Imagine getting a phone call that your child was arrested while at school. That was the situation for Meralyn Kirkland. As reported by a local NBC news outlet, Kirkland was informed by Orlando police officer Dennis Turner that her granddaughter, Kaia, was taken to a juvenile detention center after an incident at Lucious and Emma Nixon Elementary charter school. Kaia allegedly threw a temper tantrum and kicked another student. Turner is the resource officer at the school. "What do you mean she was arrested, he said ‘there was an incident and she kicked somebody and she is being charged and she is on her way,'" Kirkland said. Kirkland pleaded with the officer, and explained her interaction with Tuner. “She has a medical condition that we are working on getting resolved and he says, ‘what medical condition, she has a sleep disorder, sleep apnea,’ and he says, ‘well I have sleep apnea and I don’t behave like that," revealed Kirkland.
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“They told us we had to wait a few minutes because Kaia was being fingerprinted, and when she said finger printed it hit me like a ton of bricks,” Kirkland stated. “No six-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 and taken to a juvenile center to be fingerprinted, mug shot." Speaking with Buzzfeed, Lt. Wanda Miglio stated that Turner arrested Kaia on a misdemeanor battery charge but he did not follow the department's policy of informing a commanding officer before arresting someone under 12-years-old. "There will be an internal investigation regarding these incidents," Miglio stated.
