Florida police officer suspended for arresting two 6-year-olds
Sept 23 (Reuters) - A Florida police officer has been suspended and is being investigated after arresting two 6-year-olds for separate disciplinary incidents at their school, police and a prosecutor said on Monday.
Dennis Turner arrested the children on Thursday while working as a resource officer at a charter school in Orlando, charging them both with misdemeanor battery, Florida State Attorney Aramis Ayala told a news conference.
Ayala said Orlando Police Chief Orlando Rolón told her he did not intend to prosecute the children and had asked for the charges to be dropped. She said she was looking into removing the arrests from the children's records.
"These very young children are to be protected, nurtured, and disciplined in a manner that does not rely on the criminal justice system to do it," Ayala said. "Systems are not designed to raise our children."
Turner could not be reached for comment.
The grandmother of the 6-year-old girl told Orlando television station WKMG she was outraged when she heard her granddaughter had been arrested.
"No 6-year-old should be able to tell someone they had handcuffs on them," said Meralyn Kirkland.
She said the girl was acting out in class, a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition, and sent to the office at Lucious & Emma Nixon Academy Charter School to calm down.
The girl was arrested after she kicked a staff member who grabbed her wrists to try to calm her, Kirkland said. The school did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The other child arrested was a 6-year-old boy. No further details were available on the child.
Rolón said in a statement that Turner did not obtain approval of a commanding officer before making the arrests, as department policy requires for children under the age of 12. He was suspended while the department carries out an internal inquiry, the chief said.
“As a grandparent of three children less than 11 years old, this is very concerning to me,” Rolón said.
Ayala said Florida led the country in arrests of children aged 5 to 10 when she took office in 2017, but they had declined in the state since then. (Reporting by Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Editing by Peter Cooney)
