Summary: With a growing lack of respect in the youth, it is no surprise that another officer was required to take whatever force necessary to force a student to leave a classroom.
A South Carolina deputy has been fired after cell phone videos of an altercation with a disruptive student were posted online. While many agree that the school resource officer used excessive force, the student should not escape blame.
The incident started when the teacher of a math class asked the student to turn over her cell phone. When she refused, she was asked to leave the classroom. She refused again. A school administrator was brought in to ask the student to leave. She refused again. This is when Deputy Ben Fields was called in to escort the student out of the classroom. Big surprise: she refused again.
Fields was then left with no choice but to forcefully take the student out of the classroom. This is where the problem arises. Fields pulled the student from the desk, causing the desk and her to fall to the ground. He pulled her out of the desk and to the front of the room where he could handcuff her. See the video below:
The student is seen taking a swing at Fields in one video. She has since claimed that she must wear a cast on her arm and sustained a bruise to her head, though initial reports said no injuries occurred.
The student, as well as another girl in the classroom that was upset about the behavior from Fields, were arrested for “disrupting schools.” A civil rights investigation has been opened to determine if any other laws were broken.
The school district and Sheriff’s office do not want the community or others to explode over the incident. This lead to the extra investigation and termination of Field’s job so quickly after the incident occurred.
In most states, an officer is not called in to deal with a disrespectful student, but South Carolina recently passed a law called “disrupting schools,” giving officers the responsibility of taking action against students that interfere with teaching activities.
Source: http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2015/10/26/spring-valley-high-school-incident/74645568/
Photo: goupstate.com