JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A violent arrest outside an IDEA school in Jacksonville has left several young students traumatized, according to parents who witnessed the incident firsthand.<\/p>\n
The mother of an 8-year-old student said her daughter was one of many children who saw a Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office (JSO) officer punch and wrestle a combative mother to the ground while trying to handcuff her in front of IDEA school on Bassett Road. <\/p>\n
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Woman charged in violent encounter punched, bit Jacksonville officer, sheriff says; 2 bystanders face \u2018Halo Law\u2019 charges<\/a> | \u2018They can be a threat\u2019: Crime analyst explains how Halo law protects officers from potential danger<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a lot to unpack and explain to young children,\u201d the mother said. \u201cMy daughter was afraid to go to school the next day because she saw somebody\u2019s mother being choked, slammed on the ground, hit, and her hair was on the ground. That can be traumatizing for children.\u201d<\/p>\n The mother added that she and other parents were picking up their children when the scuffle broke out. She said she immediately realized her daughter was traumatized.<\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I got in the car, my daughter was crying,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Police say 39-year-old Erika McGriff resisted arrest, which escalated the situation. Sheriff T.K. Waters commented on the incident during a recent news conference, expressing concern about the example set for children witnessing the arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s shocking when you square up to fight a police officer when maybe you were going to get a citation,\u201d Waters said.<\/p>\n The mother also revealed that other parents have reported similar trauma in their children.<\/p>\n Several parents are reportedly considering removing their children from the school due to the incident. Experts note that arrests in front of children can have lasting psychological effects.<\/p>\n Last year, Tom Hackney, News4JAX\u2019s crime and safety analyst, highlighted the importance of minimizing trauma during arrests involving parents, referencing a child-sensitive arrest law passed in New York aimed at protecting children who witness such events.<\/p>\n \u201cYou try to do the least amount of harm in executing the arrest. Sometimes, it can\u2019t be helped, but other times it can be, and it\u2019s so traumatic for the little ones to see,\u201d Hackney said.<\/p>\n The officer involved in the arrest is not facing disciplinary action, as JSO confirmed he acted within department policy.<\/p>\n The mother hopes the situation could have been handled differently by both the officer and McGriff.<\/p>\n Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A violent arrest outside an IDEA school in Jacksonville has left several young students traumatized,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1415,1416],"class_list":{"0":"post-890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-jacksonville-sheriffs-office","12":"tag-northside"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}