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The Tantrum Girl Chronicles

How an incorrigible Florida first-grader ended up in cuffs, committed

FEBRUARY 12--A Florida first grade student was briefly committed to a mental health institution after police were twice called to her school this week after she threw violent tantrums, which included the six-year-old striking the school's principal, who is eight months pregnant, in the stomach. According to the below St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office reports, officers were first summoned to Parkway Elementary School last Monday when Haley Franklin became out of control. During an hour-long tantrum--which was apparently triggered when the girl's teacher asked her to do something--the child kicked walls and threw items (a calculator, electric pencil sharpener, telephone, etc.) across the principal's office. The 37-pound offender, pictured at right, was briefly handcuffed as a sheriff's deputy sought to get her under control. The following day, when the child again caused a disruption, which included throwing things and striking the principal, a sheriff's deputy responded to the school and transported Haley to the New Horizons mental health facility. A Florida state law (known as the Baker Act) allows law enforcement personnel to involuntarily commit individuals. Along with threatening to punch a deputy, the girl called a school administrator "an old bat" and told the woman, "I am going to go home and make a kick me sign and put it on your back." While Haley's parents acknowledge that their child has a temper problem, they said she has no history of mental illness, and blasted school officials and sheriff's deputies for overreacting. The sheriff's report notes that, prior to last week's incidents, school officials repeatedly sought to discuss Haley's behavior with her mother and father. But the parents never showed up for the scheduled meetings. Additionally, both parents were arrested last year for failing to appear for a court-ordered truancy hearing about "their children not attending school on a normal basis."