Charges Dropped Against Florida Elementary School Students
UPDATE:
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Prosecutors say they’re dropping charges against two 6-year-old students who were arrested at a Florida elementary school last week.
State Attorney Aramis Ayala, head prosecutor of Orange and Osceola counties, said Monday she was dismissing misdemeanor battery charges against the girl and boy.
Ayala says the criminal justice system shouldn’t replace traditional school discipline.
Officials weren’t saying what led to the arrests.
The girl’s grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, told WKMG News 6 in Orlando that the girl had not been sleeping well because of a medical condition and kicked a staff member Thursday at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy. This prompted a school resource officer to put the girl in handcuffs and take her to a juvenile detention center. Orlando police says they’ve suspended Officer Dennis Turner pending an investigation.
————–
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – A Florida woman is expressing outrage after her 6-year-old granddaughter was handcuffed, arrested and fingerprinted because of a tantrum at school.
Meralyn Kirkland acknowledges that her granddaughter might have been acting out in class last Thursday, but says it was because the child had not been sleeping well because of a medical condition.
In an interview with WKMG News 6 in Orlando , Kirkland said a staff member at an elementary school was kicked while trying to calm the child.
That’s when the school’s resource officer Dennis Turner intervened and sent the first grader to a juvenile detention center for fingerprints and a mug shot.
Orlando police say they’ve launched an internal investigation to determine if the resource officer followed proper protocol in arresting the girl on battery charges.