Cop Body Slams High School Girl in S.C. Classroom
As reported by NBC News-
The FBI has been asked to investigate an incident at a South Carolina high school Monday in which a police officer appeared to body slam a female student and drag her across a classroom.
The confrontation, captured on cellphone video at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., has drawn intense criticism on social media, from the school district's Black Parents Association — the student is African-American — and the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina, which called the deputy's actions "egregious."
"There is no justification whatsoever for treating a child like this," the ACLU said in a statement.
In a news conference, a spokesman for the Richland County Sheriff's Department, Curtis Wilson, identified the deputy in the video as Ben Fields, one of two school resource officers assigned to Spring Valley. Fields had been placed on administrative duty pending an internal investigation, Wilson said, adding that the officer was declining interview requests.
Fields, who is white, is named as a defendant in a 2013 federal lawsuit that claims he "unfairly and recklessly targets African-American students with allegations of gang membership and criminal gang activity."
How it all started. A male student at Spring Valley told NBC News that the girl had ignored requests by the teacher to go to a "discipline office." The officer then entered the classroom and asked if she would go on her own or if he had to make her, according to the student.
When the student refused to leave, Lott told NBC affiliate WIS earlier Monday, the officer "was requested to take action."
She was told that she was under arrest, but again refused to leave the classroom, Lott told the station. "The video then shows the student resisting and being arrested."
In a statement, the Richland Black Parents Association said they were "heartbroken as this is just another example of the intolerance that continues to be of issue in Richland School District Two particularly with families and children of color."