Police bodycam footage has emerged of the moment a six-year-old girl was escorted from her elementary school in Florida by a group of cops before being committed to a mental health facility after an ‘out of control tantrum’.
On February 6, six-year-old Nadia Falk was involuntarily committed after staff at Love Grove Elementary School called social workers claiming the girl, who has ADHD and a personality disorder, was throwing things and harming staff.
Martina Falk, Nadia’s mother, expressed her hurt at seeing the footage of her child being taken from the school in Jacksonville before being committed under the Baker Act, where she said she was heavily sedated, isolated and held for 48 hours.
Falk said that her daughter, who is said to have special needs, was traumatized and has demanded answers from Duval County Public Schools and the mental health facility where the girl was committed, News4Jax reported.
Cops can be seen questioning why police had been sent for to deal with the young child and commenting on how calm Nadia was, the footage released by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Thursday shows.
Six-year-old Nadia is seen in the footage being taken away involuntarily from Love Grove Elementary School in Jacksonville by cops
Cops can be heard questioning why they had been called out to the school to take Nadia away
Nadia was heard asking: ‘Am I going to jail?’ after cops were called in.
The female cop who led Nadia to the police car says: ‘She’s been acting very pleasant’.
‘She’s been so co-operative with me,’ she is heard saying. ‘I think they may have agitated her a little bit.’
‘I think they don’t want to deal with it,’ another cop says.
Duval County Public Schools and the mental health facility where the girl was committed.
Falk’s attorney Reganel Reeves, said: ‘She had a tantrum. 6-year-olds have tantrums. 6-year-olds with special needs have tantrums. The school knew about her tantrums,’ Reeves said. ‘The police officer had no independent basis to take this child for Baker Act.
‘What medical basis did they have to give this child anti-psychotic medicines? That’s what we need to know.’
Falk told News4Jax: ‘I got a call saying that she is so uncontrollable that they had to Baker Act her.
‘They called me and said ‘Ms. Falk we’re calling to let you know that there’s nothing else we could do.’
‘There’s nothing else you could do for my 6-year-old? When she was taken to that hospital to be locked away in this isolation, seclusion room. They said they did that as an attempt to calm her down.’
Nadia’s mother Martina expressed her pain at seeing her daughter being taken away by a group of cops and demanded answers
Falk said her child was heavily sedated before being put on 48-hour hold and finally being released on Feb 6.
‘An apology would be nice, but it isn’t going to fix the pain that I feel watching that video knowing that my daughter may have been provoked because their staff were irritated or maybe had a bad day and didn’t want to deal with a special needs child. It’s hurtful,’ she told News4Jax
Nadia was diagnosed with ADHD in 2017 and is currently awaiting test results to see if she is on the autism spectrum. Nadia is on medication for various mental health issues and is in a class specifically for children with special needs.
A spokesman for Duval County Public Schools said that the decision was made by Child Guidance, a private company, that receives cash from Florida’s Department of Children and Families.
‘Officers in the video were not present during the events which motivated the school to call Child Guidance, our crisis response care provider. The police officers were also not present when Child Guidance was intervening with the student. It was the mental health counselor from Child Guidance, not the police officer or school personnel, who made the Baker Act decision,’ a spokesman told News4Jax.
‘Our procedure is to call Child Guidance when a student’s crisis is not de-escalating and the student is at risk of self-harm or harming others. Our staff followed that procedure.
‘The student was calm when she left the school, but at that point, Child Guidance had already made the decision to Baker Act based on their intervention with the student. The judgement to Baker Act rested completely with the mental health professional.
‘We cannot speak on behalf of Child Guidance regarding decision making in this matter, but we have already requested a leadership meeting with Child Guidance to review this situation.’
Source: dailymail US
