This is a condensed account of the pivotal events that resulted in our daughter being wrongfully secured by a school resource officer. It is a day that should never have occurred, a day that continues to inflict unimaginable suffering on our daughter, violating her most fundamental rights.

• Erica was struggling while in her room crying out of desperation and hitting herself.  Only those with PTSD/C-PTSD will understand the pain.
• Her Dad called CHR for a Mobile Crisis Intervention.  Against wishes, they brought along a police officer(Later found out to be a school resource officer.) Part of Erica’s trauma stems from police brute force used on prior occasions.
• While in the front yard, the CHR worker said she did not meet the requirements for a 72 hour hold. (This is important to note.)
• Erica was asked if she would go to the hospital for evaluation on her own and she agreed.  She was calm and understood she needed help.
• Erica told the CHR crisis worker and officer she was going to her car to charge her vape while waiting for transport (Something she has done before with no problem.)
• She was not detained or arrested. There was no reasonable, articulable suspicion that Erica had committed or was about to commit a crime.
• Erica started her car in order to charge her vape with her door open and the officer decided to overstep his duties and violated Erica’s constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure, and in violation of her due process rights, and lunged across her lap in a sudden and unwarranted fashion.
• The officer triggered a strong C-PTSD disassociative reaction in Erica. She threw her Vape pod toward him in defense which hit him in the forehead and he received a bandaid.  She then put her car in gear and backed up out of fear.  This resulted in that officer and another to lose their balance and fall from the door being opened. (They both said they were fine and were not hurt.)
• She was later picked up without incident. (Makes a difference when a grown man isn’t draped in her lap in the front seat of a car that mimicked her time as a 12 years old with being raped by a 22 year old man.)
• Erica acted in a disassociative manner due to her C-PTSD.  Once she was triggered, those with PTSD/C-PTSD have a “mental blackout” and enter into a disassociative state and often times feel they are in the middle of their original trauma.  Her Mom was able to get her briefly on video chat directly after the incident and could see she looked completely blank 

• Fourth Amendment, protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government;
• Eighth Amendment, the freedom from excessive bail, fines, and cruel punishments;
• and the constitutional requirement of due process.

This is an outrage! A travesty of justice! A young girl, emotionally a mere child, sits trapped in a woman’s prison – a cold, unforgiving cage that was never meant for her. And for what? A bond so unconstitutionally high that it screams of injustice, a bond set, admittedly by the judge, not to ensure her appearance in court, but to keep her incarcerated in fear she might do it again.  One cannot keep someone in jail because they “might” do something! She is being punished before she’s even been proven guilty.

This is not how our system is meant to work! Our founding fathers enshrined the right to reasonable bail in the Bill of Rights – not as a tool for vengeance, but as a safeguard for liberty. Yet here we stand, witnessing a flagrant disregard for her fundamental right.

We cannot allow this to continue. We cannot allow a young girl’s life to be irrevocably damaged because of a single, terrible mistake. We must demand change. We must demand justice. We must demand that this girl be released from her prison and given the chance to heal, to grow, to rebuild her life.

This is a call to action. Raise your voices. Speak out against this injustice. Let the courts, the lawmakers, the world know that we will not stand idly by while a young girl’s future is stolen from her. This is not just about one girl, it’s about upholding the principles of our nation, the principles of fairness, equality, and the unwavering pursuit of justice.

We must act now. We must act decisively. We must act for her.  If you would like more details to this horrific and unconstitutional act, read her full story here.