US officer ‘throws’ student around classroom
WARNING: Disturbing and violent footage.
A school resource officer has picked up a female student and desk before throwing her out of her chair and across a classroom in shocking footage which has been posted online.
The South Carolina school resource officer has been banned from all duties pending an ongoing investigation after the video appeared Monday showing the officer tossing a student across a classroom floor.
A student in the classroom filmed the encounter on their mobile phone then posted it to social media.
The event occurred at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina.
The officer can be heard several times during the footage instructing the student to put her hands behind her back.
“An investigation has been launched by school officials and sheriff’s deputies to find out what happened,” said Richland Two Superintendent Debbie Hamm.
"Pending the outcome of the investigation, the district has directed that the school resource officer not return to any school in the district," Hamm said in a prepared statement.
The uniformed officer then asks the student to step away from her desk. When the student remained seated the officer wraps his arms the students neck causing the chair, desk and student to fall backwards.
Sean King, a Senior Justice Writer for NY Daily News has been covering the story extensively. He has reported speaking to 21 students and three employees of Spring Valley High School who have told him that Officer Ben Fields has frightened them for years.
The officer then tosses the child several feet across the floor to the front of the classroom.
The video shows the officer removing a student who was disruptive and refused to leave class, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told multiple media outlets.
"The video then shows the student resisting and being arrested by the" officer, Lott said.
The images captured an "egregious use of force" against the student, ACLU of South Carolina Executive Director Victoria Middleton said.
