The body camera footage obtained by the Times-Union captured the conversation between two responding officers. It also shows at times the child’s wrists, with no handcuffs visible. The mother had previously said the child was handcuffed, but the Sheriff’s Office and school district said that wasn’t true.
“I don’t see her acting how they said. She’s been actually very pleasant,” a female sheriff’s officer said to her male colleague. The Times-Union requested the names of the responding officers from the Sheriff’s Office. The male officer agreed, saying “you poke the bear one too many times and it’s gonna scratch you.”
The female officer added that she thinks the 6-year-old’s outbursts were in reaction to school personnel “pushing her buttons.”
She continued, “because they said this is the fourth out of five days she’s been acting like this. Well then, I think [the problem] might be y’all … she’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with her.”
Under the social worker’s recommendation, Falk’s daughter was placed under the Baker Act law, which provides emergency health services, temporary detention and psychiatric evaluation for people in need. River Point Behavioral Health Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.