TORONTO -- Peel Regional Police say that no formal charges of misconduct have been laid following a ruling by Ontario’s Human Rights Tribunal that said race was a factor in a 2016 incident where two officers handcuffed a six-year-old black girl at her school.

Officials at the Peel school contacted officers in September of that year to deescalate a situation. Police describe the girl’s behaviour as violent and said she was kicking, screaming and punching.

After arriving at the school, two male officers placed the child on her stomach, handcuffed her ankles and wrists, and left her in that position for 28 minutes.

Speaking to CTV News Toronto in February 2017, Peel Regional Police said that officers felt that handcuffing the child was necessary to prevent her from harming others and herself.

Police also said that it was the third time officers were called to the school to deal with the child.

In a decision released on Feb. 24 , adjudicator Brenda Bowlby said that the officers’ actions were a “clear overreaction.”

"While the officers had a legitimate duty to maintain the safety of the applicant, others and themselves in the circumstances where the applicant's behaviour were challenging and might have created a safety risk, this did not give them licence to treat the applicant in a way that they would not have treated a white six-year-old child in the same circumstances,” Bowlby said in her 54-page ruling.

“I have concluded that the officers' action in placing the applicant on her stomach, handcuffing her wrists behind her [back] and maintaining her in this position, with her ankles also handcuffed, for 28 minutes were disproportionate to what was necessary to provide adequate control and amounts to a clear overreaction in the circumstances."

On Tuesday, Peel Regional Police said that the officers were investigated by the Office of Independent Police Review Director and said “there were no reasonable grounds to believe that the officers failed to treat the young person equally without discrimination because of her race.”

“No formal charges of misconduct were laid as a result of the investigation,” Peel Regional Police said. “However it was determined as a result of that investigation, that these officers, and all officers responding to schools, would benefit from further training, which is being implemented.”

Police also said that a teaching assistant had been physically restraining the girl for about 20 minutes, and called police when they were unable to de-escalate her behaviours.

“Our officers are trained to place the highest priority on de-escalation and the safety of all involved, and in this incident, no physical injuries were sustained.”