Last week, Orlando police officer Dennis Turner arrested a 6 year old student due to her misbehavior observed at school. It had been stated that the 6 year old girl Kaia Rolle had kicked a staff member during a temper tantrum, which then led to Turner using zip ties to restrain her. Kaia's grandmother went on to explain that Kaia's actions were "normal" due to her sleep apnea which prevented her from getting a substantial amount of sleep that prior night. This past Monday, he had been fired after an internal investigation that had been made following his suspension. Authorities have claimed that Turner had not gained the approval by a supervisor before making the arrest of a minor under the age of 12, further violating the department's policies.
The arrest of Kaia Turner has recommenced the examining of policing in schools, especially causing the belief that policing schools have become unfairly targeted at students of color of those with disabilities to resurface. It has been proven that schools with resource officers -- such as Dennis Turner -- have had more arrests for "troubling" behavior rather than assault charges. It is clear that racial discrimination has been an ongoing issue throughout history, and still remains as a prominent problem that we face as a society today. Personally, I was surprised when first hearing about this, but I think that these situations should be brought to attention seeing as the underlying causes are issues that have been around for so long.
The arrest of Kaia Turner has recommenced the examining of policing in schools, especially causing the belief that policing schools have become unfairly targeted at students of color of those with disabilities to resurface. It has been proven that schools with resource officers -- such as Dennis Turner -- have had more arrests for "troubling" behavior rather than assault charges. It is clear that racial discrimination has been an ongoing issue throughout history, and still remains as a prominent problem that we face as a society today. Personally, I was surprised when first hearing about this, but I think that these situations should be brought to attention seeing as the underlying causes are issues that have been around for so long.
Questions:
1. Do you believe that Dennis Turner's actions taken upon Kaia were justified? Why or why not?
2. How can schools develop better ways to handle situations such as these in the future? Or how can schools improve their methods of handling these kind of scenarios?
3. Would you classify Dennis Turner's actions as "police brutality" or was he simply doing his job of ensuring safety for all students as a resource officer?
I don't think Dennis Turner's actions are justified in the slightest. He broke policy by not obtaining permission before the arrest, and even if he had permission, it would have been much better to deal with the situation by restraining her and calming her down instead of arresting her and traumatizing her. I would consider his actions police brutality because there were much less harmful ways to deal with the situation than he did. I don't fault the school for colling in an officer in such a situation, but officers with a history of excessive use of force, like Dennis Turner, need to be retrained, reprimanded or fired much sooner than their 7th incident.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Dennis Turner took the situation way too far and acted in a completely unjustified manner. While Kaia did exhibit slightly violent behavior, it was not to a level where it would be warranted to zip tie her. Even if Turner felt that it was warranted in the moment, he did not follow the proper procedures to obtain permission from a supervisor first. I don’t believe that the school itself is really to blame for this incident because they weren’t necessarily in control of Turner’s actions at that moment because he failed to get permission for his actions. What schools may want to do is invest more in training these resource officers to not act in such a manner and let them know that serious repercussions will ensue if they do decide to do such things.
ReplyDeleteTo respond to question two, nearly anything is better than arresting a six year old and tying them up with zip ties. That's just cruelty. Young children are not yet old enough to really understand what is happening except for that an adult is being mean to them, which is quite scarring for an innocent girl who simply did not get enough sleep. Schools should instead employ someone like a child psychologist for situations similar to this one, and instead let children who are acting out in this way regain a state of calm in an understanding environment. When they're calm, they'll be more obedient and able to understand why they're in trouble and why not to, in this case, kick staff members, even when they're really upset. Essentially, from this experience, all Kaia learned was that she can't feel safe at school anymore. Children, regardless of even how much sleep they have gotten, are bound to throw temper tantrums. It's part of being a kid. Schools should be equipped to handle it without zip ties on a six year old.
ReplyDeleteI do not think Dennis Turner's actions against Kaia were justified. She may have been misbehaving, but that gives him no right to use extreme, hurtful measures in order to contain her. Also, not to mention, the fact that she is a young child, a children of that age are still learning- they will misbehave, which means they should be treating them with some more patience, rather than abusing them in order to get them to stop or comply. Schools can develop better ways to handle these situations by not only having stricter rules, but making sure they are enforced. Also, aside from the administration and the officer on campus being notified of these rules, students and their parents also need to be educated. They need to learn that their children cannot just misbehave at school and expect no consequences - although hopefully not as extreme as this instance, there will still be consequences for wrongdoings, even small ones.
ReplyDeleteI certainly do not believe that Dennis Turner's action were justified. No matter what a 6 year old has done or how they have action, he/she should not be physically restrained, because it could only cause more harm in the situation. Turner clearly violated policies which are in place to protect children from situations like this. I think schools need to do a better job of consistently enforcing rules whenever necessary, and stop making excuses. Discipline over the course of time minimizes a child's erratic behavior in a safe and effective way. I believe Turner's actions could certainly be considered police brutality, because he used excessive and unnecessary force, and abused the power he has a law enforcer.
ReplyDeleteI believe his actions were completely unjustified, shown by his getting fired after the internal investigation. It seems that normal procedure when dealing with a volatile and possibly violent subject under the age of 12 is to ask for recommended actions from their supervisors, especially when considering arrest. He obviously didn't follow this procedure, but I wouldn't consider his behavior police brutality. I would consider this misbehavior and excessive restraint, as a 6-year old can't pose much physical harm to a fully grown man, and he did still abuse his power as an authority figure and an enforcer. If she posed genuine physical threat to those around her, it still wouldn't be justifiable to place her in zip ties. Instead, he could've simply picked her up or evacuated the room to deescalate the situation if she posed a serious, physical threat to those around her. Because all she did was kick a staff member, he could've simply removed her from the room and used his words to emphasize the misconduct of her behavior and to understand what was wrong to attempt to prevent her from continuing her behavior.
ReplyDeleteI think that Turner's actions were not justified because she didn't break the law or anything. I don't think a six-year old being angered that someone is trying to grab her is a reason to arrest her. Six-year olds are still learning and developing so holding them to the same standards as an adult is extremely unfair. Also, it was highlighted that she kicked a staff member, but I couldn’t really find a clear answer on why. Generally, there is a reason someone feels so strongly they have to violently react. The story around the incident seems to be one-sided and this is usually the case when a young child is involved. If they got the whole story, the school would be able to make changes besides just firing the cop.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe we live in a country where a black six year old child got restrained with zip ties by a white police officer. This is ridiculous. Denis Turner is a racist. His actions were not justified whatsoever. These kinds of stories make me loose even more faith in America's police even more than I already have. The school should've prevented him from even touching her. A 6 year old child does not pose a serious physical threat to anyone around her. They should've just tried to calm her down, restraining her was completely unnecessary.
ReplyDelete