Honolulu police officers arrested a 10-year-old Black girl in January 2020 because she drew a picture of a girl pointing a gun and with a severed head at her feet, addressing it to two students with death threats, according to a letter released Tuesday by the Honolulu Police Department.

Race had nothing to do with it and attempts to “inject” the issue are “unfortunate,” wrote interim Chief Rade Vanic. “The incident and the response were not racially motivated. The HPD does not and will not respond to 911 calls for law enforcement intervention and service based on race.”

Officers may be disciplined or lose their job for violating HPD’s bias policy.

The 10-year-old was bullied, according to a letter from American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii and Mateo Caballero, an attorney representing the family, demanding $500,000 and changes to policies about how police interact with public school students.

In the Honolulu Police Department’s response to the ACLU and Caballero, Vanic declined to make any of the requested changes and offered a detailed description of the drawing that the ACLU and Caballero declined to share but described as offensive.

“Characterizing your client’s drawing as an ‘offensive sketch of a student’ is extremely misleading. … Your client also wrote a clear message addressed to two classmates by name, using foul language,” Vanic wrote.

“The threat was taken seriously by one of the named victims who was upset, distressed and scared enough to tell her parent who, in turn, brought it to the attention of the (Waipahu) school administration. The school authorities called the HPD to respond and the HPD acted consistent with its policies and applicable law. The HPD is not in a position to second-guess school administrators over the phone as to whether a situation is ‘imminent’ enough for the HPD to respond especially in light of the escalation in school shootings and violence on the mainland.”

Caballero, in a statement to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, called HPD’s reply “disturbing and dangerous” and said comparing the girl to a “small fire” that needs to be put out before it gets out of control is “grotesque.”

“Parents of young children should be alarmed by the far-reaching powers HPD claims over their keiki,” he said. “HPD claims the right to interrogate children without their parents present under the pretense of ‘protecting the constitutional rights of minors,’ implying it’s the duty of a 10-year-old girl to assert her own constitutional rights. Yet at the same time, HPD argues that questioning a 10-year-old girl in a room she’s not free to leave doesn’t constitute an interrogation. HPD refuses to acknowledge racial bias in the face of their own data showing otherwise.”

A threat to shoot and kill another student is considered to be “a threat of significant harm” which Vanic pointed out is something that the ACLU and Caballero acknowledge allows officers to arrest a student on DOE property.

HPD also sent the letter to city Corporation Counsel Dana M.O. Viola as well as Keith T. Hayashi, the state Education Department’s interim superintendent, state Deputy Attorney General Carter Siu and Hawaii Board of Education Chairwoman Catherine Payne.

In the ACLU and Caballero’s Oct. 18 letter, Tamara Taylor, the 10-year-old’s mother, said her daughter, who is living with disabilities, was subjected to “excessive force” by officers who handcuffed, interrogated and arrested the girl. On Jan. 10, 2020, another Honowai Elementary parent asked school administrators to call police after viewing the picture — drawn by Taylor’s daughter and others.

School administrators asked Tamara Taylor to come to campus. But when she arrived, she alleges she was detained in a separate room, apart from her daughter.

School staff and police “refused” to let Taylor see her daughter or let her know what was happening. She asked school employees to leave HPD out of it but was told by an official that it was the “parent’s right if she wants us to call the police for her.”

When Taylor was finally allowed to leave the room, she learned her daughter was under arrest and headed for the police station.

Vanic said officers spoke “at length” with the girl’s mother, and that the 10-year-old was not interrogated or questioned nor was a formal statement taken.

“Under these circumstances, the requested policy change is perplexing as a custodial interrogation or questioning did not occur so as to support such a policy change,” he wrote.

The ACLU’s call for changing existing policies to bar police from campus unless an “imminent threat of significant harm” is too broad and discounts an array of educational and community building activities the department does and the multitude of reasons officers enter school property for reasons that have nothing to do with law enforcement, Vanic said.

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education and Junior Police Officer programs are mainstays of public school life and officers also routinely attend career day functions. “Say Hi” events bring officers to school campuses to familiarize students with the HPD programs, equipment and capabilities through live demonstrations and hands-on displays, Vanic wrote.

“Officers use these opportunities to build relationships with both students and faculty for public outreach and goodwill. Officers are looked at as role models and authority figures who are not parents and who can provide counsel, encouragement, comfort, and, when appropriate, formulate action plans to ensure the safety and well-being of the child,” said Vanic.

“Adoption of your policy change would eliminate these positive opportunities for students and would significantly hamper relationship building efforts between the police and community,” he said.

In his statement late Tuesday, Caballero said HPD’s and school administrators’ response to the drawing was “completely out of proportion” and the department “omitted critical context.”

The girl was the only “Black child involved” and was singled out, he said.

“None of the other students involved were even questioned, let alone handcuffed. If the threat was sufficiently serious to cause real fear of harm, all of the students involved would have received the same treatment,” he said.

The drawing was the result of contributions of several students and the girl was adamant about not giving it to the other student, Caballero said.

The 10-year-old “drew constantly” as a way to cope with her ADHD and bullying, which the school was aware of, he said.

“She had no disciplinary record involving harming other students, was not violent, did not have weapons, and complied with the school and police that day. She did not have the means to injure other students and did not pose a threat or danger to anyone,” said Caballero. “If the school had complied with disability law, they would have called counselors instead of HPD, and we would not have seen a child handcuffed and taken away in front of her peers.”

HPD Letter on Girl's Arrest by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd