When you send your 6-year-old off to school, you understand that if the child misbehaves, she might be punished, you may get a call, or that there will be some sort of consequences. But you most certainly do not under any circumstances imagine that your child will get arrested. In what world does a 6-year-old child get arrested for throwing a tantrum at school? Sadly, in our world because that's exactly what happened to not one, but two 6-year-old children in Florida last week.
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Authorities did not release the names of the children because of their ages, but the Meralyn Kirkland has gone public with the information that her 6-year-old granddaughter, Kaia, was one of the children arrested. Both arrests were made during separate incidents on Thursday by Officer Dennis Turner, who was working as a school resource officer at a charter school in Orlando.
There are SO many things wrong with this story it is mind-blowing.
Two 6-year-old children were arrested at the same school for different incidents.
We only know about Kaia because her grandmother felt compelled to go public with what happened, and bless her for doing so because this is absolutely ridiculous!
The family of the other child has not come forward, but who can blame them? Having such a young child arrested is traumatizing for everyone.
Why was Kaia arrested?
According to Kirkland, Kaia had not gotten enough sleep the night before she was arrested because she has sleep apnea. It will come as no surprise to any parent that a tired child has a tendency to act out, which is exactly what Kaia was doing at school. A staff member grabbed Kaia by the wrists to try and calm her down. Instead of calming down, Kaia kicked the staff member.
Should Kaia have kicked the staff member? No, of course not, but she's 6 and 6-year-olds don't always make the best choices. Should she have been reprimanded? Of course, but not by getting arrested, cuffed, and stuffed into the back of a police vehicle.
Who would arrest a 6-year-old child?
The arresting officer in this case was Officer Dennis Turner, who had been on the police force for 23 years. He retired in June 2018 and became part of the Reserve Officer Program, which is how he ended up being a school resource officer at the charter school in Orlando where Kaia was arrested.
FYI, departmental policy states that in order to arrest a child under 12, officers must get approval from their watch commander. Turner didn't bother to get approval. Instead, he took it upon himself to arrest Kaia for battery. You guys, he arrested a 6-year-old child for battery because she allegedly kicked someone! That's just ridiculous. Our prisons would be filled with children if every child who kicked someone was arrested for it.
Meet the grandmother and little girl.
Just look at Kaia, can you imagine how scary it must have been for her to get arrested? What good can it possibly do a child to undergo such trauma?
It was originally reported that the other child who was arrested was 8 years old, but that has since been corrected because he is actually 6, just like Kaia.
What's going on now?
Well, Kaia's charges have been dropped and Dennis Turner was terminated. What should have also happened is that Dennis Turner should have apologized to both of the children that he traumatized by arresting them. Or he should be charged with child abuse.
As far as how to prevent this from happening to our own children, we can all go to our schools and ask how they deal with a situation where a young child gets physical. Do they have a policy in place? What is that policy? Do the police get called, and if so do they know what our children's rights are?
