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Post Info TOPIC: Officer Under Investigation After Arresting Children, 6 and 8, Chief Says
lilyofcourse


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Officer Under Investigation After Arresting Children, 6 and 8, Chief Says
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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/22/us/6-year-old-arrested-orlando-florida.html

An Orlando, Fla., police officer is under investigation after he arrested two children, ages 6 and 8, in separate episodes at a school on Thursday, the police said.

The officer, Dennis Turner, has been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation, Orlando Rolón,the police chief, said in a statement.

Officer Turner was working as a school resource officer at a charter school when he arrested the children, Chief Rolón said.

Officer Turner was assigned to the Reserve Officer Program. Details of the program were unavailable, but The Orlando Sentinel reported that it is made up of retired officers from the Orlando Police Department.

 

Departmental policy requires officers to get a supervisor’s approval when arresting anyone under age 12.

During the arrest of the 8-year-old, the transporting officer was unaware that Officer Turner had failed to get a supervisor’s approval, the chief said.

The child was processed through the Juvenile Assessment Center and released to a relative shortly after, Chief Rolón said.

The gender of the child and what led to the arrest were not disclosed. The police did not release the children’s names.

 

The officer who transported the 6-year-old to the center verified that Officer Turner had not received approval for the arrest and immediately halted the process. According to Chief Rolón, the child was returned to school before being processed.

“As a grandparent of three children less than 11 years old, this is very concerning to me,” he said.

Meralyn Kirkland told the television station WKMG that the 6-year-old, her granddaughter Kaia, was arrested after having a tantrum at the charter school, Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy.

Ms. Kirkland said she received a call informing her that Kaia had kicked a staff member at the school, had been charged with battery and was on her way to the Juvenile Assessment Center.

 

Ms. Kirkland said she tried to explain to Officer Turner that her granddaughter had sleep apnea, a sleep disorder, and that they were working to resolve it.

She told the station that Officer Turner had responded, “Well, I have sleep apnea, and I don’t behave like that.”

“No 6-year-old child should be able to tell somebody that they had handcuffs on them and they were riding in the back of a police car,” Ms. Kirkland said.

Officer Turner served on the police force for 23 years and retired in June 2018, according to the department. By the end of his career, he was earning more than $100,000 a year, according to a database of public officials’ salaries maintained by The Orlando Business Journal.

 

Officer Turner was charged with aggravated child abusein 1998 in connection with his 7-year-old son, The Orlando Sentinel reported. He was suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, The Sentinel reported, but the disposition of the case was unclear on Sunday.

In 2016, he was reprimanded for using excessive force after stunning a man five times with a Taser during an arrest, the newspaper reported.

Neither Officer Turner nor Ms. Kirkland could be reached for comment on Sunday.

Administrators at the charter school, which serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade, did not respond to calls or emails on Sunday.

Dr. Victor M. Fornari, the vice chairman for child and adolescent psychiatry at Northwell Health’s Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., said it was hard to argue that children as young as 6 or 8 could merit being arrested.

 

Officer Turner was charged with aggravated child abusein 1998 in connection with his 7-year-old son, The Orlando Sentinel reported. He was suspended pending the outcome of the investigation, The Sentinel reported, but the disposition of the case was unclear on Sunday.

In 2016, he was reprimanded for using excessive force after stunning a man five times with a Taser during an arrest, the newspaper reported.

Neither Officer Turner nor Ms. Kirkland could be reached for comment on Sunday.

Administrators at the charter school, which serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade, did not respond to calls or emails on Sunday.

Dr. Victor M. Fornari, the vice chairman for child and adolescent psychiatry at Northwell Health’s Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y., said it was hard to argue that children as young as 6 or 8 could merit being arrested.

 

The mental health system — not the criminal justice system — is the one commonly relied on in a situation like this, he said.

“Arresting them and putting them under handcuffs is traumatizing,” he said. “There’s no clinical benefit to the child or society.”



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Charley Harper
lilyofcourse


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It's clear this officer does not belong in an elementary school, and he most definitely needs more training.

But if parents, or grandparents would stop making excuses for their kids bad behavior, these things would not happen.



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Charley Harper
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I disagree there's no "clinical" or "societal" benefit. Children need to learn that some actions have consequences. I'm so tired of the whole excuse or look the other way mentality that has taken hold.

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FNW


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It would appear the school failed to conduct an appropriate background investigation when hiring this man to be the school resource officer, or his employment history and prior charge did not come up.

My initial thought was "what could a 6 yr old or even an 8 yr old have done to warrant an arrest", but then I remembered a 7 yr old child I met years ago, who looked to me like the devil himself. A co-worker was fostering him with the intent to adopt. The office was all abuzz, throwing her a "shower," giving well wishes, etc. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. Within a couple weeks the kid tried to burn their house down, killed their dog, and attacked the co-worker.

In looking at the school profile, it seems this school caters to the low performers. That being said, it would seem these children may (or may not) have problems to begin with or else they wouldn't be attending this school.

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lilyofcourse


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At one point, a 6, or 8 year old, would get a paddling, the parent would get a call and they would get another whipping at home.

The police was not involved.

The grandmother wants to blame the girl's kicking on sleep apnea. That's just stupid.

Low performers doesn't equal bad behavior.

And, yes, children can have psychiatric problems.

 



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TrudyML


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FNW wrote:

It would appear the school failed to conduct an appropriate background investigation when hiring this man to be the school resource officer, or his employment history and prior charge did not come up.

My initial thought was "what could a 6 yr old or even an 8 yr old have done to warrant an arrest", but then I remembered a 7 yr old child I met years ago, who looked to me like the devil himself. A co-worker was fostering him with the intent to adopt. The office was all abuzz, throwing her a "shower," giving well wishes, etc. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. Within a couple weeks the kid tried to burn their house down, killed their dog, and attacked the co-worker.

In looking at the school profile, it seems this school caters to the low performers. That being said, it would seem these children may (or may not) have problems to begin with or else they wouldn't be attending this school.

Yikes,FNW!  What happened to the monster? 



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FNW


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Not sure. They sent him "back". The couple ended up moving back to Ohio where they were from I think. I wish I could remember her name so I could look her up...

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