The girl’s mom said school officials didn’t contact her before “baker acting,” her child and committing her to a mental facility. The mother alleges her daughter was injected with an anti-psychotic drug at the facility, where she stayed for two days. An attorney for Falk, Reganel Reeves claims the school was well aware of Nadia’s condition and jumped the gun by calling the police.

“They’re using this [Baker Act] as a way to get rid of children who just have behavioral problems,” Reeves told Atlanta Black Star. “They basically punished [Nadia] for the condition they’re well aware of. And I believe it was because they were frustrated … in general, and decided to escalate it. But they had no business calling the cops on a 6-year-old child.”

Falk spoke to a school resource officer about the incident, told the school couldn’t do anything to control Nadia. “Your daughter is completely out of control, and we weren’t able to de-escalate the situation,” the officer told her. However, dash camera video shows the girl being escorted from school by police. At one point she asked officers if she was going to jail and asks for a snack.

“No, you’re not going to jail,” one of them replies, adding, “You’re not no bad person, you’re not going to jail.”

The officer seemed skeptical of the school’s reasoning for calling the police. “She’s been actually very pleasant,” she noted.

“I think it’s more of them not wanting to deal with it,” said another officer. The school district told WCVB the officers were not present during the incident.

“It was the mental health counselor from Child Guidance — not the police officer or school personnel, who made the Baker Act decision,” the district said in a statement. “The student was calm when she left the school, but at that point, Child Guidance had already made the decision to Baker Act [her] based on their intervention with the student.”

Since the incident, Nadia hasn’t returned to school and is exhibiting more fearful, anxious behavior. The family is now calling for a change to the law because “we don’t want to see children this young being Baker acted,” Reeves said.

“We want there to be a change in the policies,” he told ABS. “So, special protections for children; kids with special needs have extra protections under the Constitution. So we want to see changes in the (state) law that mainly include [say] if a child 10 or less should only be Baker Acted under extreme circumstances, and those circumstances need to be detailed.”

The Falk family said it plans to sue and is seeking compensation for false imprisonment, emotional distress, and violation of her civil rights.

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