6-year-old Florida girl handcuffed and arrested for throwing a tantrum in school, grandmother outraged
A 6-year-old child from Florida was arrested and handcuffed in addition to being fingerprinted after she threw a tantrum in her elementary school.
Her shocked grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, spoke to WFLA-TV and narrated how her granddaughter Kaia was "charged with battery." Little Kaia suffers from a condition called sleep apnea which caused her to lash out. Kirkland added that she was taking medication for the condition.
Kirkland was absolutely shocked and horrified to hear that Kaia was arrested on September 19 for kicking a staff member at the Lucious and Emma Nixon Elementary charter school. The child was handcuffed and driven around 8 miles to the Orlando’s Juvenile Detention Center.
As per reports, the child was fingerprinted and also had her mugshot taken. Kirkland revealed that she received a call from someone at the school telling her that her grandchild had been arrested and then taken into police custody.
She recalled saying during the call, "What do you mean she was arrested?" to which the person responded, "‘There was an incident and she kicked somebody and she is being charged and she is on her way.'"
Kirkland further added, "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."
Kaia was one of the two children who were arrested that day. The other child was an 8-year-old. According to a local news website, Click Orlando, an internal investigation is currently pending. Kirkland now has to deal with an upcoming court date aside from a traumatizing experience.
According to Sgt. David Baker, police officers need to get authorization from their watch commander before arresting anyone under the age of 12 but Officer Turner who arrested Kaia did not do that.