Nationwide — The family of Peter Brown, a 17-year-old African American teen from Clute, Texas, is outraged after their son was arrested and charged as an adult for allegedly attacking a teacher at his special needs school. His parents claim Peter, who has a mental disability, doesn’t understand the severity of the situation.Peter, a student at Brazosport Independent School District (ISD), was arrested in class last Thursday and taken to Brazoria County Jail. He now faces a felony charge for assaulting a public servant. His bail was set at $100,000.
His parents, Brandon and his wife, say Peter has the mental capacity of a 12 or 13-year-old and cannot grasp the legal process he’s now caught in.
“He’s 17 with a low IQ, and a disability not knowing what type of trouble he’s in, not knowing where he’s at, not knowing what the judge was telling him,” his concerned father, Brandon told ABC 13.
Due to his condition, Peter hasn’t been able to explain what happened, leaving his family confused and desperate for answers. Authorities, however, say they can’t share details with the parents because Peter is legally considered an adult.
“It’s scary for all parties involved,” said Brandon. “It’s scary for him, and I know it was scary for the teacher.”
While the family agrees that their son’s actions may have consequences, they believe charging his son as an adult is too extreme.
“He’s not a criminal at all. He don’t know the first thing about doing anything criminal,” Brandon explained. “He just he just has that mental problem and the doctors always said that he is going to have violent tendencies. We’ve been working on that with him for all of his life.”
The Browns believe Peter was having a mental health crisis when the incident happened. They point out that the school has a crisis prevention team, but it’s unclear if they were called in.
Peter has had frequent issues at school and has been admitted to mental health facilities every few months. Still, his family says jail is not the place for him.
“He needs to be home with his family. He needs to be 24 hours taken care of. He’s sitting in there scared, he’s confused,” Brandon said.