TAKEN AWAY

Heart-rending moment ‘autistic’ girl, 6, asks ‘am I going to jail’ when cops are called after ‘tantrum’

BODYCAM footage shows a six-year-girl who was led out of her school asking a police officer if she was being sent to jail.

The girl, who is named Nadia and thought to be on the autism spectrum, was sedated and held for 48 hours following a tantrum.

She was removed from Love Grove Elementary School in Jacksonville, Florida and involuntarily committed to a mental health facility on February 4.

"Am I going to jail?" Nadia asks a police officer, according to CBS News.

"No, you're not going to jail," the officer responds.

Once inside the squad car Nadia inquired whether the cop had some snacks for her.

"No I don't have any snacks," the officer responded, according to CBS News.

"I wish I did. I'm sorry."

Nadia later indicated that she did not understand where she was being transported.

"It's a field trip?" she said, according to CBS News.

"Well, I call it a field trip, anything away from school is a field trip, right?" an officer replies.

She is reported to have been heavily sedated and put on a mandatory 48-hour hold under the Florida Mental Health Act, better known as the Baker Act.

Nadia was diagnosed with ADHD in 2017, and is currently waiting on the results of tests to determine whether she is on the autism spectrum.

Footage from officers' bodycams, some of which has been redacted, shows Nadia being led by the hand by a female officer and guided into a police car.

The officer can be heard asking Nadia, “You going to be good?

"You’re not going to throw nothing around like you did in there, are you?

"You going to be nice to me like you’re being?"

When Nadia replies, "Yeah", the officer says: "Good deal."

'DON'T POKE THE BEAR'

Footage from inside the car then shows the officer speaking with a male colleague.

"She’s actually been very pleasant. Right?" she says.

"Very pleasant. I think they’re pushing the button, because when I got there she’s been so cooperative with me and talking, sat down, did everything.”

The male officer replies: "Yeah. You poke the bear one too many times, it’s going to scratch you.”

The female officer then says: “Yeah. Because they said this is the fourth out of five days she’s been acting like this.”

Speaking to News4Jax, her mother, Martina Falk, said: “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."

'WHY WAS SHE GIVEN ANTI-PSYCHOTIC DRUGS?'

Speaking to reporters after the footage was released, Reganel Reeves, an attorney representing Falk, said: “She had a tantrum.

"Six-year-olds have tantrums. Six-year-olds with special needs have tantrums.

“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.”

Reeves added: “I think it’s quite clear that a lawsuit needs to be filed."

In a statement, Duval County Public Schools said: "We were clear in our earliest public statements that the student walked calmly out with the principal and the officer to the police car.

"With regard to the statements made on the video, note that the officers in the video were not present during the events which motivated the school to call Child Guidance, our crisis response care provider.

"It was the mental health counselor from Child Guidance, not the police officer or school personnel, who made the Baker Act decision.

"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.

“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.”

Do you have a story for The US Sun team?

Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552.