Home > Bullying > First-Grader Baker Acted After Fight At School

First-Grader Baker Acted After Fight At School

December 12, 2011 at 12:42 pm by Morbid

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A 6-year-old girl was ordered to undergo an involuntary mental evaluation after a fight she was involved in at school.

For those of you unaware of the term, the Baker Act is a common term used for the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, a statute that allows for the involuntary mental examination of an individual. In this case, a 6-year-old girl.

The girl’s mother, Christina Brinson, told reporters her daughter is just having a tough time adjusting at Fairmount Park Elementary and is dealing with a bully. She says she gave her daughter permission to fight back.

So when her daughter returned to school on Thursday morning, after being suspended for two days because of her behavior at school, she got into a fight with her alleged bully.

This fight reportedly escalated into something more than just a fight, but I cannot find out exactly what happened. Whatever it was, it was enough for a social worker to feel the first-grader was so out of control that she was likely to cause serious bodily harm to herself and others if she did not get treatment.

So on Thursday afternoon she was Baker Acted and taken by police to PEM Mental Health Services. A doctor at the facility wrote comments in her file that said the girl was “calm, cooperative and appropriate.” Obviously, her mother is not too happy about any of this.

“She’s 6,” Brinson said. “How do you possibly send a child to a mental health clinic, at 6? What can she possibly do to be a threat to herself and others?”

That’s exactly what I wanna know. What did she do to be determined a threat to herself and others? Anyone out there got the dirt on this one?

Tags: Baker Act, bully, Crime, fight, Florida, mental illness

64 Comments

Comments

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http://www.facebook.com/people/Rebecca-Garcia/100000746322144 Rebecca Garcia

O.o this ought to be interesting.
HotReadingMama

Florida has been known to Baker Act children for extreme tantrums or fighting or school grounds. This isn’t a first.
http://tothechest.com Pete Puma

All children should be placed in mental asylums until the age of 18, and then sold off into slavery.
reapre

From the article I read her (the 6 y/o’s) name is Dy’asia…

She was also given 2 “reprimands” the prior week…Idk if she was being bullied or is the bully but she sounds more like a trouble maker than one “defending” herself.

http://www.theledger.com/article/20111210/NEWS/111219988/1374?Title=6-Year-Old-Baker-Acted-After-School-Fight

“Just last week, Dy’asia was given two written reprimands for her behavior by the school and was suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Anonymous

Huh. Here we call it “blue papered”. I’m glad you explained what it meant!

A 6 year old is definitely capable to tantrums to the point of hurting herself or others; I’m sure they did it as an act of preservation, for herself and those around her. I can see a civil tort claim being filed in the near future, by her loving parents for this poor, traumatized but otherwise perfectly angelic child. =/
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XA4RDSRSUX3XRSCPRR7XNGSPUQ Joshua

ah…the apostrophe in the name sums it up for me.

No one in life is going to amount to anything with an apostrophe in their name. Dumb parents.
Anonymous

That is not always true. I have very small 11 year old boys and they get picked on a lot, and when they retaliate they are the ones who get in trouble.
Anonymous

For starters her mom put too many ponytails in one head followed by too many berets to hold them.

If there is one thing me & my mom hate is little girls in more than 2 pig tails. It looks so damned tacky & just horrible, especially when they try to “pretty it up” by putting berets at the end of braids of all sorts of colors.

Make’s the kid’s head look like a rainbow puked on it.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

You continue to surprise,and amaze me Pete.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

Sometimes a kid acts up because they are extremely unhappy,she may very well have been a victim.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

I have seen cases where someone at a school did not like a child,and every time that kid sneezed they were at the principals office;sometimes it’s not even the kids fault,sometimes it’s the parent who is actually the target – the child is merely a pawn in the game.
Reen B

That happens at our school too. If my daughter defends herself she gets in as much trouble as the instigator. Or they both get dragged off together to “mediation.” Once she came home and told me her usual bully hit her, and she “didn’t know what to do so I went and told the teacher.” If you’re not allowed to defend yourself and your only permissible option is to tattle, well, now you’re setting yourself up to be bullied even more!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

I like the little girls hairstyle,it’s common with little Black girls,and someone took a lot of time to fix her hair,which indicates to me that someone loves her.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

The ole it takes two to fight rule … classic – I love that fucking rule,specially back when I was in school,I could get jumped by someone,not even fight back and receive the exact same punishment that my attacker received.Fuck that,best to beat their asses.
Anonymous

My kids defend themselves and the instigator doesn’t even get into any trouble at all! It makes me sick and I feel so helpless. I can totally see how these people are refereeing fights between kids, hitting other people’s kids and getting on the school bus and so on… I just want to turn these teachers’ heads into punching bags and smack these little shits heads against the brick walls…but then what? Prison? I don’t know what to do, and my kids are victims here.
Anonymous

Can you imagine the headaches these poor kids get?
http://tothechest.com Pete Puma

If someone is going to out-do me, I’d prefer it be me.
Anonymous

Niow,Pete,not everyone should be raised like you.bwahahaha
Anonymous

When I was committed to Charter Hospital my unit ate meals at the same time as the kids unit.There was a little guy who was so small and young he had to have a booster seat to sit at the table.
wyrosjr

The teachers have very little power in the situation, deal with the administrators.
wyrosjr

I think it is an abbreviation for dysphasia.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XKMAEMPVJ5T2Y35HKYTNG7I6SY Cedric

So far you have absolutely no competition.
http://justiceforcaylee.synthasite.com/ shyloh

6 year old’s act stupid anyway. Go to a park and watch how children interact. Lordy! Hopefully, as they grow older, the stupid goes away. Some it does, some it doesn’t!
http://truecrimereport.com iLLusionS

I would agree with some of the other posters,. Sometimes a kid is acting out (or acting a certain way) because they ARE being bullied, and the bully get away with starting, what their victim sometimes takes the fall for. I don’t know if this little girl was kicking, scratching, and poking out eyeballs or what caused the need for this evaluation, but it would be intresting to know.
Anonymous

As someone who actually has a mental illness, I’m so sick of people assuming that anyone who is violent is mentally ill. I’ve never been violent in my life! There are many reasons why children get into fights. Perhaps the Florida school systems should get off their lazy asses and figure out what is really going on.
http://profiles.google.com/marchmolly Laura Miller

I agree. As a little white girl I always envied the girls with lots of braids decorated with beads and the little clicking sound the beads made when they turned their heads. I have always thought they were adorable in an appropriately childlike way.
Anonymous

It’s worth mentioning that sometimes it’s just more convenient for the teacher to let the bullying slide, if the bully is popular and the victim is not. Teachers bend to social pressure, too, and they risk alienating students by sticking up for the outcasts.
Anonymous

Please don’t judge black hairstyles until you’ve worked with black hair. It’s an entirely different texture, and expecting black people to follow white hair trends is… Well, darn near racist.
Anonymous

Thats how it went when my son was young and bullied he got in more trouble than the attackers
Anonymous

My cousin is mixed and she has always had issues with her hair, now that shes grown she gets perms or straightening and extensions
Anonymous

First off I have LATINO CURLY hair that’s not very far off from Black hair. Latinos & black people use the hairstyles. My MOM refused to do that particular hairstyle to me & I hated it as a kid even though I had friends (black & not) that wore the hairstyle. That particular hairstyle is the only one I hate. However I agree with @Cedric said, it shows that mommy cares about her.

I can hate a hairstyle & I hate this one on little girls of ALL COLOR, I am not racist. I also hate dreadlocks on white people & MULLETS no matter who’s wearing.
Anonymous

I envied ANYONE who could get stuff to stay in their hair. I wanted so badly to wear barrettes or bows or even a goddamn ponytail holder, but my hair is insanely straight and everything would drop right out of it within an hour or so.
Sandra Dee

I don’t know whats going on here, but I would imagine it’s better safe than sorry. Kids as young as 6 are capable of suicide, murder, abuse and a whole rainbow of horrible. Better to see the child get some help (if she actually needs it) than to be reading about her again here after she knifes another kid or herself.
Anonymous

It didn’t say she got Baker Acted FOR fighting, it specifically says (in the article) that she got Baker Acted for something she did IN the fight. Sure, she stood up for herself against a bully and all that, but at some point during the fight she did SOMETHING (that is not mentioned) that caused administrators to be afraid for her mental health, that’s what got her Baker Acted. This leads me to believe that it wasn’t just the normal bully-kid, schoolyard fight. She said or did something out of the norm for a regular schoolyard fight. If they Baker Acted every kid that was in a lot of fights or who got suspended a lot just for that, they’d have mental health facilities full of kids. I think better safe than sorry was the exact right way to describe this. Whatever she did was enough to concern the administrators, and I wouldn’t want my kid in a school where a kid may or may not be a threat. I’d rather know, is she a threat or not.
Athena

I think it’s also worth pointing out that we don’t know if she was actually dealing with a bully or not. Sure, her mom says she was dealing with a bully, but that’s become a common excuse for parents whose kids are involved in altercations and the parent refuses to accept that it may have been their child who started the whole thing. I believe that she was having a hard time adjusting… and maybe she was lashing out at other kids because of this. The article clearly states that the altercation in question occurred after Dy’asia (?) returned from a two-day suspension for behavioral issues. Perhaps the perceived bully in this story was actually the one defending him/herself?
Anonymous

Why waste all that money that could buy beer. Just bury them in the back yard and let them grow tomatoes.
Anonymous

You got that one right. I wonder if her parents even know what an apostrophe is for?
Anonymous

What is dysphasia? Is that Latin for hair lip?
Anonymous

Cedric, I did not know you were a romantic.
Anonymous

Well at least you did not have to worry about fleas.
Anonymous

Not near as many headaches that you get if you have no hair.
Anonymous

After reading DD I have come to the conclusion that most of the stupids do not go away.
wyrosjr

The teacher certainly has some influence but no real power. Once it has gotten to a certain level, it’s really up to an admin. Unfortunately, most of them really would rather pretend nothing is going on. Administrators are often graded on “student incident reports” which means that it makes them look better to sweep as much under the rug as is possible.
Anonymous

She just might be a little psychopath. Their are plenty of them out there and they grow up into big psychopaths and like to hurt people.
Anonymous

I got bullied when I was kid, my dad just said let it roll off your back. He was not the one getting hit. I was 6’2″ tall and weighed 190 pounds. That was my first year of jr high. 3 years later the hormones kicked in and the bullying stopped. I was then 6’4″ and weighted 220 and had grown a set of balls that caused me a lot of trouble. At least nobody picked on me anymore. Get them some professional help on how to defend themselves and the bullying will stop.
Anonymous

My boys are both just under 4 feet tall, and weigh 62 and 65 pounds. They were premature and weighed half what a full term baby weighs. I held them back last year and they are still the smallest in their class, except for a couple girls. Average is 4’5″ and 77 lbs. I am not holding out hope in them getting huge, like you did! I tell them those kids are assholes and they need a good ass kicking, but try to stay away from them. If they hit you, go for the nuts.
Anonymous

That is so sickening, I think I just vomited internally… but i believe it. I was picked on in school too. And even the teachers hated me, but I was always pushing things, cutting class, not doing homework, I was a punk.
Anonymous

I was in Charter Ridge in Jeffersonville IN, twice as a kid! I was 11 and 12, respectively. I was depressed, but I got happy when I was there because the assholes from school and my mom wasn’t there. There were suicidal kids and kids with behavioral problems there. I remember thinking, “What in the hell am I doing here with these crazies?” My brother was there with me too, so it was awesome. He was a thief and never did his work. So, probably not all of the kids were actually crazy, their parents are just assholes and they have good insurance or are military. It was mostly military brats in those places, I was locked up 5 times, my brother 7 and my step-brother 4, but he got to go live with his mom. My mom thought to trap a man, you get knocked up, but then when the guy left, she didn’t know what to do with us kids. It was grandma’s house and Charter! And 3 times in another place that I can’t remember the name of (in Elizabethtown, KY), and then a children’s home.
Anonymous

After what you told me I think more than ever they need to be taught the and sooner the better. Have them learn to work together and to never flinch if they flinch they will become victims. My best friend in high school was 5′ 2″ and the only thing that worried him was that someone would not pick on him. My best friend in college was 5’3″ and weighed 250 lbs and nobody ever even thought about touching him. If they don’t stop the abuse they will lose their self confidence. Self confidence is essential for a male. Girls don’t need it they already rule the world. Good luck to you. Your sons already have good luck, they have you..
http://twitter.com/ckhoffmanf Chelsea Hoffman

You can be mentally ill and not violent — but if you’re violent, you’re probably mentally ill. Lighten up. You’re not the one being analyzed and bringing up your mental illness (even after admitting you’re non violent) kind of just injects yourself in a trollish way.

In other words, your mental illness is showing.
Anonymous

Very true Athena. I (obviously) was replying to all those outraged that a girl defending herself could be humiliated in such a way. But, we have no idea if she was indeed defending herself and the actual aggressor. The only one who seems to be saying she was bullied is her mother.

Sounds like the girl obviously is having some trouble adjusting. Whatever the cause for a mental health evaluation, I hope she gets the care she needs.
FrikkenFrak

““She’s 6,” Brinson said. “How do you possibly send a child to a mental
health clinic, at 6? What can she possibly do to be a threat to herself
and others?””

Watch THIS and you’ll see EXACTLY what a child that age can do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME2wmFunCjU
Anonymous

My son is also small for his age, wears glasses,tries to pay attention so he can actually LEARN at school, and is a (generally) well behaved, mild mannered kid who is being raised in a home with both parents and a little sister who love him dearly.I am very involved in school activities and find that no matter what school we go to he gets bullied.We put him in kung-fu taught him not to start fights but to stand up for himself and not to resort to physical violence until he has gone thru all other options.Just this week I got a call from the school nurse saying my son “fell” off a piece of playground equipment and scraped his back and bumped his head.When he got home and told me what actually happened turns out these 2 kids (appearantly the regular 5th grade bullies from what I gather) had tried to pull him off one thing so he tells them to leave him alone and goes to play on the jungle gym, after which they follow and proceed to pull him off while cursing and threatening to kill him (all this coming after almost 2 months of being teased and picked on for being the new kid which he tried his best to ignore).After laying on the ground crying and having his breath knocked out for what he estimated was about 5 mins when he was able he tells the teacher and the punishment…the 2 bullies had to be in “time out” the last 5 mins of recess.Needless to say I was pissed so I contacted the principal, he talked with my son and presumably the other kids and assured us the bulling will be stopped.My advice to my son after this point…knock the shit out of them if they put their hands on him again.If he gets suspended then I guess we will be having a video game party while eating junk food for a couple days.I try to explain to him that kids are cruel and these bullies are inevitably the kids who parents don’t show up for school activities and they are probably jealous he has such a loving family as most kids these days aren’t that lucky.
That being said, it’s hard to tell what actually happened in this case and what exactly it means when it says she was “given permission to fight back”.We don’t know if she picked up something to use as a weapon or just went into a psyco tantrum, or the school could have over-reacted in an effort to cover their asses in the event of a lawsuit or something from the other child’s parents.Either way bullies have been around since mankind started walking upright and fighting is ingrained in us on an instinctual level, hence the term “fight or flight” and if flight doesn’t work that leaves fight.Unfortunatly in today’s society a schoolyard scrap often turns into lawsuits and media circuses.When I was in school, you either kicked the other persons ass or took your ass kicking but either way once it was over that was the end of it. Ok off my soap box now.Sorry about the rant I just have to deal with having a child that gets picked on and teachers that look the other way…stories like this infuriate me!
Anonymous

I’d like to say that the idea of sending a squawling screeching kid off to the booby hatch isn’t a tempting one.. lol.. She looks like a sweet little kid, but looks can be decieving.. My cousin is a little round faced girl with curly blonde hair, and blue eyes.. A sweet looking eight year old who gets picked on occasionally at school.. but spend any amount of time with the kid and you begin to wonder if she brings some of it on herself.. She lets out these snotty remarks once in a while with a pure sneer on her face.. She likes to point things out to people about their appearance.. “You’re fat”.. “Youve got pimples”.. “Your feet are swollen” .. “Your butt is really big” (she said that last one to her mother).. Let’s just say that finding out our little precious had been sent off to a facility for 24 hours would probably illicit mock shock in front of the relatives, and snickers in private.. LOL..
Anonymous

Damn you for posting this video, that’s 25 minutes that will haunt me (of course, after watching this video I HAD to watch part two and three of the documentary also). Like a train wreck, you don’t want to look, but you can’t look away.
FrikkenFrak

Haunted me, too. At first it seems like Beth is just pretending as she talks to the doctor. It slowly dawns on you she is NOT. Behind those stunningly beautiful, icy blue eyes was a pathological killer in the making.

I don’t even remember how I came across Beth’s story but, like you said, I couldn’t look away either. Fortunately for her she DID get sent to a doctor at that age.
Anonymous

Double Pig tail with hair of that texture? Lol, you have to be kidding.
Anonymous

I just took a rreally good look at the picture. Couldn’t mommy find a pic of the girl where she looks all cute & funny instead of menacing & with an attitude?

All of my kiddie pics I’m either smiling or playing.
Anonymous

No’pe.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XNTGU66DZ3U2TE7WMKKZSHDGVM Christy

That just makes no since what so ever!! Get real! cause the child has an apostrophe in her name means she isn’t going to amount to anything….. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard! Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe this child does have some issues!! Some children have ADD, ADHD, Bipolar Disorder, etc.!!! I know because I am a parent of one who is ADD and she acts out that way when she is not on her medicines! It happens.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_XNTGU66DZ3U2TE7WMKKZSHDGVM Christy

My daughter is the same way… she will make smart comments to others and don’t expect them to say or do anything in return! I have warned her many times that her mouth is going to get her into a bunch of trouble if she doesn’t start watching what she says! Although, I can see both sides too! The other kids in school also have a smart mouth at her age (she is 9). I am sure they are mouthing off to her as well and she is just the one getting cought!
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http://usb3gvn.com/ USB 3G Viettel

Thanks, great review to the important points. Some really great thoughts here, very comprehensive. I appriciate that!
anzati1

I have post traumatic stress disorder really bad because of daily beatings by groups of kids in front of the teachers as a result I now have a diagnosable disorder that has had me hospitalized many times. Do not be an ignorant some words I cant say without getting deleted on this forum. Plenty of people have plenty of reason to be violent and it has nothing to do with mental illness merely circumstances being treated like crud for many years for example look up battered wife syndrome. That is induced by years of abuse often and isnt restricted to women despite the name.