Depending on when you went to school, you may have noticed a school resource officer on the premises. For me, this didn’t become a familiar sight until high school.
In the interest of clarity, this was indeed a uniformed police officer whom we would sometimes pass by in the halls. While I’m aware that my experience may not match my fellow students at the time, I don’t recall him doing much and don’t remember hearing about any incidents he was involved in.
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With that in mind, you’d think that an officer at an elementary school would be even more innocuous, but the experiences of one Florida family show that’s not always the case.
Six-year-old Kaia Rolle of Orlando, Florida got into some trouble while attending Lucious and Emma Nixon elementary charter school.
In an incident that WFLA described as a “tantrum,” the first-grader apparently kicked another student.
While many of us can recall similar incidents having minor consequences as children, Officer Dennis Turner apparently saw this one differently.
Since Kaia’s actions met the legal definition of battery, Buzzfeed News reported that Turner charged her with a misdemeanor and put her in handcuffs.
Kaia was then taken to an Orlando juvenile detention center.
As her grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, told WFLA, she was then fingerprinted and had mug shots taken.
After this processing, Kaia was soon released to her family.
Before Kaia’s release, Kirkland explained that Kaia’s tantrum was likely a byproduct of trying to resolve her sleep apnea.
It’s unclear if she was speaking to Turner at the time, but the officer who heard this explanation replied, “Well, I have sleep apnea and I don’t behave like that.”
Apparently, the fact that the officer also isn’t six-years-old was lost on him.
Turner is now under investigation following Kaia’s experience and a separate incident in which he arrested an eight-year-old on misdemeanor charges.
According to Buzzfeed News , the Orlando Police Department requires officers to get approval from a watch commander before arresting a child under 12-years-old. Turner did not follow this policy.
He has been suspended while the investigation is underway.
As Kirkland said, “No six-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them, and they were riding in the back of a police car and taken to a juvenile center to be fingerprinted, mug shot.”
h/t: WFLA , Buzzfeed News
