School resource officers are there to protect students and support administrators in maintaining a safe and secure learning environment. Sometimes, this means stepping in when kids are acting out or posing a threat to others, but rarely does it ever end in an arrest — especially when the students are in elementary school. And yet, that's exactly what happened last week at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy in Orlando, Florida, when a school resource officer arrested two students in one day — including a 6-year-old child who threw a temper tantrum. (Yes, you read that correctly.)
The arrests both happened on September 19, following two separate incidents.
Six-year-old Kaia Rolle was arrested after she had an outburst and kicked a staff member at the school, according to WKMG.
However, the girl's grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, told the outlet that Kaia suffers from chronic sleep apnea, and she believes the "temper tantrum" was likely the result of sleep-deprivation. Kirkland said Kaia lashed out at a staff member after the person grabbed her wrist to calm her down.
Officer Dennis Turner was soon alerted to the matter, but instead of helping to diffuse the situation, he transported her to the Juvenile Assessment Center — on a charge of battery.
A 6-year-old boy from the same school was also arrested and processed at the Juvenile Assessment Center that day, though details of that incident have not been released.
Needless to say, parents were not pleased once they were informed of what had happened to their children.
“No 6-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," Kaia's grandmother said.
And as it turned out, the Orlando Police Department wasn't pleased either. Any arrest made of a minor under the age of 12 needs to get the official approval of a watch commander at the police department — and it seems that never happened, at least with Kaia.
Once the Orlando PD found out that approval was never granted, Kaia was released and returned to school without being processed.
That didn't mean the incident was getting swept under the rug. In a statement this week, Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon said, "The Orlando Police Department has a policy that addresses the arrest of a minor, and our initial finding shows the policy was not followed. As a grandparent of three children less than 11 years old, this is very concerning to me."
By Tuesday, it appeared the Rolon was serious about that statement. ABC Action News and other outlets are reporting that Turner has since been fired from his position and both incidents are being investigated.
