The Kaia Rolle Act goes into effect July 1, and the new Florida law prohibits the arrest and charging of children under 7 years old, unless a forcible felony has been committed. The little girl the law is named after, Kaia Rolle, was bound in zip ties, fingerprinted, and had to stand on a step stool to have her mugshot taken in 2019. Her offense was having a tantrum at school, triggered by her sleep apnea that her family says the school was aware of. She was 6 years old at the time.
Since the initial arrest by a school resource officer, Kaia’s charges were dropped and her record was expunged, and the arresting officer was fired. Her grandmother says that her granddaughter’s emotional scars remain almost two years later: extreme separation anxiety, night terrors, wetting the bed, and a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis.
This is part of the toll of experiencing racism, according to Raja Staggers-Hakim, founder and executive director of CHEER (Community Health Education Empowerment and Research) Institute, a nonprofit that addresses the health inequities impacting people of color.
As opposed to racism being a one-time or infrequent experience, it tends to be multiple incidents occurring in a day, a month, or a year, and continuing throughout a person’s lifetime. The accumulated stress of these experiences, over time, can lead to a decline in health and an array of chronic health conditions.
Staggers-Hakim’s is a public health sociologist and race scholar whose research focuses on the impact of racism on health outcomes for Black people. She took some time to discuss Kaia’s story and the health implications for Black children and adults experiencing racism. (This email interview has been edited for length and clarity. )
Q: What stood out to you, from your professional perspective, when you initially heard about what Kaia and her family went through in 2019?
A: Kaia Rolle’s experience, unfortunately, is all too common and consistent with the harsh realities that Black and Brown students face in United States educational systems. What stands out to me, here, is the age — clearly, a 6-year-old child does not warrant the extreme response that ensued.
Kaia was pleading for the officers, who restrained her with a zip tie, to “please” let her go and she asked for a “second chance.” I am disappointed in the school’s administration for not protecting Kaia, as a student and a young child. If no other entity, it should be schools that are safe havens for children.
I understand, from this case and others that have been observed across the nation, that school districts, as well as the criminal justice system, do not see Black and Brown students as children. Kaia was profiled and she was treated not only as a problem, but as a looming threat. There is something broken in an institution ... that treats its most vulnerable, young children, with such contempt.
Q: What do you think is important to understand about this pattern of disparate and elevated responses to Black children when they commit what would seem to be typical child or adolescent behaviors (tantrums, talking back)?
A: This is an educational policy issue and a policing issue. First, teachers should not be calling the police or using the police as a source of classroom control. This should never be the first line of defense to address concerns with children. There should be a team of professionals in schools, including social workers or mental health professionals, student advocates, peer advocates and parent liaisons that can support children in crisis.
In this country, we are wrongly using the criminal justice system to deal with health and mental health concerns and crises. That is a problem. Although police are trained to de-escalate, we see that is not happening with Black and Brown communities at large. Often, when police do arrive, they are likely going to insist that someone comply behaviorally, or they will be deemed as resisting arrest or causing a disturbance.
When someone is having a mental health break, or a child is having a tantrum, using fear is not an effective remedy; it will likely escalate the situation. A clinician or someone who is better suited to deal with the crisis is warranted. Further, this requires school districts to re-examine the need for police in schools and to train educators on their implicit biases toward children of color and the communities that they are serving. Usually, these biases cause educators to call police and respond with severity to Black children compared to White children.
Q: What would culturally competent, trauma-informed responses to these behaviors from Black children ideally look like?
A: The dynamic of using police in schools to control Black and Brown students, needs to change. Additionally, the unwritten policy of more harsh treatment of Black and Brown students in schools must be addressed by school officials and policy makers. Culturally competent and trauma-informed responses to Black children would require that schools begin to have a different relationship with the community in which they are located.
When teachers approach work with Black and Brown students as driving into an urban setting to work with this “difficult” population, only to go back to their “civilized” suburban community, that is problematic. A deeper understanding of the community, and relationship building with the community and parents, are essential for shifting this dynamic.
Black parents and families need to be welcomed into schools; they are not. Families, students, and educators must build together, and that building needs to come from the needs of the families and students. The traditional practices that schools honor, the images in the buildings, the committees, and how the school is used in the evenings, or even the after-school programs, should reflect the needs of the community. Additionally, competent mental health practitioners should be made available to support children and families. Educators and school personnel should be mindful of incidents such as police killings or excessive Black mortality due to COVID-19 that cause collective community trauma.
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