Last week, a horrifying video surfaced of Deputy Ben Fields seizing a Spring Valley High School student and throwing her bodily across the room. Fields, who didn't exactly have a stellar record to begin with, has since been fired. Unsurprisingly, the student is taking legal action against the officer and the school. Her lawyer, Tom Rutherford, set up a GoFundMe page to help pay for legal expenses and injuries, and so far it's raised more than $40,000—almost twice the fundraising goal.
On the page, Rutherford wrote:
Jane Doe was the victim of police brutality. While seated in her desk, doing her math work, former Deputy Ben Fields forcibly removed her from the desk by choking her, flipping the desk over while she was still seated, and slinging her six feet across the classroom by her clothes. As a result, she suffers injuries to her ribs, back, neck, shoulder; a broken arm, and abrasions to her face. The funds raised will be put towards medical costs, educational expenses, and any other expenses she has to endure.
So far 1,523 people have donated to the fund in just a single day. Rutherford also set up a page for Niya Kenny, the classmate who was arrested and charged with disturbance when she stood up for Fields' victim. According to Kenny's page, the funds raised for her (about $2,000 so far) will go toward "counseling, future educational expenses, and a car."
Needless to say, the outpouring of support goes to show how heinous and unnecessary Fields' actions were. At a press conference Sheriff Leon Lott, Fields' supervisor, said, "his actions were probably something that if he would have done it over again, he would have done it differently." An investigation is ongoing.
