The Palm Beach County School District is being sued by a group of parents alleging that schools illegally used the Baker Act to send students to psychiatric facilities.
The Florida State Conference of the NAACP and the group Disability Rights Florida joined in on the suit. It claims that School District Police illegally use the Florida Mental Health Act, also known as the Baker Act, on hundreds of students each year to involuntary psychiatric examinations.
The suit says some of the kids are as young as five years old and they are sent to the facilities without their parents input, consent and sometimes, over their objections.
Records show the district initiated more than 1,200 of these examinations during the 2016 to 2020 school years, including more than 250 involving elementary school students.