Officer seen tossing black student in video faces existing civil-rights lawsuit

A cellphone video recording of the incident has made the rounds on social media, igniting new debate about police treatment and the role of law enforcement in public school classrooms.

A video showing a black high school student being dragged from her desk and pulled across a classroom by a sheriff's deputy in South Carolina has left a community searching for answers, and the officer on leave.

No one was injured in the altercation, which officials say began when the student refused to leave the classroom after being disruptive, but a cellphone video recording of the incident has made the rounds on social media, reigniting debate about police treatment and the role of law enforcement in public school classrooms. 

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott says he is investigating what happened at Columbia's Spring Valley High School, upon returning to town on Tuesday from a conference in Chicago.

The officer in the video, Senior Deputy Ben Fields, has been placed on leave, according to Lt. Curtis Wilson.

While it is still unclear what occurred before a student pressed "record," Mr. Fields is heard saying, "You're either going to come with me, or I'm going to make you," he says.

When she falls backwards, the officer continues to forcibly remove her, at one point throwing her several feet.

School administrator Debbie Hamm issued a statement that school officials are "deeply concerned." Dr. Hamm said student safety is always the top priority and the district will not tolerate any actions that jeopardize student safety.

The NAACP's Legal Defense & Education Fund issued a statement denouncing the officer's actions and raised questions about how the incident was reported.

"We are concerned that we learned of this incident from what appears to be a student video," LDF writes. "Teachers must be properly trained to promptly report incidents of police abuse of students."

The New York Times reports that Fields, who has been a resource officer at the school since 2008, is set to face trial on January 27 for violating the civil rights of a former Spring Valley student, Ashton Reese. The lawsuit, the second against Fields regarding rights abuses, was filed in November 2013, after Mr. Reese was expelled in February of that same year for “unlawful assembly of gang activity and assault and battery” following the officer's investigation.

The lawsuit alleges that Officer Fields “unfairly and recklessly targets African-American students with allegations of gang membership and criminal gang activity,” The Times reports.  

David Klinger, a criminology professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, says in an interview with CNN the deputy's actions appear "unjustifiable."

"It literally makes no sense, as I'm looking at it, why he would escalate to that point – pick her up, pick up the chair she's in, the desk she's in, and toss her," Mr. Klinger said.

"There may be some logical explanation, but I can't see it."

This report contains material from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Officer seen tossing black student in video faces existing civil-rights lawsuit
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1027/Officer-seen-tossing-black-student-in-video-faces-existing-civil-rights-lawsuit
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe