Teacher questions why he was Baker Acted
BROOKSVILLE –
A gifted students and technology teacher at Eastside Elementary was placed on paid administrative leave and his named added to a “no trespassing” list barring him from district property after being Baker Acted by the sheriff’s office after a meeting with school officials, he said.
The teacher, Aaron Kinkaid, was formerly teaching at Challenger K-8 before being transferred to Eastside Elementary, but was placed on paid administrative leave there for leaving his classroom of students and attempting to gain entry into a leadership meeting, calling them “monsters.”
Involuntary exam initiations, or “Baker Acting,” is the act of detaining and confining a person for psychological examination for up to 72 hours, and is done so under the order of law enforcement, mental health professionals or judges.
Superintendent of Schools Bryan Blavatt, who is bound by confidentiality laws and is limited in what he can disclose about the case, said Kinkaid’s case remains open until Kinkaid responds to the district with required information.
“It’s not concluded yet,” Blavatt said. “The situation hasn’t changed drastically since we got involved in the first part of it. In this case, I feel we’ve concluded what we’re going to do; we just need to find out what’s going to happen from him.”
“At this point, it’s not closed until Mr. Kinkaid gets all his information and responds,” Blavatt added.
Kinkaid was placed on paid administrative leave last April from Challenger, and was placed on paid leave by the superintendent from Eastside Elementary last September, according to Lt. Mike Burzumato of the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office.
Hernando Today obtained a copy of the “no trespass” list that was sent via email and generated from Safety and Security Coordinator Barry Crowley’s office, and based on incidents that occurred in the past 12 months.
Burzumato said there are currently no open investigations on Kinkaid, but could not comment specifically on the incident because of the nature of the case.
“When the incident happened back in Challenger, he was on paid leave, and stayed on paid leave through the remainder of the school year,” Burzumato said.
“At Eastside, when the incident happened over there, he was again put on paid leave.”
Kinkaid, then teaching gifted students and technology at Eastside Elementary, said the incident at Eastside was not an incident.
“There was no incident,” Kinkaid said. “I was called into a meeting.”
Kinkaid said school officials asked him questions about his personal life and finances not related to teaching or the school.
He said the conversation was initially sympathetic and out of concern for his well-being, but then turned hostile.
“Next thing I know the sheriff’s office is showing up and I’m being Baker Acted,” Kinkaid said.
“I’ve never been officially charged with anything. There was never any screaming, never anything. I never actually did anything; there’s no incident.”
According to the Florida Mental Health Act of 1971, criteria for involuntarily committing someone includes:
A University of South Florida report released last month examining 2011 Baker Act data shows the number of involuntary commitment initiations or “Baker Acting” incidents increased by 22.88 percent from 2007 to 2011.
The increase in “Baker Acting” incidents from 2008 to 2011 — about 14 percent — exceeded population growth throughout that same period, which in comparison was about 1.5 percent.
According to the report, 1,391 Hernando County residents were committed involuntarily under the law in 2011 — 45th in the state out of 67 counties.
However, involuntary commitment rates can be disproportionate among counties since only about half of Florida’s counties have Baker Act receiving facilities, the report shows, and because of differences in population.
According to the report, there were 14,732 involuntary commitment incidents statewide in 2011 that were not reported, and among those that were, about 49 percent came from law enforcement, about 49 percent came from mental health professionals and about 2 percent came from judges.
Among incidents reported, about 64 percent were specified as “harm only.” About 23 percent were specified as “harm and self neglect.”
About 10 percent of the incidents were specified as “self neglect only,” and about 3 percent did not specify, the report shows.
For reports classified as involving “harm” in some way, about 54 percent were “to self only,” about 20 percent were “to self and others,” about 6 percent were “to others only,” about 10 percent pertained to “self neglect only,” and about 10 percent did not specify.
Despite the legal requirement to transfer involuntarily committed persons to a designated receiving facility within 12 hours of medical clearance, anecdotal evidence suggests some people spend most or all of their 72-hour involuntary examination period at the emergency rooms of non-receiving facilities subsequent to being medically cleared, the report shows, and those involuntary examination forms are never provided to the Baker Act Reporting Center.
[email protected] (352) 544-5271
