ABSURD: Children are being arrested and held accountable for their childish nature.
By Laila Menchaca, Staff Writer
An arrest took place on September 19, 2019, involving six-year-old Kaia Rolle. She was arrested, fingerprinted, and had her mugshot taken for having thrown a temper tantrum and kicking her teacher at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy. The arrest was made by Officer Turner who was connected with the Reserve Officer Program available at the school for retired police officers.
In order to arrest a child under the age of 12, a supervisor’s approval is required. However, Officer Turner did not seek consent as he sat Kaia in the backseat of his police car and drove her to the Juvenile Detention Center. Kaia’s grandmother, Merlayn Kirkland, received a phone call where she was notified that Kaia was currently being processed at the detention center and was being charged with battery. “She has a medical condition that we are working on getting resolved. She has a sleep disorder, sleep apnea,” explains Merlayn Kirkland to CBS about her conversation with an officer. She says the officer blatantly responded, “Well, I have sleep apnea and I don’t behave like that.” Merlayn continues to explain how belittled she felt and how unfair it was for her granddaughter to be unnecessarily punished to the extreme for actions out of her control.
Officer Turner served 23 years in the Orlando Police Department and retired in June of 2018. As a way to continue working, he joined the Reserve Officer Program at the charter school. Regarding the unjust arrest made by Officer Turner, an investigation was called to action. During his investigation, it was uncovered that he had been “reprimanded for excessive force after stunning a man five times with a taser” and was charged with aggravated child abuse involving his seven-year-old son, according to New York Times. Due to these charges, Officer Turner was fired on Monday, September 16 and released from the program due to parent’s fear for the security and safety of their children and the school’s environment.
The Orlando Police Department has since changed its policies in response to the traumatic event. An Orlando police deputy chief must now approve the arrest of any child under 12 and if charter schools want to hire officers, they must go through the resource officer supervisor to be approved. The arrest of Kaia Rolle and another unidentified six-year-old child will not be on the record, they will not be prosecuted and there will be no criminal charges. However, Kaia Rolle will remain to be a victim of an unjust arrest simply because she is a child of color.