Video shows 6-year-old girl forced to go to mental health facility asking officer, "Am I going to jail?"
A police officer who was transporting the 6-year-old Florida girl who was forced to go to a mental health facility after an incident at school is heard calling her "pleasant" on body camera footage. She also openly questions why the girl is being taken away.
Nadia King was removed from school under the Baker Act, a law allowing authorities to force a psychiatric evaluation on anyone considered to be a danger to themselves or others. According to a sheriff's report, a social worker who responded to the incident at Love Grove Elementary School in Jacksonville said Nadia was "destroying school property" and "attacking staff."
But, the police body camera video shows a Duval County sheriff's deputy leading a seemingly calm Nadia out of school on February 4. Nadia is heard asking the officer, "Am I going to jail?"
"No, you're not going to jail," the officer says.
Inside the police car, Nadia asks the officer if she has snacks. "No, I don't have any snacks. I wish I did. I'm sorry," the officer says.
The deputy is also heard talking to another officer about Nadia's behavior while she is in custody.
"She's been actually very pleasant. Right? Very pleasant," the officer says.
"I think it's more of them just not knowing how to deal with it," the other officer says.
At one point, it appears Nadia, who has ADHD and a mood disorder, did not understand where she was going.
"It's a field trip?" she asks.
"Well I call it a field trip, anything away from school is a field trip, right?" an officer replies.
Nadia was held in a mental health facility, away from her mother, for 48 hours. Her mother, Martina Falk, broke down while watching the body camera video.
"I can't comment," she said.
Falk's attorney, Reganel Reeves, said, "She's mortified. She's horrified. Angry."
They argue Nadia should have never been taken to the mental health center.
"If you can't deal with a 50-pound child, 6-year-old, then you shouldn't be in education," Reeves said.
Officials with Duval County Public Schools said student privacy laws prevent them from discussing details of the case. They said in a statement that an initial review showed the school's handing was "compliant both with law and the best interest of this student and all other students at the school."
The family now plans to file a lawsuit.
"She's going on a field trip to hell. That's where she was going, and her life has forever changed," Reeves said.
