Mother Wants Answers After 6-Year Old Daughter Was Involuntarily Committed To Mental Health Facility
A mother wants answers after finding out her 6-year old daughter was involuntarily committed to a mental health facility after an episode at Love Grove Elementary School on Thursday.
Nadia Falk was diagnosed with ADHD in 2017 and is currently awaiting test results to see if she is on the autism spectrum. Nadia is on medication for various mental health issues and is in a class specifically for children with special needs.
Instead of contacting her mother after the incident in school, the video shows Nadia walking to a police cruiser, holding the hand of a female officer — and then later sent to a mental health facility.
Here’s the video footage via The Daily Mail:
News 4 Jax reports:
Martina Falk, the young girl’s mother, told News4Jax on Monday that her daughter is traumatized. Falk is demanding answers from Duval County Public Schools and the mental health facility where the girl was committed.
After the footage was released to the public on Thursday, Falk and her attorney, Reganel Reeves, sat down together and spoke to the news media.
“She had a tantrum. 6-year-olds have tantrums. 6-year-olds with special needs have tantrums. The school knew about her tantrums,” Reeves said. “The police officer had no independent basis to take this child for Baker Act.”
Faulk’s attorney said the child will not be returning to the school.
“I want answers,” Falk said. “An apology would be nice, but it isn’t going to fix the pain that I feel watching that video knowing that my daughter may have been provoked because their staff were irritated or maybe had a bad day and didn’t want to deal with a special needs child. It’s hurtful.”
Originally, the mother said she wasn’t looking to file a lawsuit, but when her attorney was asked the question Thursday, Reeves responded:
“I think it’s quite clear that a lawsuit needs to be filed.”
He continued, “We shouldn’t have to file. They should just get on the phone and say, ‘Hey. Yeah. We messed up. How can we rectify this?’”
Duval County Public Schools issued a statement to News4Jax explaining what they said happened with Nadia and refuted a previous media report that said Nadia was handcuffed and taken away. That statement can be viewed here.
Following the release of the body camera video, News4Jax requested an additional comment from DCPS. The district issued the following statement:
“We were clear in our earliest public statements that the student walked calmly out with the principal and the officer to the police car. Media reports on the video confirm this and also confirm that handcuffs were not used as was originally alleged.
“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. The police officers were also not present when Child Guidance was intervening with the student. 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. Our staff followed that procedure.
“As we stated previously, the student was calm when she left the school, but at that point, Child Guidance had already made the decision to Baker Act based on their intervention with the student. The judgement to Baker Act rested completely with the mental health professional.
Falk said her child was heavily sedated. She was then put under a mandatory 48-hour hold and released Feb. 6. They are now filing a lawsuit.
