South Carolina: Deputy Sheriff Fired for Rough Treatment of Student

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1. Dienne says:

   October 29, 2015 at 4:40 pm

   Fired is a good first step. Arrested, indicted, tried and jailed are the next four.

   Reply
   • Jack says:

     October 29, 2015 at 8:27 pm

     Yeah, I’m usually supportive of our officers, but he blew it.

     The girl was asked to leave the room, by the teacher, then a couple of different administrators … and she simply refused to cooperate and remained in her chair. As frustrating as this, you CANNOT lay hands on a child / teenager who did what she did.

     The cop moved into her space, inches from her face, with his fists clenched, and his forearms raised. The girl instinctively put her own forearms up… and the cop tries to say that action constituted a threat, that she was about to attack him, and that required her being taken down and handfcuffed.

     Baloney. If he hadn’t moved in centimeters from her, nothing would have happened.

     From a teacher’s or administrators point of view, what do you do when a student acts this way… and it’s disrupting the class, preventing everyone else from learning? That’s a tough one.

     However, the cop’s behavior is an example of what NOT to do.

     Reply
2. Peter Smyth says:

   October 29, 2015 at 4:54 pm

   He is white; she is black. That does not make it a racial issue. He responded very inappropriately to a request to remove a student who had refused to leave a classroom despite numerous requests from the teacher, an administrator, and the SRO.
   The sheriff, his boss, fired him, but did not give the student a pass, acknowdging that she, too, had disrupted learning.
   Yes,it started over a cellphone, but unless you’ve dealt with that issue on the ground, you probably don’t understand where it can lead.

   Reply
   • Dienne says:

     October 29, 2015 at 4:56 pm

     Right, it’s not a racial issue because this totally would have gone down the same way at a white school.

     Reply
     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 4:59 pm

       Incidentally, a while back Diane posted a piece about Black Lives Matter working with pro-public education forces. It’s attitudes like this that make that difficult to do. Until we can acknowledge the reality that black students and white students are treated substantially differently based on the color of their skin, we’re not really allies with BLM and they’re not going to buy in.

     • Peter Smyth says:

       October 29, 2015 at 5:03 pm

       You’re speculating, Dienne. This school is about 50/50. If you’re going to call it racial, you have to do better than wishful thinking.

     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 5:20 pm

       Willful blindness, Peter.

     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 5:23 pm

       And, no, it’s not really 50/50. It’s about 50% black, but only 34% white. And it’s been trending from majority white to majority minority over the course of several years, just like Ferguson.

     • purple says:

       October 29, 2015 at 9:52 pm

       Yeah, it probably would have. By the way, the teacher was black.

     • purple says:

       October 29, 2015 at 9:53 pm

       The BLM leadership is in the tank for charter schools. So they lost a lot of credibility right there.

   • Ms. Cartwheel Librarian says:

     October 29, 2015 at 8:53 pm

     Peter makes valid points Dienne. Everything is not about race, nor is it all about gender, all about religion, or even immigration status. Not all Irish are drunks, Jews tight with their money, Republicans intolerant. (Those are so standard stereotypes used for illustrative purposes.) We do not know what the officer was basing his decision on when he became aggressive. It appears to be uncalled for and could have been handled much differently for a far better outcome for all involved.

     All lives matter. When it is made about race then it becomes racial. When it is made about religion it becomes anti-Semetic or anti-Morman, or anti-Muslim.

     I am of Irish descent, raised Catholic, and at 17 I worked as a Young Democrat for Bobby Kennedy’s run for the presidency. When you start labeling people it makes differences a problem not an advantage. People are people. No two are alike and all of their lives matter. Even at my advancing age, I still matter.

     Keep an open mind. The truth will come out on this incident. It won’t be pretty but it will be the truth and in my way of thinking, that’s what matters.

     Reply
     • MathVale says:

       October 29, 2015 at 11:35 pm

       Yes, but are all intolerant people Republicans?

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 5:31 am

       Keep an open mind. Sigh. You sound like the “nice liberals” that Dr. King was talking to in his letter from Birmingham jail. Sorry, but black people know the truth that white people just refuse to admit. On-going patterns tell the story. Nearly every time we see a young kid getting manhandled and shackled, it’s a black child, yet we’re not supposed to see racism. Black children – even preschoolers! – are suspended and expelled at significantly higher rates than white students – but we’re not supposed to see racism. Police have shot and killed how many black men and kids lately – but we’re not supposed to see racism. And then you go and say “all lives matter” – but we’re not supposed to see racism.

       I’m not accusing anyone of racism in terms of running around in white sheets or throwing around the n-word. But I am accusing everyone (yes, even myself) of institutional racism because we live in a world built on white supremacy.

     • FLERP! says:

       October 30, 2015 at 9:55 am

       Can an individual person be accused of institutional racism? I thought institutional racism was by definition systemic and structural.

     • MathVale says:

       October 30, 2015 at 7:33 am

       Race is an issue, but not every issue is race.

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 8:15 am

       So was Tamir Rice a race issue? Michael Brown? Ahmed Mohamed? Sandra Bland? Eric Garner? Just how do we decide what is or isn’t a race issue? How many times does it have to happen before it is?

     • MathVale says:

       October 30, 2015 at 12:12 pm

       You can condemn people who disagree that this is solely a race issue. Fine. Your lens is seeing every incident through race. Fine. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail. We’ve come to the point that every issue seems a race issue if the participants are not the same color of skin. Fine. If it was only that simple. Read what I said. Race is an issue. Yes. We have racism – all around and not just black and white. Every issue is not about race. These things are more complex and there are many, many more incidents that are mixed race crime you didn’t list. If we want a constructive dialog on race, the first step is not polarizing everyone based on race. Believe it or not, there are other races besides the girl’s who found this incident very disturbing.

       BTW, at my high school, our shop teacher put a troublesome kid’s head in a vice and started turning the screws to scare him. It did. And us. Back then, video cameras were about the size of a small refrigerator. And the teacher and kid were both white. Racism has at its root fear, lack of communication, distrust and hatred. It seems to only be getting worse all around.

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 12:21 pm

       “Every issue is not about race.”

       Spoken like someone with enough white privilege not to feel it every day. I used to think like that. Then I became good friends with a Puerto Rican man. Then I married a black man. Then I had black daughters. It took a long time to understand how my world changed. Almost every single day I’m confronted with issues of race that I never even thought about before. Never had to think about.

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 12:26 pm

       As just one example, my husband is a truck driver – he usually starts work between midnight and 4:00 a.m. and he has about a six or seven mile commute. Can I just tell you how many DWB tickets he has gotten? I could practically retire by now between paying the tickets, the lawyer to keep the points off his record so he can maintain his CDL, and the increase in insurance premiums. Please don’t tell me that’s not about race. And neither is this.

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 2:08 pm

       http://www.alternet.org/comments/education/how-assault-spring-valley-high-brutally-demonstrates-school-prison-pipeline#disqus_thread

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 2:09 pm

       Oops, meant to post the article itself, not the comments: http://www.alternet.org/education/how-assault-spring-valley-high-brutally-demonstrates-school-prison-pipeline

   • group4stemcellproject says:

     October 29, 2015 at 10:27 pm

     We have yet to hear the student’s side of the story and all of the witnesses speak to what transpired before this horrific act by a 300 pound white male weight lifter. Also, please know that this young woman is in foster care and her life journey may have had many more tacks in it that most of us bare in a lifetime. Please reserve your judgment.

     Reply
     • Ellen Lubic says:

       October 30, 2015 at 3:01 am

       YES,,,much more to learn about this.

     • MathVale says:

       October 30, 2015 at 12:14 pm

       Amen! There is much time to hear out everyone involved without condemning everyone. That’s why court proceedings are not decided based on Tweets and postings.

     • dekalbteacher says:

       October 30, 2015 at 1:28 pm

       So all of these tickets were bogus.He wasn’t speeding ever. Of course not. In over 20 years of teaching in an urban system, only black children have threatened me, cursed at me, but no white children. I assume that is all racist also. Or could it be cultural? Nah, it’s all racism.

     • Dienne says:

       October 30, 2015 at 2:11 pm

       “Or could it be cultural?”

       Um, yeah, way to prove me wrong that this is not racism. What, specifically, do you mean by “cultural”? Enquiring minds want to know.

   • Ken Watanabe says:

     October 30, 2015 at 2:49 am

     It’s not racial issue, explicitly. Still, there’s racial bias playing out in the dynamics. This is not the first time white cops use excessive force to restrain a student on the classroom floor. And many of those are students of color. They are handcuffed, arrested, and taken to the police for interrogation with no access to parents and schools. Remember a14-year-old Ahmed in Dallas ISD?

     Cellphone is not a weapon. Being disobedient/adamant is not a sufficient cause to justify this cop’s behavior. It is simply presumptuous and wrong for police authority to resort to excessive force upon children to treat them as if they are criminal suspects on the run.

     Reply
3. Jens Lyon says:

   October 29, 2015 at 4:57 pm

   I’m glad the officer was fired. I’m tired of hearing all the excuses people are making for this man. This girl was sitting at a desk, just SITTING at a desk! https://jenslyon.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/she-was-sitting-at-a-desk-just-sitting-at-a-desk/

   Reply
   • Dienne says:

     October 29, 2015 at 5:00 pm

     Exactly. Well said.

     Reply
     • AlwaysLearning says:

       October 29, 2015 at 5:12 pm

       Agree. The student was using a cell phone in class — a tool we allow in our 21st century classrooms for learning. Sometime students use them inappropriately and we ask them to put them away. Why were the other two adults in this room just standing there allowing this altercation to take place? Don’t they have some responsibility in all this? If you truly believe this student was SO disruptive she needed to be arrested, wasn’t the disruption this officer called more damaging to the learning and emotional well being of the class? I could think of some many other ways to deal with this situation. One would have been–if the student would not leave–then remove the other 25 students to a new location and talk with the student privately. Most educators know that teens need to save face more than anything in unpleasant situation. This whole incident is daunting to watch.

4. Ellen Lubic says:

   October 29, 2015 at 5:20 pm

   The video shows an older black male wearing a white shirt with rolled up sleeves and a tie, standing to the right side of the frame, but so far no info has come forth about whether he is a teacher or administrator, or who called the police to come and detain this girl. Why would talking on the phone and not following the teacher’s order to stop talking, precipitate calling 911? Even if she defied an order to leave the room, still it does seem overkill to call the police.

   In Santa Monica High School some months ago, a teacher had to tackle a tall athletic young man who was carrying a knife, and was found with dope in his back pack. The boy was aggressive in the classroom, and he attacked the teacher first…but the teacher was immediately taken off duty and put out of the classroom. The boy was eventually found to be dealing drugs on campus and was charged, and the teacher was returned to the classroom.

   Far different than a simple situation of a girl not obeying a teacher, but continuing to disrupt the classroom by talking through the lesson on her cell phone. It would seem that if this is a continual offense, she could be dealt with by the administration and suspended.

   Why is there NO word on the teacher’s role and the administrator’s role as to why this girl was such a threat to them and others that the police were called? A cell phone is not a weapon.

   So it seems to question should be why did this teacher call for the police? More to this than meets the eye. I think the school needs to explain why they would call for police for such a simple infraction.

   Reply
   • Ellen Lubic says:

     October 29, 2015 at 5:22 pm

     BTW..the police man deserved to be fired. But this Sheriff’s office needs investigation to understand why they hired him in the first place.

     Reply
   • booklady says:

     October 29, 2015 at 7:45 pm

     EL, Ben Fields was a school resource officer, so it’s unlikely there was a 911 call. SROs typically work onsite at high schools. This video should be shown as example of What Not to Do when a student does not have a weapon and is not threatening students’ or teachers’ safety.

     Reply
5. Donna says:

   October 29, 2015 at 5:41 pm

   Being on the computer, this came up in my FB feed pretty much immediately; however, my husband saw it for the first time last night. We both agreed, were this our child, we’d want to put a beating on this officer–and I’d be hard pressed to stop my husband from going after him. Two rights don’t make a wrong, but how that CHILD was treated is abominable. She, and the officer, are lucky she did not sustain a broken neck. Her parents rightfully will sue the officer and the district, and they will win.

   Depending on where you see the videos (3 of them) the headlines change with the leaning of the website. Some of the headlines say officer arrests student after she punches him. AFTER SHE PUNCHES him. Hilarious. The only time her arm moved, and it was likely involuntarily as if to break a fall, is when he flips her desk.

   This officer is an animal. Being an officer didn’t give him the right to treat anyone the way he did, and had been known to do.

   I like to believe I am not a racist. I wasn’t brought up to hate anyone, and truly grew up in a melting pot – Newark, NJ in the 60s/70s. I had friends of every color, and my mother did not have a prejudice bone in her body. We brought our daughter up the same way. I cannot say this was or wasn’t racist because I think he’d have done the same to any student, male, female, white, black, hispanic. He was abusing his position of authority. But then, again, I don’t live in South Carolina where there is a deep history of racial divide. I can’t know what was going on inside his head when he attacked this student/child. To me, she is a child. The non-reactions of the other students shows that this is somewhat common, however, and they were afraid of getting the same treatment next. The man in front of the room, shame on him. Shame on him. The other female student who stood up for the girl getting slammed–good for her. She was the only one in that room with a sense of right and decency.

   Reply
6. Laura H. Chapman says:

   October 29, 2015 at 6:10 pm

   No Obnoxiousness in South Carolina. It is the LAW

   Disturbing Schools Law for South Carolina
   SECTION 12. Section 16-17-420 of the 1976 Code
   (A) It shall be unlawful:
   (1) For any person willfully or unnecessarily (a) to interfere with or to
   disturb in any way or in any place the students or teachers of any school or
   college in this State, (b) to loiter about such school or college premises or
   (c) to act in an obnoxious manner thereon; or (2) For any person to (a)
   enter upon any such school or college premises or (b) loiter around the
   premises, except on business, without the permission of the principal or
   president in charge.
   (B) Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty
   of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, shall pay a fine of not more
   than one thousand dollars or be imprisoned in the county jail for not more
   than ninety days.
   (C) The summary courts are vested with jurisdiction to hear and dispose of cases involving a violation of this section. If the person is a child as defined by Section 63-19-20, jurisdiction must remain vested in
   the Family Court.” (How the law gets involved)
   In other words, ANY time a student is obnoxious,publicly disputes or deliberatly ignores a directive from the teacher then the student can technically be arrested on the charge of “disturbing schools.” The law has been on the books since 1976.

   Reply
   • Donna says:

     October 29, 2015 at 6:18 pm

     Didn’t give the officer the right to flip her desk, grab her, lift her, and throw her to the ground and across the room.

     Reply
     • Ellen Lubic says:

       October 29, 2015 at 6:51 pm

       Nor did it give the right to the school personnel to stand and watch this without stepping in and saving her. They too are culpable for this gross miscarriage of injustice. These crazed cops who beat up women and girls should be indicted. But these school officials also deserve blame. This situation whereby they call 911 for an ill behaved, not physically unruly, girl makes no sense at all.

       I am sure they will say that the law does not allow them to touch a student, but they certainly have voices which they did not seem to use in this horror. It started with them. They too must be investigated. I would not want my child in a school where a teacher can call 911 for anything at all. This is much like the case recently of a 5 year old autisitc boy being put into handcuffs by a cop who was called by a kindergarten teacher.

       So much of this is going on…and it is the fault of the school. Disturbed kids need care…not cops.

   • Abby says:

     October 29, 2015 at 6:53 pm

     That’s right. Not only that, if you look at the video carefully, the teen (NOT child) struck the officer when he tried to remove her from the room.

     Reply
     • FLERP! says:

       October 29, 2015 at 7:12 pm

       View post on imgur.com

     • Sharon in NYS says:

       October 29, 2015 at 7:41 pm

       No, Abby, her actions were defensive in nature. He approached and began grabbing her roughly while tipping her backward. How would you have reacted yourself in the instant you were grabbed by a large man and thrown backward while trapped in a student desk?

       The girl was seated and not acting violently before the officer appraoched. The treatment of this student is an abomination.

     • Donna says:

       October 29, 2015 at 7:47 pm

       She was being assaulted. It happened so fast — I think she was involuntarily trying to get her bearings. You think this young girl hurt this burly officer while he was assaulting her? I’d love to kick him hard in the balls for what he did. He could have broken her neck. What would YOU have done, flipped in this fashion? I side with the girl. I think what the officer did is reprehensible. The TEEN,16, IS a child. You think she deserved to be handled in this way? You want to be handled in this way? You want your kids to be handled in this way?

     • Donna says:

       October 29, 2015 at 7:50 pm

       It literally makes me sick to watch. And angry.

     • Robert Rendo, NBCT says:

       October 29, 2015 at 8:55 pm

       This child might have been inapporiate, but none of these actions on behalf of the officer are warranted. The child is unarmed, smaller, and weaker. There are behavioral systems one can put in place to mitigate issues and ameliorate tensions, but they take time and patience, and they, being empirically researched and peer reviewed, are successful with most students

       The parents should sue the pants off the school district because any school that calls a police officer to handle student discipline (outside of a child being armed or physically violent to others and who is of a size and stature that warrants more manpower), is completely inappropiate and violates constitutional rights.

       Personally, this video is so repulsive to me that I’d have no hesitation, if given my way, of belting this man squarely in the jaw and kicking him in the gut until he leaks out his guts and spits out his teeth, so to speak.

       He is a bully and a monster and should be put away for years.

       The school district and personnel are as culpable as the officer in this instance. Shame on this LEA, this culture, this society, this power structure, and this patriarchy for attacking a child.

       This child did not attack the officer; she attempted feebly to hold herslf steady and to defend herself, even if she was no angel.

       It conjures up images, in my mind, of the Holocaust because it evokes the imagery of the very powerful trampling and crushing the very weak and vulnerable. It is a modern day, technologized, high gloss version of the antebellum plantation-ridden South. Same power structure, different epoch.

       Acts like this should be severely punished . . . .

     • Ken Watanabe says:

       October 30, 2015 at 5:23 am

       Let me add more information for you. This man (Ben Fields) has a history of excessive force misconduct that caused injury to the witness.

       http://www.democracynow.org/2015/10/28/when_school_cops_go_bad_south

       SC Sheriff deserves condemnation for keeping this ‘white’ mad dog on the loose.

     • patriciahale says:

       October 30, 2015 at 10:30 am

       That is just not true. And even if it was, knocking the desk over was uncalled for. I can’t believe some people are defending this SRO’s actions. If a teacher, or principal or any school personnel did this, they’d be charged with assault and battery, and so should this guy.

7. Gretchen Garrett says:

   October 29, 2015 at 6:47 pm

   he has to be more than fired. He needs to be indicted.

   Reply
   • Robert Rendo, NBCT says:

     October 29, 2015 at 7:12 pm

     And stripped of his badge AND pension.

     Reply
     • Robert Rendo, NBCT says:

       October 30, 2015 at 12:55 am

       And jailed for many years . . . .

8. Dienne says:

   October 29, 2015 at 8:04 pm

   Do we know specifically what happened before the admin and the cop got there? My understanding is that it involved a cell phone, but I haven’t been able to confirm if she was actively talking on the phone, or if she just had it out. If she was actively talking on it, yes, I can see that she was disrupting class. But if she just had it out, I don’t really see how that’s disrupting class, unless the teacher chooses to make it an issue and get into a power struggle. He could simply have asked her to put it away and, when she refused, just told her “see me after class” and then gone on with the lesson ignoring her. There seems to be this pervasive idea that the teacher “loses face” if the kid doesn’t do exactly what he tells her immediately upon being told. But it’s pretty clear that the teacher in this situation lost a lot more face because he couldn’t even handle normal teenage sass, which really makes one wonder what he’s doing in a high school classroom.

   Reply
   • Sharon in NYS says:

     October 29, 2015 at 8:10 pm

     I would assume she was texting or surfing the web. Students, IME, rarely talk anymore on their phones even when not in class!

     Reply
     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 8:20 pm

       That was my assumption too, although I haven’t seen it confirmed. But if that’s the case, all he had to do was say something that basically communicates, I know what you’re doing and it’s not okay, but I’m not going to waste everyone’s time fighting with you right now. This isn’t over and you haven’t gotten away with anything. He could even add that he’s a reasonable guy and if she has a reason for her actions he’s all ears.

     • MomintheMidwest says:

       October 30, 2015 at 8:21 am

       I don’t know the situation at this school — but just as to the teacher, many administrators do expect that students will NOT have cell phones out during class, period. So, if the teacher wants to keep his/her job (presumably this is the case, right ?), or needs her/his income to feed and house her/his own family, s/he may have felt that the school procedures had to be followed.
       I get the argument that “treating children that way is unprofessional and unethical”, but for an untenured teacher, it doesn’t work out that way.
       And on the other hand, if the teacher was just doing this “on his/her own”, that’s on the administration also — the teacher should have had better ways of dealing with this.
       What I am saying is “either way, this problem was squarely caused by the administrators, not the teacher”. If the teacher had the practical ability to handle this differently, then on the teacher as well, but we do not know that.

   • concerned mom says:

     October 29, 2015 at 8:27 pm

     So it’s the teacher’s fault?

     I agree he should let them do whatever they please as long as they don’t disturb other students. However, I choose to give him the benefit of the doubt and I think he actually wanted her to learn and wasn’t on a power trip.

     I agree that by the time a student is a few years away from being an adult the teachers shouldn’t worry about student apathy and they should concentrate their efforts on the students who want to learn.

     Reply
     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 8:33 pm

       See my response below. Maybe he had the best of intentions, but he handled the situation very poorly. Maybe he’s a new teacher and has his own learning to do. In any case, he needs to learn to handle his own problems without calling in admin/the cops if he wants real respect.

       I worked for three years in a residential facility for severely emotional kids. There was always someone on duty for “coverage” who would help you out with a behavioral situation, but after the first few months you learned that every time you called for coverage you ran the risk of losing face. So unless the situation was physically threatening, you learned to use humor, creativity, compassion and other techniques to try to defuse, deflect or consciously ignore (for the moment, to return to it later) the situation.

     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 8:37 pm

       cx: severely emotionally disturbed kids, that is.

     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 8:42 pm

       BTW, what I learned in those three years is that more often than not when kids act out like that they’re asking a question (or many questions). Some variation of: are you tough enough to handle me? Do you care enough to try? Or will you reject me like everyone else has?

     • Dienne says:

       October 29, 2015 at 8:50 pm

       And, “can you see past this tough kid image I put out and see the real me?”

     • Former Teacher says:

       October 29, 2015 at 10:22 pm

       Dienne, I agree with you, especially when it comes to earning respect from the kids. Humor, creativity, and passion are good ways to deflect issues in the classroom. It’s one of those things where if she was just sitting on the phone, he could have just talked to her in private about it. I had a rule when I taught in the inner city “if you cause a issue in public, I’ll correct it in public; if you are off task and it’s not displayed publicly, I’ll correct it in private”. This worked. As a teacher, you also have to learn about the kid/kids you’re working with. How do they respond to confrontation? So the kids believe you have to show respect before they give respect? It doesn’t matter how things “should be”, it’s a matter of using techniques with kids that work with how things “are” in the kids’ minds (especially if they’re raised in poverty vs. college educated parents vs. middle class vs. etc.). This was the biggest difference between a teacher who can manage a class and one who can’t. Do you understand your students, their behaviors, and responses in situations.

       Also, perhaps his expectations of phone use weren’t clear, or maybe he didn’t hold every student to it 100% of the time. Kids do test to see how a teacher reacts.

       Regardless, she “should have” simply complied and the officer obviously was way out of line. Shoulda-coulda-woulda. 😎

     • MomintheMidwest says:

       October 30, 2015 at 8:28 am

       Also, remember this is a MATH class. This means that teacher is very likely to be judged by this young woman’s test score. Given that, you can understand why s/he would want the cell phone to be put away. After all, if this girl is allowed to do it, others will want to and how can you say no ? Then, everyone is texting and web-surfing (in many math classes, ALL the kids would be more than glad to spend class this way). Then test day comes and teacher is fired….
       And the kids who ARE trying to learn ARE distracted by the youtube videos and so forth that the kids are watching on their phones….that’s why college professors (who don’t, as a group, care about whether kids pay attention) at least want kids using devices to sit in the back of the room so that other kids don’t have to be distracted by the flashing screens….

9. Sharon in NYS says:

   October 29, 2015 at 8:08 pm

   Here’s a link to commentary on this incident from the executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

   https://nasro.org/news/in-the-media/nasro-tells-cnn-police-stay-school-discipline/

   He said that the State of South Carolina does not allow NASRO to run any of its training programs anywhere in the state, training that might prevented this awful occurrence for ever happening. Shameful!

   Reply
10. concerned mom says:

    October 29, 2015 at 8:20 pm

    I agree he went too far and should be fired. I guess we can say police officers aren’t needed in schools if they are available to handle cell phone “crimes”.

    Perhaps the public school teacher in the classroom was trying to get her to pay attention for her own sake – maybe he had the silly idea that he wanted her to pay attention so she could learn something. I guess he is one of the few lousy public school teachers in the country.

    I think we should allow HS students to decide if they want to pay attention in class. If they choose not to, they should be allowed to sit in the back of the room with any device they please as long as it is on mute and does not disturb the students who want to pay attention to the teacher. The students and their parents should have to sign a waiver stating they chose deal with their cell phone issues rather than pay attention to the teacher in class.

    I heard many experts stating they should have made all the other students leave the classroom that still would have caused the students who chose to pay attention in class to lose instructional time- and that is also inexcusable.

    Reply
    • Dienne says:

      October 29, 2015 at 8:28 pm

      Nice strawman, but no one is saying that kids should simply be allowed to get away with whatever they want. But, first, she may have had a reason for her actions which she might have been able and willing to articulate had she been treated like a human being. Maybe there was an emergency at home and she was waiting for text updates or something. Second, even if she was just being defiant, there was no reason to escalate it to a power struggle in that very moment. Power struggles take a lot more time away from instruction than simply letting it be known that the situation will be dealt with after class and then not adding any further fuel to the fire. If total domination is the only tool in your tool belt, high school teacher might not be the career for you.

      Reply
      • concerned mom says:

        October 29, 2015 at 8:33 pm

        Maybe she was a habitually phone user. Maybe he dealt with her ‘after class’ on other occasions. Who knows? I find it interesting that on this blog of all places the teacher is being maligned without knowing all the details.

        From what I read she was asked multiple times to put the phone away and she didn’t. I agree that she should have been allowed to keep the phone out as long as she did not disturb the other students.

      • Former Teacher says:

        October 29, 2015 at 10:48 pm

        I’m not sure, Dienne. I think there are many styles of high school teaching. “Total domination” may be a good style for one teacher, but not for another. I was the “total domination” type, but it worked for me. My students appreciated it and wouldn’t have it any other way. My expectations and rules were clear cut, but I was fair, compassionate, and flexible. I also knew how to deal with certain kids, and understood teenagers. I joked in the classroom a lot to keep the energy in the room balanced, but the kids knew not to cross the line. It was a good learning environment with a balanced approach, even though my style was “total domination”. Maybe I’m misinterpreting the definition though. I was definitely the authoritative type.

      • Former Teacher says:

        October 29, 2015 at 10:59 pm

        Valid points about phone use, Dienne. There are cases where there is an emergency. This is why it’s good to hear the students out; however, teens love to make excuses! It’s a tough call. There could actually be an emergency going on, where many other teens might be trying to “play” you. I told the kids the first week of school no phone use. Period (unless it was during times I designated, which were clear because I put a timer up, etc…). In fact, every year a student would ask “what if it’s an emergency?” My response every year was, “they better call the office then, because you can’t use your phone in this class”. Harsh? No. They’ll get the memo.

        I had a strict phone policy because of all the issues they cause. Phones were the biggest issue as a teacher, and I made sure there would be no reason for them (except if the kids were really good, I’d let them listen to music during work time, but it was monitored and timed. And if there was one student who was caught on social media, etc, everyone lost the privilege that day…they’d keep each other in check).

      • Ellen Lubic says:

        October 30, 2015 at 3:22 am

        If it is true as stated by some here, that the assaulted student had recently lost her mother and her grandmother to death, and she was put into foster care (which in my state is a horror) then perhaps in her emotional state her phone was seen by her as her only possession, and keeping it was the only control she has over her totally disrupted life. The teacher should have been aware of this situation…time will tell.

        But I still think this teacher and this school is culpable. Just look at the kids surrounding the violence….they look like automatas. and do not reflect the horror within inches from them. Something is VERY wrong at this school.

        The violent cop is a different issue. If he works for the school and is always on campus, the administrator and teacher could have stopped him by rapidly coming forward. If they are all colluding, and/or are such cowards that they went along with it, they are accessories both before and after the fact.

        This is the most heartless thing I have ever seen in a classroom. All because a girl defied a male teacher over a minimal issue which he thought deserved her being brutalized.

    • purple says:

      October 29, 2015 at 9:56 pm

      -I think we should allow HS students to decide if they want to pay attention in class-

      First, the teacher will get a terrible evaluation.

      Second, the students won’t stay on the phones but will undermine the students who want to learn.

      Third, it sets a terrible example to the tweeners, who are the majority of kids.

      Next “solution” please.

      Reply
      • concerned mom says:

        October 29, 2015 at 10:36 pm

        My solution is to seriously consider private school for my child.

        I still believe a HS student should be able to chose if they want to engage in their own education. As I stated earlier, students would sign a waiver stating they choose not to pay attention in class so the test results of those students would not count against the teacher.

    • Former Teacher says:

      October 29, 2015 at 10:40 pm

      Concerned Mom, I respectfully disagree with allowing kids to sit in the back of the classroom if they don’t want to pay attention in class. When I taught, this was one of my rules: you will come to my class to learn, period. Every kid came to my classroom knowing I would be relentless in helping everyone learn (even if some didn’t want to). As high schoolers, they questioned everything, even why I made my kids pay attention when some didn’t want to. You just have to get in their heads the best you can. Find something they’re interested in and how you are helpful to them and they’ll respond. It’s good first week of school stuff, and you remind them of what they told you to keep them on track. You have them set goals for themselves. Most of my students wanted to be in school, and that was a good advantage to reach them. Now, not every student responded, but you do your best. Some kids were dismissed, put in the hall, called home, etc. But high expectations paired with a teacher students know cares about them, and a teacher who is relentless and takes their job seriously earns student respect. They’ll work for you too.

      The difference is in the urban school I taught in, if I enabled the kids to do what they wanted, I would have had about 30-40% actively engaged in the lesson and the other 60-70% sitting in the back of the room (maybe more, maybe less depending on the class dynamic). That’s the truth. As a teacher, you then would have two classes to run, instead of one. The problem with the second class of kids in the bad is that it would be “student directed”, and the kids would have no respect for you because you gave in to them. They want a structured environment. They may not like it (and they’ll show it), but you move on and the kids will jump on board.

      Also, I’ve observed in classrooms where teachers allowed what you described above, by allowing students to congregate in an area and do as they please (muted phones, etc. included) and it just doesn’t work, especially with all the drama and great things to talk about on social media 😎

      Reply
      • Ellen Lubic says:

        October 30, 2015 at 3:25 am

        Thank you Former Teacher…that is what real teaching is about. It is very hard work when done correctly. And it has great rewards.

    • MathVale says:

      October 29, 2015 at 11:12 pm

      concerned mom,

      This incident will reinforce many people’s belief that there needs to be schools parents can choose without having to deal with disruptive kids or families that do not value education. I hear arguments we need to focus on this one student causing problems, but that is then at the expense of the others who want to learn. As a teacher, I try to reach all, but there is a 10% that monopolizes 90% of a teacher’s time spent on non-instructional issues. As a parent, I am fed up with my own kids being put at risk by kids who prefer fighting, undermining the class, dealing drugs, and jeopardizing my own kid’s future.

      Reply
      • Lloyd Lofthouse says:

        October 29, 2015 at 11:19 pm

        “As a parent, I am fed up with my own kids being put at risk by kids who prefer fighting, undermining the class, dealing drugs, and jeopardizing my own kid’s future”

        And yet, when children we consider good become adults, those same kids who put them at risk or robbed them of learning time in class will be problems as adults too. In fact, some of these problem kids might end up in positions of power or launching their own corporate charter schools since it seems so easy or even end up living close to our children or grandchildren when they own their own homes and no lover live with their parents.

      • MathVale says:

        October 29, 2015 at 11:30 pm

        I agree. But right now, the issues we face as parents in these schools seem overwhelming. I can look to the future, but it seems poor behavior is rampant and teachers have their hands tied in the present. Too many drug raids, cafeteria fights, teachers assaulted, kids mouthing off and disrupting class. When my own kid was assaulted and the school was afraid to take action due to law suits, I had enough. We are outta there. And I don’t blame the teachers.

11. booklady says:

    October 29, 2015 at 9:11 pm

    School resource officer Ben Fields could have killed the student.

    I thought the point of having these SROs was that they would relate to teens/know the students.

    I’ve read two sources that said the teen was recently orphaned and in foster care.

    I admire the student(s) who sensed the need to record in time.

    Reply
12. S. Smith says:

    October 29, 2015 at 9:44 pm

    Does anyone have information about the teacher involved? The hand-off of classroom management suggests TFA or some similar fake teacher program.

    Reply
13. Michelle Ville (@ShelbyvilleEden) says:

    October 29, 2015 at 9:48 pm

    1.) The girl in question was removed from her mother’s home earlier this year because of abuse. She was placed with her grandmother who died in June. She has been in the foster care system ever since. She is a brand new student at this school and has no friends. The other students describe her as very quiet and very shy who rarely talks to anyone.

    2.) The girl allegedly looked at her cell phone and when caught by the teacher, put it away and apologized. The teacher then demanded the phone and when she refused, called in the SRO who then proceeded to beat the crap out of her. Two students who spoke up for her were threatened by the officer and one was arrested.

    3.) Multiple students in the class – white. black, male, female – ALL say the girl did nothing wrong and wasn’t being disruptive. They ALL admit they were scared of the officer who was known as “Officer Slam” because of the violent way he treated students – that is why all the kids had such frozen looks on their faces throughout the ordeal. Several students went to the teacher afterwards and asked why he didn’t stop the assault. The teacher told them that the girl didn’t listen and got what she deserved. The teacher is white, the black man in the video is an administrator/vice-principal.

    4.) Anyone defending the officer or the teacher (yes, I said the teacher as well) in this case needs to turn in their human being card because you aren’t worthy of being one.

    Reply
    • MathVale says:

      October 30, 2015 at 7:51 am

      It is hard to watch, but we do not know all the facts and media rumors swirl. I hesitate to indict every person so quick to defend the cop or teacher. How often do we see teachers falsely accused as in the LA case? Then the public seems ready to jump on an emotional bandwagon and destroy a teacher.

      PBS had a great series on about the Italian Americans. One shocking event was a mob lynching of many Italian immigrants in New Orleans. No one was brought to justice and the local papers praised the mass murder of many innocent people. It started also the long unfair label of “mafia” which my kind, law abiding grandfather hated.

      The law was created to try and avoid mob rule when emotions run high. By our system, the cop DOES deserve a defense. That is not inhuman. He will have likely have his day in court. And as far as judging the teacher, there but for the grace of God go I.

      I do not know what is more disturbing. The cops excessive and dangerous actions, or the anger from people ready to be judge, jury, and executioner while framing this incident in a personal, ideological, and political fury. I thought we were better than that.

      Reply
    • concerned mom says:

      October 30, 2015 at 8:02 am

      4) is uncalled for

      I will give the teacher the benefit of the doubt until all the fact are in (and i am sure charges will be filed against the SRO so more will come out) – internet due process if you will.

      If it is true that the teacher said she got what she deserved then he needs to be fired also, but it needs to be verified first.

      There was an administrator in the room and that may have changed the dynamic of the teacher’s role – teachers on this blog have stated they hate doing test prep, etc. but they have no choice because the administration demands it.

      I find that on this site, as soon as someone has a different POV or just asks a question counter to the main beliefs stated here, they are attacked.

      Now I will cease being a human (and block this site from my browser) – woof woof woof

      Reply
      • MathVale says:

        October 30, 2015 at 12:20 pm

        Agreed. It is like an angry mob here ready to condemn based on rumors and innuendo. The facts must be played out. We may never get the full story and people aren’t always truthful. I, too, will surrender my homo sapien DNA. Anger is understandable. But c’mon people. It is beginning to look like Fox and Friends on this blog.

    • Duane Swacker says:

      October 30, 2015 at 11:16 am

      If I may add to your thought: “Anyone defending the officer or the teacher OR THE ADMINISTRATOR. . . “

      Reply
14. KrazyTA says:

    October 29, 2015 at 10:42 pm

    The LATIMES has an article about the incident—

    Link: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-girl-thrown-punishment-unfair-20151029-story.html

    There is also an editorial, 10-29-2015, by the LATIMES.

    I understand that tempers are flaring. But let me say up front:

    1), Violence per se does not freak me out.

    2), I am a firm believer in self-defense. That includes teachers defending themselves against vicious assaults by violent students.

    That said, after reading the comments in the threads to the two pieces mentioned above, I think that some people have made what I consider to be the same fundamental mistake that gangbangers [real ones, not the wannabes] make: they don’t understand the difference between fear and respect.

    The officer acted as if he could frighten and threaten her into compliance, then responded with a violent response that did not match the situation. This is not only much less than I would expect a mature responsible adult to think and do, I think that the school admins failed to respond in an appropriate way. Even more, I do not hold police officers to lesser standards but to higher ones. The violence was not inevitable; it was, in fact, avoidable and almost [not quite] the worst possible outcome.

    That’s how I see it…

    😐

    Reply
    • KrazyTA says:

      October 29, 2015 at 10:54 pm

      I just saw this on HuffPostED—

      Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/assaulted-student-is-a-recent-orphan-living-in-foster-care_5631493be4b00aa54a4ca771?utm_hp_ref=education&ir=Education&section=education

      The young woman’s attorney stated:

      [start]

      The attorney for a 16-year-old student who was thrown across a classroom during an arrest says the officer should be jailed for his actions.

      Attorney Todd Rutherford said Wednesday that the girl went to the hospital Monday night and has a cast on her arm and has complained of neck, back and psychological injuries.

      In an interview with the New York Daily News, Rutherford also said that the student is a recent orphan who lost her mother and is currently living in a foster home.

      [end]

      Unless the lawyer is lying, this is precisely why the easy way out—quick recourse to intimidation, threats and physical violence—were so completely inappropriate in this situation.

      Didn’t anybody in school admin or the officer in question take even one second to consider whether talking with her, calming her down, and finding out why she was behaving this way, might lead to a much more positive and humane resolution of this situation?

      I don’t care the color & gender of the school admins and officer—if the above info is correct, none of them deserve to be in charge of young people ever again.

      Again, that’s the way I see it…

      😐

      Reply
      • Former Teacher says:

        October 29, 2015 at 11:09 pm

        “Unless the lawyer is lying, this is precisely why the easy way out—quick recourse to intimidation, threats and physical violence—were so completely inappropriate in this situation.”

        Disagree. Intimidation, threats, and physical violence were inappropriate not because of the student’s personal background of being an orphan and in foster care, but because they are inappropriate in this situation altogether. A cell phone and slight defiance is different than a student running after a staff member to assault them. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.

        Sorry, had to get a little critical there! 😎

      • Robert Rendo, NBCT says:

        October 30, 2015 at 12:53 am

        This student losing her mother makes the situation even more repulsive and the officer’s behavior even more reprehensible, if that at all is possible at this point.

        For shame, to put it politely . . . .

      • Robert Rendo, NBCT says:

        October 30, 2015 at 12:56 am

        I’m angry . . . .

    • KrazyTA says:

      October 30, 2015 at 1:27 am

      Former Teacher: I agree with your statement—

      “Disagree. Intimidation, threats, and physical violence were inappropriate not because of the student’s personal background of being an orphan and in foster care, but because they are inappropriate in this situation altogether. A cell phone and slight defiance is different than a student running after a staff member to assault them. The punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”

      You are not being critical but, IMHO, helping clarify what I TRIED to express and obviously didn’t get across.

      I was not using the Pity Card, for example, to “excuse” the student’s behavior—a typical concession to the “blame the victim” argument by servile defenders of various establishments—but trying to express that the intimidation, threats, and physical violence—

      “are inappropriate in this situation altogether.”

      What I was trying to get across—and obviously didn’t do a very good job of—was the notion that the officer and school admins lacked elementary traits they should have if they are to do their jobs properly, e.g., not rushing to judgment without knowing what was going on. After all, they are dealing with young adults that may be perceiving what they are doing, and how others are reacting, in ways very different from what adults in authority may be thinking and feeling.

      If I may, what the abusers in authority were lacking was the elementary understanding of the young people in their charge. What should have been a very minor incident was blown up way out of all proportion to what was actually going on—and the adults are to blame.

      I hope I got it right this time.

      Thank you for your comments.

      😎

      Reply
15. MathVale says:

    October 29, 2015 at 10:55 pm

    I am not so shocked because I worked in a school where physical restraint was a daily occurrence. But as teachers, we were trained in stages of de-escalation. Non-physical worked about half the time (I think they call it verbal judo). The rest required takedowns and holds. But there were strict guidelines on how you brought a student to the floor and how to restrain them. Some of that depended on age and size. High schoolers could be a challenge when the adrenaline goes off. For example, you would be fired immediately for weight on anywhere near the chest. Legs and arms only. You always tried to clear the classroom, but that was not always possible. Injuries were common. All teachers were expected to participate in incidents, each of which was documented. The physical actions were violent, high energy, and unpredictable. But NEVER did we do anything approaching what this SRO did. But I had to get out of there – turnover was high. The teachers that stayed are saints.

    This is not race, poor teaching, bad parenting, or any other lens we see it through. It was a student being disruptive and refusing to respond positively, and a police officer poorly trained and aggressive. The public is shocked because it was recorded. In a few weeks, the public will forget and move on to something else. Teachers will continue to deal with cell phones, disrespect, lack of support for troubled students, large classrooms, poor funding, and a sense of being blamed for every incident, every social ill, every example of poor behavior in the classroom. Fire the SRO and keep the many more good SROs helping schools. But I do not see what will change.

    Reply
    • Former Teacher says:

      October 29, 2015 at 11:11 pm

      Amen!

      Reply
16. Lloyd Lofthouse says:

    October 29, 2015 at 11:12 pm

    There are different types of assault.

    In criminal law, the attempted battery type of assault requires a Specific Intent to commit battery. An intent to frighten will not suffice for this form of assault.

    There can be no assault if the act does not produce a true apprehension of harm in the victim. There must be a reasonable fear of injury. The usual test applied is whether the act would induce such apprehension in the mind of a reasonable person. The status of the victim is taken into account. A threat made to a child might be sufficient to constitute an assault, while an identical threat made to an adult might not.

    “An aggravated assault, punishable in all states as a felony, is committed when a defendant intends to do more than merely frighten the victim. Common types of aggravated assaults are those accompanied by an intent to kill, rob, or rape. An assault with a dangerous weapon is aggravated if there is an intent to cause serious harm. Pointing an unloaded gun at a victim to frighten the individual is not considered an aggravated assault.”

    I think the victim should have had a reasonable fear of injury in this case, but, as seen in the paragraph above, to be charged for aggravated assault, it must be proven beyond a doubt in court that the defendant intended to do more than merely frighten the victim.

    “A defendant adjudged to have committed civil assault is liable for damages. The question of the amount that should be awarded to the victim is determined by a jury. Compensatory Damages, which are aimed at compensating the victim for the injury, are common. Nominal damages, a small sum awarded for the invasion of a right even though there has been no substantial injury, may be awarded. In some cases, courts allow Punitive Damages, which are designed to punish the defendant for the wrongful conduct.”

    “The punishment for criminal assault is a fine, imprisonment, or both. Penalties are more severe when the assault is aggravated. Many states have statutes dividing criminal assault into various degrees. As in aggravated assault, the severity of the crime, the extent of violence and harm, and the criminal intent of the defendant are all factors considered in determining the sentence imposed.”

    http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Assault+(crime)

    “The crimes of assault, assault and battery, and aggravated assault all involve intentional harm inflicted on one person by another. Any crime involving a physical attack (or even the threat of an attack) is usually classified as an assault, a battery, or both. Depending on the seriousness of the attack (or the dangerousness of the weapon used), these acts can rise to the level of aggravated assault.”

    “Simple Versus Aggravated Assault
    The criminal laws of many states classify assaults as either simple or aggravated, according to the gravity of the harm that occurs—or is likely to occur if the assaulter follows through and strikes the victim. Aggravated assault is a felony that may involve an assault committed with a weapon or with the intent to commit a serious crime, such as rape. (Some assault laws name the aggravating factor—for example, “assault with a deadly weapon.”) An assault may also be defined as aggravated if it occurs in the course of a relationship that the legal system regards as worthy of special protection (see “Aggravated Assault Case Example 2″ below for more discussion). In the absence of factors such as these, the crime tends to be simple assault, a misdemeanor.”

    http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/assault-battery-aggravated-assault-33775.html

    If this case goes to court and doesn’t settle outside of court, it will be up to the judge/jury to decide if it is a simple assault, a misdemeanor, or an aggravated assault, a felony.

    I think that school district will offer a significant sum of money, according to the victim’s family, and settle out of court to avoid the bad press that would follow a court trial. If the mother turns down the settlement offer and decides to press charges, then it will go to court, but she will need a lawyer who will take it pro-bono or on consignment (I don’t remember the correct term but this means the same thing). If the lawyer takes it on consignment, then he/she might take as much as 50% of whatever a jury would award, but if the amount is excessive, the school district might appeal and drag this out for years.

    It is seldom if ever as easy as some would like it to be, becasue our legal system is built on the premise that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty in court.

    “Broadly speaking, the use of force by law enforcement officers becomes necessary and is permitted under specific circumstances, such as in self-defense or in defense of another individual or group.”

    “There is no single, universally agreed-upon definition of use of force. The International Association of Chiefs of Police has described use of force as the “amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject” [1].

    “A Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) analysis of national data on citizen complaints about use of force found that in large departments (those with 100 or more sworn officers), the complaint rate for police use of force was 6.6 complaints per 100 sworn officers. Of these complaints, 8 percent had sufficient evidence to take disciplinary action against the officer [3].”

    http://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/officer-safety/use-of-force/pages/welcome.aspx

    Reply
17. TC says:

    October 29, 2015 at 11:55 pm

    Since when does arresting somebody mean giving them a potential serious head trauma? Flipping somebody on their head is not a good idea. Just basic common sense.

    Reply
18. Christine Langhoff says:

    October 30, 2015 at 12:31 am

    The entire incident could be used as a case study for how to deal with teenage behavior in a classroom. So many things went wrong here; I only hope something might be learned.

    I read somewhere that the proximate cause for the officer’s being summoned was that the student would not actively participate in class. My first question is why must she “actively” participate? Is this a no excuses situation, with the teacher held to a scripted lesson? Is he penalized if some kids are off task?

    What about the teacher? Is he a five-week wonder, alt-certified, lacking any understanding of adolescent psych or child development? Has he taken the time to check in with the girl to find out what’s up with her? From the video, when the officer arrives, she’s not out of her seat, shouting or causing a noisy disturbance. She may be defiant, but she’s quietly so. She doesn’t seem to be interacting with the other kids. Addressing her defiance could wait; by choosing to say to the girl, okay, we’ll talk about his later, the teacher remains in control, the other kids know she hasn’t gotten a pass and class can continue.

    So the second adult gets called in. Does he know the child? Is his only role as a disciplinarian? Does the school have any other resources, a guidance counselor who has some background knowledge about the student? A school psychologist? A nurse? So many kids show up to school dealing with a myriad of social issues that responding with rigid expectations for behavior is not constructive – kindness, love even, works better.

    And as it turns out, this young woman has recently lost her parents and is in foster care.

    In what well-resourced school would every adult whose path regularly crosses this child’s NOT know what she is going through? Wouldn’t she have been told “if you’re having a hard day or need a break you can come to see me” in a safe space. Wouldn’t her teacher, whether well or ill prepared have seen her “defiance” in a different way? Wouldn’t that have been a better outcome for all her classmates, too? Instead of witnesses to violence, the could have been witnesses to compassion.

    Reply
    • Ellen Lubic says:

      October 30, 2015 at 2:05 am

      Thanks pal…Christine…i too wondered if the teacher was a TFA 5 week wonder who had no idea how to control a class. I was interested in seeing that most kids stayed in their scattered desk seats, and focused on their computers. The closest girl to the action just had a momentary look of surprise on her face…looked like a classroom in a KIPP prison school.

      I hope this student sues with a great lawyer and has someone dedicated and selfless mentoring her, and that she wins millions from the Sheriff’s Dept, and the City which hires them, and the school district which set this all in motion.

      Then she should move to another city and find a good school and declare herself a liberated minor…and find herself a really reliable therapist to help her sort it all out. This poor kid was a setup for all this violence at the hands of the SCHOOL and the crazed ill trained cop. They all deserve to lose their jobs and be indicted as accessories to assault and battery and for the cop add, abuse of power.

      Reply
    • Lloyd Lofthouse says:

      October 30, 2015 at 9:42 am

      This is exactly what EVERYONE condemning the officer (and sometimes all campus police in every school just for what this one CPO did) or defending him should be doing—-asking all of these great questions and expecting not to get answers for all of them because of confidentiality laws regarding children who are not legally adults yet.

      In a court, the judge can maintain the privacy laws regarding a minor child by clearing the court of an audience and then letting all the witnesses take the stand to reveal evidence that might provide a balance that reveals both sides of the issue.

      Condemning this officer out of hand like a mob of vigilantes without all of the answers and evidence is wrong on so many counts. Any vigilante quick to judge and screaming for the blood of the CPO who disagrees with me should take a break and read Grisham’s latest book “Rogue Lawyer” for a reality check.

      And before any literature purist jumps on Grisham for writing popular best sellers, remember that he was a lawyer first before he was an author. This is a world he knows well where outsiders are quick to judge without knowing both sides of an issue and all of the facts—even the lies that some witnesses sometimes tell.

      Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, John Grisham was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southern, Mississippi law practice. After graduating from law school at Ole Miss in 1981, he went on to practice law for nearly a decade specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. One day at the DeSoto County courthouse, Grisham overheard the harrowing testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and was inspired to start a novel exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had murdered her assailants.

      Most if not all of the time, situations like this one where the CPO slammed the girl to the floor while she was still sitting at her desk being defiant are complex and filled with shades of gray.

      Who is this officer? What is his background? What happens if he is a former Iraq veteran who has a service related disability called PTSD and is quick to anger when a student is defiant and refuses to do what the teacher told them?

      At the school where I taught, it was a district rule that students were not allowed to eat, drink or use cell phones or video games in the classroom and far too often when they did and teachers told them to spit the gum out or throw the soda in the trash or hand over the cell phone or video game, students would refuse and CPOs had to be called. In the school where I taught, CPOs never did what this one did. They just came and took the student out. They never asked the same thing the teachers did to spit it out or hand it over. They just escorted the student to the office. The reason they were escorted is because without the CPOs troubled students who were often defiant often went AWOL and left the campus instead of going to the office on their own. Only once did I see two CPOs lay hands on a defiant student and it was obvious that this girl was on drugs and had exploded in anger. In this incident, the CPO’s had their arms hooked under her arms of the girl, and they had her facing backwards as they carried her down the hall toward the office as she screamed and thrashed in an attempt to break free of the hold they had on her so she couldn’t hit them or bite them. These CPO’s were calm and there was no sign they had used excessive force to subdue this girl.

      Reply
      • FLERP! says:

        October 30, 2015 at 10:00 am

        All true.

        “Who is this officer? What is his background?”

        This is obviously complete speculation, but when I see a muscled up man explode like that, the first thing that comes to my mind is “steroids.”

      • MathVale says:

        October 30, 2015 at 12:23 pm

        Steroids? Is this now a legal defense? ‘Roid rage? I’ve been on the other side of these rumor mills and innuendos. It is not pleasant. The courts and police are not always effective in getting the truth in the name of expedience or indifference. Let’s get some facts.

      • FLERP! says:

        October 30, 2015 at 12:27 pm

        It’s not a legal defense. It’s my utter speculation.

      • Lloyd Lofthouse says:

        October 30, 2015 at 10:26 pm

        Yes, let’s wait for the facts that are not based on rumors and also take into account that the “little” girl who was slammed is protected by confidentiality laws because she is a statutory minor and the odds are against us ever known much about her. The COP is being pilloried in public while the “little” girl isn’t.

        It’s is obvious that knocking the “little” girl’s desk over and slamming her to the ground was excessive and uncalled for and the officer has lost his job to a job he probably wasn’t suited for.

        I just saw the video and I think the officer overdid it—way overdid it. He should have called for backup and then maybe four of them could have lifted the “little” girl (who doesn’t look all that little in the video—it looked to me that she could weight as much as the officer) while she sat in the desk she refused to leave and carried her from the room to the office to talk to her counselor.

19. sozo says:

    October 30, 2015 at 1:02 am

    Short of being a physical threat to property, herself or someone else, there is no scenario that makes this action acceptable, period.

    Reply
20. sdalconzo says:

    October 30, 2015 at 1:04 am

    by action, i am referring to the officer.

    Reply
21. Ken Watanabe says:

    October 30, 2015 at 3:01 am

    SC sherriff also sent a message that blamed her disobedience for consequence. That speaks itself for typical mentality of police enforcement that refuses to admit the failing system to provide an appropriate training to their cops in school.

    Reply
22. booklady says:

    October 30, 2015 at 4:22 am

    Attorney Todd Rutherford set up a Go Fund Me page for medical/educational expenses for the teen. 1,000-plus people donated within 12 hours.

    Reply
23. tuppercooks says:

    October 30, 2015 at 8:01 am

    I call BS, sorry. What should have been done? The nuts will be in charge of the nuthouse if behavior like hers is allowable.

    Reply
    • Dienne says:

      October 30, 2015 at 8:23 am

      What “behavior like hers”? We don’t really know what she did. The other students are apparently saying she had her phone out for a minute and when the teacher caught her she apologized and put it away. *He* escalated it for no reason.

      As far as “what should have been done?” you might as well ask “how should the teacher do his job?” Dealing with resistance/sass/misbehavior/whatever you want to call it is about half the job description of being a high school teacher. If he can’t manage that, he should reconsider his career.

      BTW, I work in a law firm. I deal with angry, even abusive clients fairly often. Gosh, oh gosh, what am I to do? How should I handle it? Guess my only choices is to call a police officer to have them flipped on their heads and thrown across the room.

      If I want to get fired, that is. What I actually do – what my job requires me to do – is to calmly say, “I’m so sorry to hear that sir, what can I do to help?”

      Reply
      • tuppercooks says:

        October 30, 2015 at 9:12 am

        The behavior is the inability to follow a basic command. Seriously, who’s in charge here? I don’t care if you’re black, white or green, if a cop tells you to move your ass, you move your ass. There’s a whole generation out there that think they’re entitled to not listen to authority, that they’re immune to it.

      • FLERP! says:

        October 30, 2015 at 9:20 am

        Even assuming all that’s correct, tuppercooks, there remains the question of what’s the appropriate response to a refusal to move one’s ass.

      • Peter Smyth says:

        October 30, 2015 at 1:26 pm

        One thing overlooked is what the administrator in the room did or didn’t do. It clear the Kenny girl encouraged kids to video well before the SRO made his move. Any administrator should have taken the cue to move all the other kids out out the classroom, then assessed the situation, called for backup, even guidance.
        I doubt there would have been anything to video.
        If the administrator didn’t see the possibilities, she was clueless.

      • Ken Watanabe says:

        October 30, 2015 at 10:04 am

        The real BS is the myth that anyone appointed to SRO has any right to enforce his power to subdue, restrain, arrest, and even shoot the kids in non-combative situation like this–because he/she is well-trained, and capable of handling the situation like this.The incident proved wrong. This is just one of those school incidents caused by SRO’s gross mishandling of classroom situation.

        It’s just lucky she didn’t sustain a serious injury.

        Ben Fields deserves consequence for his misconduct. And so does SC sheriff for keeping this monstrous mad dog on the loose despite his previous record of forceful interrogation. No excuse for their inability to appoint cops to SRO with proper and adequate training.

      • Dienne says:

        October 30, 2015 at 10:05 am

        Interesting version of “free country” you live in.

      • KrazyTA says:

        October 30, 2015 at 10:16 am

        Dienne: don’t feed the trolls.

        They just want the attention.

        In this case by insisting that others bow down, in mindlessly servile fashion, to authority just as he/she does.

        😎

        P.S. See my comment just above with the long excerpt from an LATIMES article, 10-29-2015, “How other teachers might have handled the texting South Carolina teen.”

      • KrazyTA says:

        October 30, 2015 at 10:17 am

        Correction: “just above” should read “just below.”

        😎

      • MathVale says:

        October 30, 2015 at 12:29 pm

        A teacher’s job description does not include abuse and disrespect. Neither does the job description of any one working at a law firm. Because you have clients who behave poorly does not justify poor behavior in the classroom. Perhaps if we had less acceptance of poor behavior and stop condemning teachers while tying their hands in the classroom to address behavior, you would have less angry and abusive clients as adults. Perhaps your law firm needs to set guidelines on how clients should behave rather than let their employees be abused. I have seen small business owners ask customers to leave or ban customers from establishments if they treat the employees poorly. Because you have to take the abuse, does not mean all teachers must as well.

24. KrazyTA says:

    October 30, 2015 at 9:02 am

    This appeared in the print edition of the 10-30-2015 LATIMES (with 197 comments when I looked) under the title “How other teachers might have handled the texting South Carolina teen.” *In the interests of succinctness, I leave out the preliminary paragraphs.*

    [start]

    Kent Peterson resorted to comedy to defuse a bad situation.

    Peterson, an eight-year elementary school teacher, made it a point not to raise his voice at students. But one fifth-grader at Hancock Park Elementary tried Peterson’s patience by standing on his chair and yelling when he got frustrated and needed attention. After one episode, “my blood pressure just started to rise, and that’s never a good situation for anyone,” Peterson said.

    Frustrated, Peterson thought back to his training in improvisational comedy, and got up on his chair as well. Then he asked his students if anyone else wanted to stand on their chair. The class started to giggle. The defiant boy pouted, but eventually sat down and began to pay attention.

    “The scene wasn’t going well, and when that happens you throw a left turn in to liven it up,” he said.

    Peterson, who taught in Los Angeles Unified School District from 2002 to 2010, began letting his students occasionally stand on their chairs to discuss their feelings and issues. Now a staff member at USC Rossier School of Education, he said he only called school security to his classroom twice during his teaching career.

    When faced with disruptions or students on cellphones, Peterson said he would try to “maintain a level of professionalism and be calm and direct.” Instead of calling in administrators, he would tell students several times that they were expected to put away their phones. He would then leave the student and check in after five minutes.

    “I’d ask them if they were ready to have a conversation with me,” Peterson said. “It would be quick and dirty; I wouldn’t neglect my entire class for the individual. But I was trying to show them that I cared more about them than the perceived disrespect.”

    Sherlett Hendy Newbill makes clear cellphone rules, but still collects up to 20 a week.

    At the beginning of the school year, Dorsey High School physical education teacher Sherlett Hendy Newbill carefully goes over cellphone rules with students so they know the consequences. Students can use cellphones only for assignments, usually about 10% of class time.

    Despite a first-time warning, Newbill collects 10 to 20 cellphones a week early in the semester.

    “Typically, I walk over and put my hand out, and they give it to me,” said Newbill, who has taught for 19 years.

    When students refuse, Newbill calls security. If a student becomes belligerent, she waits for help from an unarmed campus aide and resumes the class.

    Newbill said she generally does not physically intervene during student fights. She prefers to wait for another adult to arrive before stepping in so one person can focus on each student. But if immediate safety is an issue, Newbill said, she will act alone.

    One time, a parent accused her of handling a girl too forcefully, Newbill said. “I said I treated her as if she was my own child. I wanted to make sure she was safe and the other lady was safe,” she recalled.

    “I was really appalled by what I saw,” Newbill said of the video from the South Carolina school. “I couldn’t believe that was happening.”

    Joshua Pechthalt watched South Carolina and considered how he would have handled the situation.

    The president of the California Federation of Teachers said he avoided calling security into his classroom when he taught at Manual Arts High School for nearly 20 years.
    Sometimes Pechthalt would put a problem student in another classroom temporarily where they could sit in the back quietly. “If you keep them in class, you have 35 other kids looking at you wondering what’s going on,” he said.

    Pechthalt said that after viewing the video, he wondered how he would’ve approached the girl. “There was so much defiance there,” he said. “It seemed like there was something deep happening.”

    Like others interviewed, Pechthalt said disruptive behavior was often a sign of problems at home. Instead of confronting students in the classroom, Pechthalt said, he would try to speak with them out of class or steer them to one of the school’s mental health professionals.

    “Kids are very closed; they’re not going to tell you that their parents had a big fight or their cousin was shot at first,” he said. “I was lucky that I had a lot of resources. I’m not sure many schools have them anymore.”

    Because there are fewer psychologists or aides on campuses now, Pechthalt said, some teachers will keep a disruptive student in the class if the defiant student is not preventing others from learning. This option can be a better alternative than spending valuable classroom time to track down other school employees to mete out discipline, he said.

    “I don’t think that works well,” he said. Calling in police or security was a last resort, Pechthalt said. “That almost always makes things worse in the long run.”

    [end]

    Link: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-na-teacher-discipline-20151029-story.html

    The officer and the teacher and the admins made very bad choices.

    😎

    Reply
    • MathVale says:

      October 30, 2015 at 12:34 pm

      It is far too easy to sit back, second guess the teacher, and claim superiority when these teachers were not involved in this specific incident. If teachers were being honest, they would admit they do not always best handle incidents that spiral out of control nor know exactly what to do each time something unpredictable happens. It is good to learn from this incident. But the teacher merely called in the administration. The SRO did the desk flipping and dragged the student. Let’s put this into perspective.

      Reply
      • KrazyTA says:

        October 30, 2015 at 3:27 pm

        Math Vale:

        The admins and the SRO were the authorities in control, not the teacher. If I were to write the comment again, I would leave out “and the teacher” in the last sentence.

        Thank you for the chance to clarify.

        😎

25. NoBrick says:

    October 30, 2015 at 9:57 am

    A gesture that breaches the ordained demeanor of prostrate obedience, pays no
    tribute to the institution. While the desire to spend one’s life “institutionalized” is
    favored by many, some “free spirits” find no comfort in the “superiority/submission”
    sequence. Sanctioning dominance, is a “false god” to them.

    Reply
    • Duane Swacker says:

      October 30, 2015 at 11:23 am

      Exacto!

      Reply
      • NoBrick says:

        October 30, 2015 at 6:24 pm

        Jai Guru Deva Om…

      • Duane Swacker says:

        October 30, 2015 at 8:05 pm

        George to you too!!!

    • MathVale says:

      October 30, 2015 at 12:35 pm

      How about just putting cell phones away? Or am I not reading enough into this at a deeper meaning.

      Reply
      • tuppercooks says:

        October 30, 2015 at 1:35 pm

        That would be a Civil Rights violation for sure.

26. patriciahale says:

    October 30, 2015 at 10:33 am

    There’s a GoFundMe page for the student. She has a broken arm.
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gofundme-tarted-spring-valley-hs-girl-thrown-video-article-1.2416953

    Reply
27. Fred in NH says:

    October 30, 2015 at 11:41 am

    I really can’t believe that so many commenters are calling for the resource officers head. The girl defied a direct order from a police officer. What was he supposed to do? Say “oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were having a bad day” and walk away? No! She gave him no choice but to use force to remove her from the class. He may have been a little over-aggressive, but moving someone who is resisting isn’t easy, especially when they are wedged into a desk-chair thing.

    Allowing people to think it’s ok to ignore police officers is a very dangerous path to head down. Do we really want anarchy? I’m all for passive resistance when it makes sense, but this cop was trying to do his job and now his career is over. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the one filing a lawsuit.

    Reply
    • Susan Lee Schwartz says:

      October 30, 2015 at 5:27 pm

      This cop’s job was to manhandle a disobedient child who would not hand over a phone, not a gun? Hmmm. That kin dog thinking really worries me.

      Remember no matter her size…she is considered a CHILD.

      I don’t think HE should be fired… but certainly he was wrong. Perhaps, he has a history of inappropriate behavior, poor analyses, or that his manner with ALL conflicts is questionable. Does he have a history of abuse on the job so that he ends up in a school? What about at home…any domestic abuse?
      BUT THEN he should never have been placed in a school!
      Flerp…the internet is not a place where truth can be discovered.

      Moreover, it is HIS boss and the DOE administrators who should be fired for improperly training him to work in a school!

      The school administration should be DISCIPLINED for notPROPERLY TRAINING the security staff to deal with CHILDREN — .WHOSE FRONTAL CORTEX IS NOT DEVELOPED … and THAT is where critical thinking and such decision making is done!

      THAT is why they are considered children no matter their body size.

      And where was the common sense of that teacher who though it appropriate to engage in a conflict with a disobedient child, delaying the lesson and undermining her own authority?

      I would never have made a fuss, and if the other kids in the class saw my reluctance to let a child bait me, as a reason to try the same thing… then I would deal with that IF it happened… which Flerp, it never did — when similar disobedience was displayed in my presence.

      I mean, even in my worst classes in the Bronx, after SO MANY weeks of school, if a child was baiting me or undermining my interesting lessons… the kids could tell by the look on my face that I was displeased, and knew I would deal with it in a professional manner. They trusted me as a professional, even the hard core bullies did not act out with me, often.

      In fact, in one school, the children in the class got very, very QUIET when a boy gave me lip–after being told to stop throwing spitballs at me when my back was turned
      “Why you pIckin on me?”
      .

      No one was brave enough to tell this bully to cut it out, but he got no encouragement, and many just ‘slunk’ in their seats when he got nasty and when they saw that I ignored the taunt, and just continued with the lesson as if he were invisible.

      He sat down and sulked, BECAUSE HE LOST… and his mama was called that afternoon, for a conference with me and the principal.

      If he had escalated and got in my face, even then, I would have smiled and asked him if he wanted to take a short break and go to the library or the office… and I would have called for an escort… usually the gym teacher who the kids liked. not the security guard which we did have downstairs at the door.

      If this teacher was unaware by OCTOBER of the nature of this student, she certainly could have called for a conference with the child, a counsellor, and a supervisor not to mention a parent, and find out why she is acting out…for THAT is what refusing to hand over something is.

      All the folks who see this lack of aggression on my part as UNDERMINING authority do not know what her home-life is like, or what this CHILD endures after school to make her this way.

      Yeah.. there are kids who need the riot act read to them… but NOT IN CLASS, and not over a phone. That cop’s response was not even appropriate on a train.
      He must have imagined he was in a prison situation where absolute obedience is necessary.

      Reply
    • Susan Lee Schwartz says:

      October 30, 2015 at 5:39 pm

      People? Dangerous path… like the lesson that kids learned when a tennis player was body slammed in front of his hotel?

      R U serious?

      These are children, no matter their size, and there ARE ways to explain to a young mindS that respecting a police officer is important.

      If anything, the lesson was not a good one, and responses ilike yours are very troubling.

      Reply
    • Donna says:

      October 30, 2015 at 6:22 pm

      When in a hostage situation, cops don’t shoot first and ask questions later. When someone is jumping off a bridge, cops don’t whack a person in the knees and hope they land in the water safely.

      Flipping a child backwards in a desk, then grabbing and throwing her across the floor was like trying to kill a fly with explosives, don’t you think? His excessive force, super aggressive excessive force, was unwarranted. There is no defense for his behavior against a seated child, female to boot.

      Reply
28. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

    October 30, 2015 at 3:22 pm

    See long commentary on this here, including my own opinion on how the teacher let this escalate.
    http://www.opednews.com/articles/Dem-Prez-Candidates-Respon-by-Rob-Kall-Bernie-Sanders-2016-Presidential-Candidate_Hillary-2016_Martin-Omalley_Police-Brutality-151028-495.html#comment569622

    Well, if that was me,— I would know more about that child to begin with… CHILD… not girl. I she came with a long list of behavioral issues, I would know how useless it would be to dissuade her in class…and besides I would have OBJECTIVES to meet for the lesson. Moreover, If I knew I would lose and have to call for help, it would demise by effectiveness with the other problem kids.

    I would ignore it, and try to talk with her, and then with her parents, before writing it up and giving it to the guidance counsellor or dean of discipline…if there were such entities.

    In no way would I have called in SECURITY.

    There was no reason for the cop to be in that room.
    The teacher was out of control when she needed to call for help for infractions of the rules.

    The op was out of control when his ego got in the way, and his training was non-existent, as this was a child… even a big girl is a child which is why sex with one is considered rape.

    The school authorities were out of control when they handed over the enforcement discipline to the police, which in this nation, have become militarized not just in their weaponry, but in their minds… treating anyone and everyone who refuses to do as they say, as the enemy… look at the takedown of that tennis player outside his hotel.

    I am no looney who wants to see our police demonized.

    They do a dangerous job in fulfilling the CONSTITUTION’S role to “ensure domestic tranquility,’ BUT to ‘provide of rate common good’ the TOP DOGS, THE politicians, and legislators, governors and mayors, have to get past their political agendas and remember THE CIVLI RIGHTS of our citizens should mean that a child in a school setting , cannot be brutalized because a cop’s ego feels threatened.

    another comment I made is next.

    Reply
29. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

    October 30, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    I had occasional discipline problems, but many evaporated when the kids discovered:
    1-that it was worth their time to pay attention to what I offered while having und learning, and when BOTH PARENTS AND THE ADMINISTRATION stepped in to ensure that my PROFESSIONAL classroom PRACTICE remained a quiet and safe environment to Learn… as the real, authentic NATIONAL STANDARDS research reported was a PRINCIPLE OF LEARNING!

    … but then, those STANDARDS based on a billion dollar Pew research project with Harvard, DISAPPEARED when Bushie the 2nd invented d the NCLB act. That replaced emphasis on LEARNINGwith testing kids and evaluation teachers OUT OF THE SCHOOLS.
    I began teaching in the sixties, but before the late eighties, I never encountered situations that would require security or police intervention. Something has changed, and I have no answers, beyond saying that there should be no need for police in a school if schools were properly run.

    And the culture of violence on television and video games adds a dimension of danger never encountered in the past, where neighborhoods, religious leaders, and communities were involved…(it takes a village!).

    In the absence of the sacred values that were once part of our culture,
    http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/mander.html our media, the children reared on blood and aggression —what teacher can be expected to do more that yell for HELP!

    Defunding the schools meant overcrowding and lack resources & staff to deal with troubled kids. It costs money to address troubled children, early on, such as in pre-k an primary grades. It is not hard to spot trouble early , but staff and resources are needed, and instead class size expands, and troubled learners are mainstreamed. Teachers get blamed, not supported and become victimized by the media.

    ” THEY” (the educational industrial complex of zillionaires) did this, and even the question as to how little ole me– the teacher –would deal with this, is absurd. I would run for my life, and that is what teachers do… most of them leave in 3 to 5 years!

    The fourth PRINCIPLE OF LEARNING (Pew National Standards research on Effort -based learning)) stated that for learning to occur, the environment must be safe and quiet (and well supplied). Then teachers do not have to worry about calling in the police!

    Reply
30. Susan Lee Schwartz says:

    October 30, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    How should a teacher handle a kid who won’t pay attention, or is breaking discipline rules ( why not ask Eva Moskowitz?)

    Oh well, -the devil is in the details:
    In my four decades in many different schools, suburban and city, I have discovered that all my problems evaporated when:
    1- class size was manageable, so that I could really get to know each child, which was the best way to recommend action. CLASS SIZE MATTERS!

    It is the one thing that has been proven to be crucial to LEARNING. I got to know the parents, too! They got to know me, and THAT is crucial!

    2- There was an established process clearly articulated TO both STUDENTS AND PARENTS. CLEAR EXPECTATIONS was the first principle of learning… a ‘standard’ set by Pew’s research!

    3- There was genuine accountability for behavior. Kids who bullied, disrupted or were aggressive to teacher or classmates KNEW, there would be accountability by both parents and school authorities… this was before parents came in ready to defend their child’s rights — even when the kids were dead wrong…. and before principals were only too happy to see a teacher (whose salary and benefits was about to rise) be harassed.

    4- In the most difficult and dangerous places, and I taught in two) I could count on the support of the administration to remove the student and arrange for both parent contact and staff interventions.
    There was a dean of discipline in my local schools when I subbed,, and few children wanted to spend time in his office, waiting for their parents. Few kids were suspended in my local schoosl, but students who were removed from class, for any length of time were isolated, and supervised in-school, within special detention classes.

    But one more thing must be added… and that is hard to comprehend… that schools are allowed to deteriorate so they will fail –the corruption is at the top, where predictable student failure is maintained http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/social-promotion–lausds-prime-mover-for-continued-and-predictable-student-failure–do-they-really-w.html

    And continued failure is facilitated in sorry ways. It has never been about students where corrupt administrations run the schools…like in Los Angeles, so this is just the end zone of a 30 year war on public education.
    http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html

    And forgive me, for introducing this, but the culture of failure that has beenALLOWED by the top DISTRICT administrators, PUTS THE BURDON on teachers and police to handle problems that should not exist, and seldom did when I was teaching, even in the worse schools.

    In NYC principals from hell was a subject on the NYC Teacher blog, and the UFT Newsletter… TOO MANY encourage students to harass teachers IN ORDER TO BREAK TENURE.

    And the police needed to be called when the principal set up Lorna Stremcha to be assaulted. Instead she had to sue in civil court to prove what he did, because the principal used students to bully teachers https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/background-information-bravery-bullies-blowhards-lorna-stremcha.

    I love teaching. I miss teaching. But I would not be a teacher today, even for a six figure salary, if my school needed metal detectors and police presence… at a time when a man who would be President thinks a ‘solution’ to stopping n armed gunman is to arm the teacher.

    Reply
31. Ellen Lubic says:

    October 30, 2015 at 5:21 pm

    And today there is this…I would love to know more about this school. The cop is the football coach…and his team and others seems to not care that he brutalized a young girl.

    Ellen

    ———————————————————————————————

    The Daily Beast CHEAT SHEET
    PM
    EDITION

    30
    Oct

    1. SURPRISE
    Students Walk Out for Fired Deputy

    Hundreds of students walked out of Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina on Friday morning in support of the deputy sheriff who was fired after violently arresting a black student. Students reportedly chanted “Free Fields” in support of Ben Fields, a school resource officer and football coach who was caught on tape forcibly removing a black student from her desk, allegedly because she was disrupting class. The students walked into the school atrium and then returned to class after administrators addressed them.

    Reply
32. S. Smith says:

    October 30, 2015 at 9:48 pm

    It just seems to me that the first rule of dealing with teenagers is “when you butt heads, nobody wins”. Good teachers understand this and learn to sidestep, deflect, and deal with these issues quietly after class.

    Reply

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