Arrest Of S.C. Student Sparks FBI Civil Rights Investigation

A still from one of the videos of the incident at Spring Valley HS.

“There is no excuse for violence inside a school”, Clinton tweeted. When she remains seated, Fields puts his forearm around her neck, flips her desk over, and drags her toward the front of the classroom before handcuffing her.

The officer, identified as Richland County Sheriff’s Deputy Ben Fields, can be heard on cell phone video telling the girl to get up from her desk.

Robinson says he believes the deputy knew things would turn physical – he says Fields asked a neighboring student to move their desk and also removed the female student’s laptop before grabbing her and pushing the desk backward.

Clinton’s first speech as a candidate was on criminal justice reform, and the candidate is scheduled to speak at a NAACP event in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday, where the topic of criminal justice reform is expected to come up.

“It’s very disturbing what happened today”.

No one was injured, the sheriff’s department said.

Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin said, “We need an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this incident and see that justice is done”. “Then the officer was called to actually have the student removed from that location”.

The district plans to add additional training for staff, teachers, and administrators about when it is and is not to involve a school resource officer in a discipline situation, Manning said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

In the outrageous video, the officer was attempting to arrest the girl at her Spring Valley High School after she reportedly caused a disturbance by using her cellphone.

Trial is set for January in the case of an expelled student who claims Fields targeted black students and falsely accused him of being a gang member in 2013.

“He has questions like everyone has – and he wants answers and once he has those answers, he will address them”, said Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Curtis Wilson.

Victoria Middleton, the executive director for the South Carolina branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, said: “There is no justification whatsoever for treating a child like this”.

Mr Robinson said it was a scary experience and there was no “justifiable reason” for the officer’s actions. The district said it “contracts with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department to provide School Resource Officers (SRO) throughout the district”.

The girl has been charged with disturbing schools, and she was released to her parents. I don’t ever recall a female student who is not of color (being treated this way).

“The district will not tolerate any actions that jeopardize the safety of our students”, Hamm said.

“Next, the administrator called Deputy Fields in… he asked, ‘will you move, ‘ and she said ‘no, I haven’t done anything wrong, ‘ Robinson said”.

“Pending the outcome of the investigation, the district has directed that the school resource officer not return to any school in the district”, Richland Two Superintendent Debbie Hamm said in a prepared statement.

“There is absolutely no place in this district, or any other district for that matter, for what happened here yesterday”.

The National Association of School Resource Officers, which provides training for many school-based police, has said SROs should not be involved in discipline.

Mr Fields has previously been sued and accused of excessive force and racial profiling.

The incident started when a teacher at Spring Valley High School in Columbia told the student to leave the classroom, CNN affiliate WIS reported.

Fields has also received commendations for his work in schools. “They’re there to serve as role models”.

Each high school in the district has two resource officers while each middle school, elementary school and alternative school has one officer.