Spring Valley High School in South Carolina is the latest flash point over police violence after a school resource officer forcibly removed a female student from her desk after she refused to leave the classroom.
Richland County Deputy Ben Fields is no longer working at the school or at the sheriff's department pending an investigation, according to
WLTX-TV. Sheriff Leon Lott has requested the FBI and U.S. Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation.
In a video of the incident, the officer is seen pulling the student out of the desk, causing it to flip over, and then dragging her several feet. He then orders the student to put her hands behind her back and restrains the girl.
Lott said the student refused to leave the classroom after being asked by a teacher and then a school administrator. Fields was then called in as the school's resource officer.
The girl was charged with disturbing schools, and was released to the custody of her parents.
NBC News said the incident drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina and the district's Black Parents Association. The student is African-American and Fields is white.
"This type of brutal treatment is completely unjustified, irrespective of the student's actions leading to the involvement of the (school resource officer), and the ACLU of (South Carolina) will not stand idly by and allow this to continue," the ACLU said on its
website.
Richland School District Two superintendent Debbie Hamm said the district was "deeply concerned" about the incident.
"Student safety is and always will be the district's top priority," said Hamm. "The district will not tolerate any actions that jeopardize the safety of our students. Upon learning of the incident, school and district administrators began an investigation. We are working closely and in full cooperation with the Richland County Sheriff's Department to conduct a thorough and complete investigation."
Richland Two board chairman Jim Manning said the video "is extremely disturbing. The amount of force used on a female student by a male officer appears to me to be excessive and unnecessary."
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