindergarten?

That's what happened to Desre'e Watson of Avon Park, Florida. When asked by a reporter about the episode, Police Chief Frank Mercurio replied: ?Do you think this is the first 6-year-old we've arrested??

Desre'e, a 50-pound menace to society, could be considered fortunate, in a sense. For ?assaulting? a teacher ? by kicking and screaming as she was led from the classroom ? the youngster could have been charged with terrorism under Section 802 of the so-called PATRIOT Act. A demented Arizona prosecutor recently filed that charge against a teenager accused of threatening another student with a knife ? a serious charge, but hardly terrorism as reasonable people understand it.

In a police state, overkill is always to tactic of first resort.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.