UPDATE 10/27/15:
Ben Fields has now been suspended without pay, according to CNN. A third video of the arrest is also purported to exist, footage the Associated Press reports as showing some sort of a strike on the officer from the student. Of course, no such information changes the fact that a large male adult ignored his duty of deescalating the situation in favor of assaulting a teenager. There's also this recently unveiled fact regarding the officer's personal life:
UPDATE 7:15 p.m.:
A Spring Valley High student named Aaron Johnson who was in the classroom at the time of the arrest has contacted Gawker and given an eyewitness account of the situation. Johnson also said a student was arrested after reportedly coming to the defense of the student in the video.
Johnson told Gawker over a Twitter DM:
The Richland County Sheriff's Department confirmed to Buzzfeed that a second student was arrested.
UPDATE 6:20 p.m.:
Officer Fields can be heard threatening to put another student in jail during the arrest.
See original story below.
A video has surfaced of a female Spring Valley High School student being violently arrested by a School Resource Officer on Monday in Columbia, S.C.. This marks the second incident caught on video between a SRO and a student in just over two weeks.
In the original horrifying video (seen above), and a second video that surfaced after it offering a closer look, the student is seen sitting at a desk before being approached by the officer who then wrapped his arm around her neck. After some struggle the student’s desk falls over and the officer drags her out of her seat and to the front of the classroom where he’s heard demanding her to put her hands behind her back.
According to the same students who identified Fields, describing him as being "built like a bodybuilder," he has been violent in past years. One student even said Fields once similarly "manhandled" a pregnant woman:
A parent group called the Richland Two Black Parents Association has already put out a statement about the assault:
"Parents are heartbroken as this is just another example of the intolerance that continues to be of issue in Richland School District Two particularly with families and children of color. As we have stated in the past, we stand ready to work in collaboration to address these horrible acts of violence and inequities among our children”.
[via WISTV]
