Search Results: sleep disorder

Meralyn Kirkland said she was shocked Thursday when she got a call saying a school resource officer at Lucious and Emma Nixon Academy, an Orlando charter school, arrested 6-year-old Kaia Rolle.

Kirkland said Rolle was acting out in class, a side effect of a lack of sleep from a medical condition, so she was sent to the office. While Rolle was there, a staff member grabbed her wrists in order to calm her down and that's when she lashed out and kicked, according to Kirkland.

She said Officer Dennis Turner didn't understand when she tried to explain Rolle's behavior.

"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,'" Kirkland said.

Rolle was taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center on a battery charge.

"How do you do that to a 6-year-old child and because she kicked somebody?" Kirkland asked.

Speaking about the arrest Friday, Kirkland struggled to hold back tears.

"A literal mug shot of a 6-year-old girl," she said in disbelief.

Rolle tried to stay strong for her grandmother as she recalled the incident.

"I felt sad that my grandma was sad, and I really missed her," she said.