The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Hawaii is demanding policy changes after a 10-year-old Black girl was arrested at Honowai Elementary School in Honolulu, Hawaii, for a drawing that upset a parent.
According to CNN, in January 2020, a parent called the school to report a complaint about a drawing made by the girl and demanded the school’s staff to call the police.
Once police arrived, the unidentified girl was “handcuffed with excessive force and taken to the police station,” the ACLU said.
According to ACLU, the girl had “allegedly participated in drawing an offensive sketch of a student in response to that student bullying her.”
The child said, “she did not want the drawing delivered, but one of the other students snatched it from her hands and delivered it anyway.”
In response to the traumatic incident, the ACLU sent a letter on October 18 to the Honolulu Police Department, the state Department of Education. The state attorney general’s demanding them to change their policies, delete all records of the arrest for the child, and pay $500,000 in damages for “harm and suffering.”
The little girl’s mother, Tamara Taylor, said that at the time of the incident, she was told to come down to the school by staff but was not allowed to see her daughter, nor was she aware that the girl was “handcuffed in front of staff and her peers, placed into a squad car and taken away.”
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“I was stripped of my rights as a parent, and my daughter was stripped of her right to protection and representation as a minor. 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,” Taylor said in a statement shared by the ACLU on her behalf.
Following her arrest, the girl told her mom that although she drew the picture, several other students participated in coloring and writing on it.
Honolulu Police told the outlet they were reviewing the letter and will be addressing the allegations.
