ORLANDO, UNITED STATES - Shocking footage recently released of a young girl getting arrested by local law enforcement in Florida has gone viral. The video was shared by CNN and shows two police officers arresting Kaia Rolle, 6, in her school. The reason? She refused to take off her sunglasses in class.
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'Kaia became aggressive hitting me with her hands in the chest and stomach area,' the assistant principal wrote in the statement. 'I restrained her by holding her forearms.'
Meralyn Kirkland, the child's grandmother, told CNN that Kaia had been experiencing sleep apnea which caused her to be very 'tired and upset'. She also claimed that the school was aware of her issues and that her family was working on getting the issues resolved. Despite this, Kaia was pulled out of class by her teachers and brought to the principal office.
From the statements, it's unclear when exactly the resource officer was called to intervene.
'He tried to get her to sit down but she wouldn't,' the principal's statement said. Portions of the principal's handwritten statement are hard to decipher. Like this one: 'He told her that he would take her to jail if she didn't stop misbehaving and hitting.'
The incident of September 19, 2019
Officer Turner, who arrested Kaia, was fired shortly after and The Orlando Police Department issued an apology to the family. The second officer in the videos was exonerated after an 'investigation revealed that he notified his supervisor multiple times about concerns with the arrest but was never given instruction not to proceed with the prisoner transport.'
An official stated:
The arrest of any person under the age of 12 requires the approval of the Watch Commander, which was not obtained in this case. The 6-year-old was released from custody and returned to the school prior to being processed at the Juvenile Assessment Center.
Kirkland says that her granddaughter has undergone surgery to help her with her sleep apnea. Unfortunately, Kaia still has nightmares of the incident which has affected her sleep.
