The Hawaii American Civil Liberties Union is demanding change from the state Department of Education and Honolulu PD after a 10-year-old Black girl with ADHD was arrested at school for drawing an ‘offensive’ picture of an alleged bully that upset a parent.
Hawaii News Now reports that in January 2020, the girl drew an “offensive sketch” of a bully. The next day an upset parent of one of the students who received the drawing “essentially demanded” that the school call the police, Mateo Caballero the attorney representing the student and her mother said.
School officials denied the outlet’s request to see the picture.
School staff reportedly called the girl’s mother, Tamara Taylor and asked her to come to the school because they were thinking about calling the police.
When she arrived at the school, she was detained in a separate classroom and was not allowed to see her daughter. Responding officers allegedly told her they were negotiating with the other parent about the situation involving her daughter.
On Monday the ACLU of Hawaii and Caballero sent a demand letter to Honolulu Police Department, the state Department of Education and the state Attorney General’s Office describing the incident.
According to the ACLU, the girl was detained at the Honowai Elementary School and questioned without her mom present. Officers them handcuffed her using “excessive force” arrested her “without probable cause ” and took her to the Pearl City Police Station.
The girl spent nearly five hours in total either being detained at the school or in police custody before she was released to her mom.
“Although I was at Honowai Elementary, I was not told that my daughter was removed from the premises, handcuffed in front of staff and her peers, placed into a squad car and taken away. I was stripped of my rights as a parent and my daughter was stripped of her right to protection and representation as a minor, ” Taylor said in a statement “There was no understanding of diversity, African-American culture and the history of police involvement with African-American youth. My daughter and I are traumatized from these events and I’m disheartened to know that this day will live with my daughter forever.”
The ACLU said officers’ comments that day led them to believe that the child was taken to the station because she wasn’t taking the situation seriously after she made a comment wondering what jail would be like.
“That’s just straight up wrong,” ACLU Hawaii Legal Director Wookie Kim said. “And there’s nothing that condones or justifies that.”
The ACLU of Hawaii and Caballero are calling for $500,000 in damages and changes in how police officers and school officials handle situations like this with students.
Some of these changes include adopting policies like forbidding staff to call police unless imminent threat of significant harm is presented and to consult with a school counselor before calling. They are also demanding that a parent or guardian be present if a minor is being questioned, Hawaii News Now reports.
