ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida grandmother is upset after her 6-year-old granddaughter was handcuffed and arrested for throwing some sort of tantrum.
WKMG-TV reports Meralyn Kirkland got a call Thursday that a school resource officer at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy arrested 6-year-old Kaia Rolle.
The grandmother said Rolle was acting out in class due to a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition. After being sent to the office, Kirkland claims a staff member grabbed the girl’s wrists to calm her down — and that’s when she lashed out.
“She has a medical condition that we are working on getting resolved, and he says, ‘What medical condition?’ ‘She has a sleep disorder, sleep apnea,’ and he says, ‘Well, I have sleep apnea, and I don’t behave like that,'” Kirkland told WKMG.
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Rolle was taken to a juvenile center on a battery charge.
The Orlando Police Department told the station Rolle was one of two children Officer Dennis Turner arrested that day; the other was 8-years-old. Turner reportedly didn’t seek approval from his watch commander before arresting anyone under the age of 12, per department policy.
Police say an internal investigation into the incident is ongoing.
