Defunding / abolishing school police (consolidated thread)

How Young Is Too Young to Be Arrested?

Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, though it may strain definition that we can count a 6-year-old throwing a temper tantrum at elementary school among them. Yet ... welcome to America. In late September 2019, a Florida cop arrested two grade schoolers, slapped a pair of handcuffs on at least one of them and sent them off to be booked, fingerprinted and have their mugshots taken. Both children, again 6-year-olds who misbehaved at school, were charged with misdemeanor battery. Bad day for a harried police officer? Well, yeah. Maybe. Bad day for schools and the juvenile justice system? Absolutely. ...

Continue reading...

https://people.howstuffworks.com/too-young-to-be-arrested.htm

 

Children’s arrests were uncivilized | Letters

“

Children’s arrests were uncivilized

Kids will be kids. And sometimes they will kick, holler, scream, and maybe even bite. But that surely doesn’t call for an arrest (“Officer fired for arresting student,” Sept. 24). Of course if they hurt someone, they need to be reprimanded. A more civilized solution would have been to call a parent or legal guardian, to take the child home from school. Back in the day, a “problem child” in my class punched our teacher right in the stomach. And the teacher was pregnant at the time. The boy was never arrested. Arresting a 6-year-old is simply overkill. And the police officer should have known better.

”

Continue reading...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opi...0190924-n3q6gyku7rgeblkmcjb2iaxkb4-story.html

 

Cerabino: Bookings over books: Arresting 6-year-olds in Florida schools

We here at BRAT — Bringing Retribution to Adolescent Troublemakers — are here to help you. As an armed resource officer in a Florida elementary school, you put yourself at risk every day dealing with the pint-sized suspects walking the mean classrooms, playgrounds and cafeterias of Florida’s early education centers. Don’t be fooled by all those Dora the Explorer and Buzz Lightyear backpacks. Elementary school cops put themselves on the line as they expose themselves to head lice outbreaks, unauthorized running in the halls, future psychopaths who don’t bring enough treats to share with everyone, and minivan moms who act ...

Continue reading...

https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/...ooks-arresting-6-year-olds-in-florida-schools

 

Florida officer fired for ‘traumatic’ arrests of two 6-year-old students at school

Dennis Turner, the resource officer who arrested a 6-year-old, has been suspended. An Orlando school resource officer who arrested two 6-year-old children on the same day last week was fired Monday amid growing outcry, officials said. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said Dennis Turner, who had been suspended after the incidents Thursday at a charter school, did not follow the department’s policy requiring approval from a supervisor for any arrest of a minor younger than 12. “On behalf of myself and the entire Orlando Police Department, I apologize to the children involved and their families,” Rolón said during a news ...

Continue reading...

https://www.newsherald.com/news/201...-arrests-of-two-6-year-old-students-at-school



Florida officer fired for ‘traumatic’ arrests of two 6-year-old students at school

Dennis Turner, the resource officer who arrested a 6-year-old, has been suspended. An Orlando school resource officer who arrested two 6-year-old children on the same day last week was fired Monday amid growing outcry, officials said. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said Dennis Turner, who had been suspended after the incidents Thursday at a charter school, did not follow the department’s policy requiring approval from a supervisor for any arrest of a minor younger than 12. “On behalf of myself and the entire Orlando Police Department, I apologize to the children involved and their families,” Rolón said during a news ...

Continue reading...

https://www.jacksonville.com/news/2...-arrests-of-two-6-year-old-students-at-school



Florida officer fired for ‘traumatic’ arrests of two 6-year-old students at school

Dennis Turner, the resource officer who arrested a 6-year-old, has been suspended. An Orlando school resource officer who arrested two 6-year-old children on the same day last week was fired Monday amid growing outcry, officials said. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said Dennis Turner, who had been suspended after the incidents Thursday at a charter school, did not follow the department’s policy requiring approval from a supervisor for any arrest of a minor younger than 12. “On behalf of myself and the entire Orlando Police Department, I apologize to the children involved and their families,” Rolón said during a news ...

Continue reading...

https://www.waltonsun.com/news/2019...-arrests-of-two-6-year-old-students-at-school



Florida officer fired for ‘traumatic’ arrests of two 6-year-old students at school

Dennis Turner, the resource officer who arrested a 6-year-old, has been suspended. An Orlando school resource officer who arrested two 6-year-old children on the same day last week was fired Monday amid growing outcry, officials said. Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón said Dennis Turner, who had been suspended after the incidents Thursday at a charter school, did not follow the department’s policy requiring approval from a supervisor for any arrest of a minor younger than 12. “On behalf of myself and the entire Orlando Police Department, I apologize to the children involved and their families,” Rolón said during a news ...

Continue reading...

https://www.srpressgazette.com/news...-arrests-of-two-6-year-old-students-at-school

 

Orlando cop sparks outrage for arresting 6-year-olds, but where were the responsible adults? | Editorial

Any school resource officer could tell you that it’s common for small children to throw tantrums or get into altercations at school. But a 6-year-old getting arrested, fingerprinted and booked — complete with a mugshot — for having a meltdown? You don’t see that everyday — and for good reason. Most rational adults understand kids in elementary school are still learning how to process emotion, and they’ll step out of line from time to time. Dennis Turner, the part-time Orlando officer who was working at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy, failed to demonstrate that basic understanding when he arrested not ...

Continue reading...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opi...0190925-pm7rsssxkfczvam2hsoh4ld4oq-story.html

 

US policeman sacked for arresting two six-year-olds

A US police officer has been fired after arresting two six-year-olds at a school in Orlando, Florida. One of the two was handcuffed after throwing a tantrum and kicking a teacher, the girl's grandmother told US media. The officer, Dennis Turner, was fired as officials said he did not secure the necessary permissions to arrest the two. Prosecutors say they will try to erase the arrests from their records. Both children were charged with misdemeanour battery. Little about the other arrest - which was in a separate incident - has been made public. "The children will not be prosecuted, and ...

Continue reading...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49803733

 

School, fired officer at odds over who wanted 6-year-old girl arrested

An Orlando academy and a fired school resource officer are at odds about whether school officials wanted to press charges against a 6-year-old girl who was arrested during a temper tantrum. An arrest report for 6-year-old Kaia Rolle provides a brief description of the events that led up to her arrest Thursday at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy. Officer Dennis Turner wrote in his report that Kaia "battered three staff members by kicking and punching them without permission." Meralyn Kirkland said her granddaughter was having a temper tantrum during the incident, a side effect of her sleep apnea. An attorney ...

Statements by Sara Brady, a spokeswoman Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy

We care about the well-being of our students. The officer's statements are inaccurate. We did not ask for either student to be arrested neither did we want to pursue criminal charges.

At Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy, our administrative and teaching staff are experienced and well-aware that occasionally students may act out in disruptive ways. If disruptive behavior occurs, there are variety of ways we provide intervention, redirection and or site-based discipline to students, none of which involves having our children arrested. Never did anyone within our organization request or direct the School Resource Officer to arrest any student. We are proud of the classroom culture we have created at our Academy and the manner in which we care for our students.​

Statement by Darryl R. Smith, attorney for Kaia & her family:

We are currently in the process of working with the State Attorney's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to get this arrest removed off of Kaia's record as soon as possible, so the family can begin the process of healing from this unfortunate incident. Although this has been a very difficult time for Kaia and her family, we hope that this inspires policy changes to prevent what happened to Kaia from happening to other children in the future.

There is a major flaw in our current juvenile justice system in Florida. There is no minimum age requirement for police to arrest in Florida, meaning kids as young as 5 and 6 years old can be arrested by police even for petty misdemeanor charges such as battery. These laws need to change to set a minimum arrest age for misdemeanor offenses, so that kids can be free to be kids, and that an occasional temper tantrum does not result in an innocent child being arrested.

Typically the expungement process takes 6 months or more to remove an arrest record. We are hopeful that FDLE will recognize the special circumstances of Kaia's case and expedite the process to get her record expunged immediately. ​

Continue reading...

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/r...-old-girl-says-school-wanted-to-press-charges

 

Grandmother of arrested 6-year-old questions school’s role as details emerge: ‘We don’t want to be scarring our kids’

Meralyn Kirkland gets emotional thinking about her granddaughter handcuffed, scared and all alone in the backseat of a police car. But the worst part, she said, was learning from 6-year-old Kaia Rolle that staff at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy — the charter school where Orlando police Officer Dennis Turner arrested the first grader — didn’t intervene or respond to the girl’s pleas for someone to go with her. “I cannot accept knowing that my granddaughter was being arrested, handcuffed, taken away, and nobody said, ‘Can I go with her? Can I follow her?’” Kirkland said. "Somebody could have tried ...

Continue reading...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/new...0190925-csp5onkudbgjvewtalicej2jfe-story.html



Grandmother of arrested 6-year-old questions school’s role as details emerge: ‘We don’t want to be scarring our kids’

Meralyn Kirkland gets emotional thinking about her granddaughter handcuffed, scared and all alone in the backseat of a police car. But the worst part, she said, was learning from 6-year-old Kaia Rolle that staff at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy — the charter school where Orlando police Officer Dennis Turner arrested the first grader — didn’t intervene or respond to the girl’s pleas for someone to go with her. “I cannot accept knowing that my granddaughter was being arrested, handcuffed, taken away, and nobody said, ‘Can I go with her? Can I follow her?’” Kirkland said. "Somebody could have tried ...

Continue reading...

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/f...0190926-csp5onkudbgjvewtalicej2jfe-story.html

 

Orlando police can't release video of 6-year-old girl's arrest

Although there is bodycam video showing a 6-year-old girl being arrested after a temper tantrum at school, Orlando Police Department officials said they can't release it to the public. Wanda Miglio, a spokeswoman for Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon, said student privacy issues prevent the department from releasing video showing Kaia Rolle's arrest at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy on Sept. 19. Miglio wouldn't comment on whether the department reviewed the video before firing school resource officer Dennis Turner or to determine whether school officials wanted the child to be handcuffed. Turner wrote in Kaia's arrest report that Beverly Stoute, ...

Continue reading...

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/orlando-police-cant-release-video-of-6-year-old-girls-arrest

 

Arrests of 6-year-olds shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe. But as the arrest of two six-year-olds in a Florida school in October has shown, sometimes one threat to the students is the officers themselves. Instead of being protected, these very young students were placed in handcuffs and arrested. Each one faced misdemeanor battery charges as a result of behavioral outbursts at school, including one instance in which one of the children kicked a school staffer. While the arrests of the two elementary students in Orlando are not everyday occurrences, ...

Continue reading...

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/09/ar...-perils-of-putting-police-in-primary-schools/



Arrests of 6-year-olds shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe. But as the arrest of two six-year-olds in a Florida school in October has shown, sometimes one threat to the students is the officers themselves. Instead of being protected, these very young students were placed in handcuffs and arrested. Each one faced misdemeanor battery charges as a result of behavioral outbursts at school, including one instance in which one of the children kicked a school staffer. While the arrests of the two elementary students in Orlando are not everyday occurrences, ...

Continue reading...

https://www.chron.com/news/article/Arrests-of-6-year-olds-shows-the-perils-of-14472398.php



Arrests of six-year-olds shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe. But as the arrest of two six-year-olds in a Florida school in October has shown, sometimes one threat to the students is the officers themselves. Instead of being protected, these very young students were placed in handcuffs and arrested. Each one faced misdemeanor battery charges as a result of behavioral outbursts at school, including one instance in which one of the children kicked a school staffer. While the arrests of the two elementary students in Orlando are not everyday occurrences, ...

Continue reading...

https://phys.org/news/2019-09-six-year-olds-perils-police-primary-schools.html

 

​

Arrests Of 6-Year-Olds Prove Cops In Schools Can Be Students’ Biggest Threat

When states like Florida pass laws to put more police officers in schools, the idea is to keep kids safe. But as the arrest of two six-year-olds in a Florida school in October has shown, sometimes one threat to the students is the officers themselves. Instead of being protected, these very young students were placed in handcuffs and arrested. Each one faced misdemeanor battery charges as a result of behavioral outbursts at school, including one instance in which one of the children kicked a school staffer. While the arrests of the two elementary students in Orlando are not everyday occurrences, ...

Continue reading...

https://newsone.com/3888184/school-officers-can-threaten-students/

 

Arrests of 6-year-olds shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala declined to prosecute the students arrested in Orlando ... discipline comes as a result of pressure from teachers and administrators to be involved.

Continue reading...

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/arrests-6-olds-shows-perils-111840620.html

 

OPD adjusting policy after arrest of six-year-olds

The Orlando Police Department (OPD) is making changes after two six-year-olds were arrested at school. The officer who arrested has since been fired. The policy changes are something the grandmother of one of the children who was arrested has been advocating. OPD's previous rule was that you need permission from a supervisor before arresting something under the age of 12. Now, officers are going to need more than that. "I was sick to my stomach when I heard this," said Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolon. Chief Rolon publicly apologized after reserve officer Dennis Turner arrested two six-year-olds at Lucious and ...

Continue reading...

http://www.fox35orlando.com/news/local-news/opd-adjusting-policy-after-arrest-of-six-year-olds

 

Arrests Of 6-Year-Olds Shows The Perils Of Putting Police In Primary Schools

In fact, my colleagues and I have found that as many as 12% of teachers experience threats of or actual physical attacks from students each year. Indeed, in the case in Orlando, one of the ...

Continue reading...

https://crooksandliars.com/2019/09/arrests-6-year-olds-shows-perils-putting

 

Arrests of 6-year-olds shows the perils of putting police in primary schools

Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala declined to prosecute the students arrested in Orlando ... discipline comes as a result of pressure from teachers and administrators to be involved.

Continue reading...

https://sports.yahoo.com/arrests-6-olds-shows-perils-111840620.html

 

6-year-old’s arrest proves Marjory Stoneman Douglas bill doesn’t go far enough | Commentary

Should teachers be armed? Can schools effectively integrate more ... I was horrified to learn retired Orlando Police Department officer Dennis Turner arrested two 6-year-old children at Lucious and ...

Continue reading...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/columnists/os-op-marjory-stoneman-douglas-public-safety-act-incomplete-20190929-kdu2a7hev5c75gbokxgv4pmtoq-story.html

 

Arrests of 6-Year-Old Kids Shows the Perils of Putting Police in Primary Schools

Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala declined to prosecute the students arrested in Orlando ... discipline comes as a result of pressure from teachers and administrators to be involved.

Continue reading...

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/arrests-6-year-old-kids-shows-perils-putting-police-primary-schools-84151

 

6-year-old's arrest raises questions about school discipline and behavioral disorders

One of the children arrested has sleep apnea ... These behaviors are, understandably, challenging for teachers and school staff to address. “If the child is consistently acting out during a particular ...

Continue reading...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/6-year-olds-arrest-raises-questions-about-school-discipline-and-behavioral-disorders/ar-AAI3xsk

 

6-year-old's arrest raises questions about school discipline, behavioral disorders

One of the children arrested has sleep apnea ... These behaviors are, understandably, challenging for teachers and school staff to address. “If the child is consistently acting out during a particular ...

Continue reading...

https://www.wbal.com/article/412718/114/6-year-olds-arrest-raises-questions-about-school-discipline-behavioral-disorders

 

6-year-old's arrest raises questions about school discipline, behavioral disorders

One of the children arrested has sleep apnea ... These behaviors are, understandably, challenging for teachers and school staff to address. “If the child is consistently acting out during a particular ...

Continue reading...

https://wfin.com/abc-health/6-year-olds-arrest-raises-questions-about-school-discipline-behavioral-disorders/