Over two years ago a Florida 6-year-old was arrested at her school. Now the family says she has been diagnosed with PTSD and separation anxiety after being handcuffed by authorities. Relatives claim the elementary school student has been the same since the incident according to according to CNN. Kaia Rolle, a first grader at the Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy Charter School in Orlando in 2019, made headlines after an officer took zip-tie handcuffs to restrain her. Orlando police officer Dennis Turner utilized the plastic ties because the child’s wrists were too small for the standard cuffs. The officer was called because Rolle was having a temper tantrum at school.

She allegedly screamed at, kicked, and hit school employees including one school worker named Beverly Stoute, because wasn’t permitted to wear her sunglasses in class. The Center for Public Integrity found there was more to the story. Their investigation found that the family said Rolle, the 6-year-old, had been suffering from sleep apnea due to enlarged tonsils and adenoids since kindergarten.

Some of her teachers and staffers understood the behavioral issues associated with her sleep deprivation and usually “let it play out until she calmed down.”

The organization’s report says the officer came, Rolle had mellowed out and was quietly sitting in an office with a employee, per her usual pattern. This is substantiated by Turner’s body camera.

However, Stoute, according to the police report, wanted to press charges on the child. Stoute has since denied she wanted charges pressed. Once the officer approached, Orlando Police Officer Sergio Ramos, was working with Turner that day, objected to the detainment strategy and called his sergeant.

Ramos said, “Sarge, this girl is tiny. She looks like a baby.” Rolle was 3 feet 10 inches at the time.

However, Turner insisted on cuffing the girl as school staffers in the background wiped tears from their eyes.

The girl pleaded the official not to take her to jail, crying, “Please — give me a second chance! Please, let me go!”

However, he detained her, placing her in his patrol SUV and drove away with her in restraints. The girl was taken to a juvenile detention center, fingerprinted, had her mugshot taken during processing, and was charged with misdemeanor battery. Her charges were dropped the next day.

Turner, the Black arresting officer, was later fired by Orlando Police Department for violating policy by arresting the little girl and another 6-year-old in an unrelated incident at the school on that same day, WESH reports. The actions of the officer although were harsh were not illegal. In 2019, Florida didn’t have a minimum age for arrest, but this has since changed.  In 2021, Orlando Senator Randolph Bracy and Rolle’s family passed a law that makes it illegal for a child under 7 to be arrested or prosecuted except in the case of a violent felony. The bill named after Rolle, the law is called The Kaia Rolle Act.

Rolle grandmother, Meralyn Kirkland, has taken the lead with her legal team and the senator to move this legislation.

“One of Kaia’s greatest fears is that every time she sees a police officer they are coming to arrest her, one of her friends or one of her family members,” Kirkland said.

“I thought the brunt of the trauma was the day it happened,” she added, “but I’m finding out day by day it is going to be a long road. Kaia still has night terror, she’ll be up at 3 o’clock in the morning, crying, scared.”

Now Rolle 8 years old, expressed new anxiety, believing that she has aged out of the law that was created to protect children like her, her family says. Kirkland now says that she lives a “solitary lifestyle.”

“Before the incident, Kaia was an awesome young lady. She wanted to hug everybody, she wanted to sing for everybody, she wanted to dance for everybody,” Kirkland told CNN this month. “As a result of the incident, Kaia’s been diagnosed with PTSD, with severe separation anxiety. She almost has a solitary lifestyle right now.”

Experts have diagnosed her oppositional defiance disorder and phobias of simple things like tiny little bugs.

When Rolle speaks about the ordeal in retrospect, she remembers being terrified of the officer. She said, “I was really scared and confused. I said ‘are those police officers for me?’”

“I feel bad about what happened at the school with the police officer because I think he was being very mean to me,” she said.

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