School resource officer Dennis Turner, was fired after arresting two six-year-old children on Thursday, Sept. 19, according to the Washington Post. The incidents took place at the Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy, in Orlando, FL.
Kaia Rolle, who suffers from behavioral issues, was one of the students who was involved. Rolle was handcuffed, arrested and fingerprinted for a mugshot as a result of a temper tantrum she had in class.
According to Police Chief Orlando Rolón, Turner did not follow the department’s policy requiring approval for any arrest of a minor younger than twelve, per reports from the Washington Post.
While speaking to Turner, Kaia’s grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, is reported as stating that Kaia had a medical condition that they were working on getting resolved. Kirkland confirmed that Kaia suffered from sleep apnea and that was the root cause of the tantrum.
“Many children in schools with behavior problems go undiagnosed,” Dr. Howard Taras, a Professor at the University of California, said in an interview with ABC NEWS.
Per ABC NEWS, Dr. Sejal Parekh indicated that children who come from low socio-economic backgrounds lack the resources to help with mental, behavioral and developmental disorders.
“On behalf of myself and the entire Orlando Police Department, I apologize to the children involved and their families … I can only imagine how traumatic this was for everyone involved,” Rolón said.
“If a child is having a behavioral problem in school, we have to understand why. Where is the problem coming from? We can’t just react to the behavior,” said Dr. Yi Hui Liu, Head of Developmental-Behavior Pediatrics at the University of California, in an ABC NEWS report.
Kaysha Bryant
mrbryant@vwu.edu