Do we have safety officers in our high school and if so, what are their guidelines?
Without the full context, this video is disturbing. According to reports, the female student was mouthing off, but used no physical force against the officer.
Debbie Hamm, superintendent for Richland School District Two, said in a statement officials were "deeply concerned" about the incident.
"Student safety is and always will be the district’s top priority," Hamm said. "The district will not tolerate
any actions that jeopardize the safety of our students. Pending the outcome of the investigation, the district has directed that the school resource officer not return to any school in the district."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/spring-valley-high-school-student-flung-by-official-in-video_562e9e71e4b06317990f1927
phenixrising said:
Without the full context, this video is disturbing. According to reports, the female student was mouthing off, but used no physical force against the officer.
We certainly need the full context. Right now, it is hard to understand why a security officer was even in the classroom.
I sort of feel like I am watching a scene from the Hunger Games where the capital district police brutally suppress all dissent.
There's enough on this video to see that she didn't physically aggress against the officer.Teens mouth off. That officer should have been able to diffuse the situation without touching her. This attack (yes, I called it that) was preventable and just another example of excessive force used by people expected to protect.
Looks like they’re calling in the Feds.
Sheriff contacts federal agencies to investigate Spring Valley incident
Richland County, SC (WLTX) - Sheriff Leon Lott is requesting the Federal Bureau of Investigations for South Carolina and the U.S. Justice Department to conduct an independent investigation of the incident at Spring Valley high school.
A Richland County school resource officer has been placed on administrative leave following an incident that was captured on video and circulated on social media sites across the nation.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said late Monday night that Deputy Ben Fields will not be back at any school, and is not currently working for the department, pending the results of an investigation.
Late Monday night, News19 obtained a second video of the incident. It’s a longer clip than the initial one, and some extra conversation can be heard.
“I’ve never seen anything so nasty looking, so sick to the point that you know, other students are turning away, don’t know what to do, and are just scared for their lives,” said Tony Robinson Jr., who made the recording “That’s supposed to be somebody that’s going to protect us. Not somebody that we need to be scare off, or afraid.”
http://www.wltx.com/story/news/local/2015/10/26/spring-valley-high-school-incident/74645568/
What's also disturbing is the lack of concern by the teacher and the student. They sit quietly and watch this unfold. I showed it to my 17 year old and his comment was, "These are the times we live in now. It's so .... ordinary." BINGO and events like this shouldn't be "ordinary" because ordinary makes them commonplace and commonplace makes us less sensitive to them.
Events like this are not ordinary in our district.
Our staff of school safety officers is diverse, and many are women.
We have long had officers in the high school without any reports of this type of incident.
We have just added safety officers to the middle schools.
The very fact that this video is going viral and is a national conversation shows that this behavior by the safety officer is not common and is not something being socially tolerated. This is progress.
It would be irresponsible to project this incident onto our district.
Who said they were "ordinary" in our district? I simply asked the question as to whether we had these types of officers and if so, what are their guidelines?
And no, it's not commonplace in our area but it's commonplace elsewhere and many kids - maybe not yours - see these types of videos on social media. If they view this on social media it doesn't matter to them that it's not in their backyard. To them, the behavior seems "ordinary."
kibbegirl said:
Who said they were "ordinary" in our district? I simply asked the question as to whether we had these types of officers and if so, what are their guidelines?
And no, it's not commonplace in our area but it's commonplace elsewhere and many kids - maybe not yours - see these types of videos on social media. If they view this on social media it doesn't matter to them that it's not in their backyard. To them, the behavior seems "ordinary."
In your OP you specifically referenced our district, asking "What is our policy regarding these types of officers?" I merely pointed out that we don't have "...these types of officers".
If your kids are seeing these videos on social media, then I assume you are talking to your kids about them, helping to put them in perspective.
What I pointed out is that this video seems to have cracked into a more general circulation, and a lot of the conversation around it seems to indicate people are taking it seriously and not finding it acceptable. As I said, that is progress.
I don't think there's any "progress" to be found here.
When I was in school there were no uniformed officers on the premises. Maybe if there was a specific call due to an emergency, but as a matter of routine, no. And we had some bad kids, alcohol abuse, drugs, fights, etc.
Criminalizing student misbehavior is a retrogression.
And how do you think the attitude of the other students in that room has changed, as far as respect to law and order as well as the role of the police force in their community? My guess is it's a hell of a lot worse than it was the day before.
kibbegirl said:
What's also disturbing is the lack of concern by the teacher and the student. They sit quietly and watch this unfold. I showed it to my 17 year old and his comment was, "These are the times we live in now. It's so .... ordinary." BINGO and events like this shouldn't be "ordinary" because ordinary makes them commonplace and commonplace makes us less sensitive to them.
What did you expect? The "officer" has a reputation. Should anyone jump up, express outrage and possibly be jumped next?
We've seen many instances where civilians take no action. We've seen it with the tennis star who while innocently standing was mistakenly and roughly put down with other civilians walking past paying no mind.
With all this roughness, the often overbearing and crudeness of police interactions with civilians, the "respectful" pat downs and inspections as airports, the often "assertiveness" of border patrol stops on civilians in private vehicles, one thing has become very obvious.
It is the conditioning of Americans to be servile to armed governmental authority figures. Its working.
That is very sad. The kid was sitting at his desk regardless what he said that cop was not in danger. He needs to be locked up if it were anyone else they would be.
tom said:
I don't think there's any "progress" to be found here.
When I was in school there were no uniformed officers on the premises. Maybe if there was a specific call due to an emergency, but as a matter of routine, no. And we had some bad kids, alcohol abuse, drugs, fights, etc.
Criminalizing student misbehavior is a retrogression.
And how do you think the attitude of the other students in that room has changed, as far as respect to law and order as well as the role of the police force in their community? My guess is it's a hell of a lot worse than it was the day before.
We have all these nice new toys such as IPhones, Kindle Readers, Amazon Echo, Alexa App, etc.
Yet, we have regressed socially. Kids used to mainly play outside. Adults would interact with other adults at numerous social events. People would play cards, board games, stickball on the street. Many of these healthy interactions have been replaced by with electronic toy interactions. Your friend and confidante can be Alexa. Witness the multitude waiting for hours at stores when a newer version of an electronic toys comes out.
Two years ago I visited a high school in Manhattan. I was there previously in the late 1970's. Then it was an open school, everyone entered without guards, after school there were activities where the community and kids came and went as they wanted.
Our crime rate is now much lower than the 70's. But now there are four uniformed school security guards at the entrance with metal detector posts. Going in was about as pleasant as going through an airport line. Remember the shuttle flights where you arrive at the airport without a ticket and be on a flight in 1/2 an hour? Remember Manhattan where you can walk in and visit friends at their office without getting security inspected? No longer.
We are a nation being accustomed to being afraid. People crave fear. Its
an addiction. Fear justifies everything. Fear makes it OK to have
surrendered freedom after freedom, until our every move is tracked
and recorded into databases the average man will never have access
to. Fear creates, defines and shapes our world, and without it, most
would have no idea what to do with ourselves.
Our ancestors dreamed of a world without boundaries, while we dream new
boundaries to put around our homes, our children and ourselves. We
limit our potential day after day in the name of safety. We took a
world that was huge with possibility, and made it as small as we
could.
Feel safe yet?
One student did have the temerity to protest
A barely audible whimper can be heard in one video, as Fields drags the
girl toward the front of the classroom. The sight of the girl’s assault
prompted a classmate, Niya Kenny, to break down in tears and curses, the high schooler told WLTX-TV.
"I'll put you in jail next," Fields warned Kenny.
He made good on that statement. Her sobs resulted in her arrest on a
charge of disrupting school. She was released from custody on a $1,000
bond, WLTX-TV reported.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/spring-valley-high-school-officer-tackled-teen-phone-article-1.2412665
Its amazing that a judge, removed from the emotions of the situations, actually required a bond to release the girl.
BG9 said:
One student did have the temerity to protest
A barely audible whimper can be heard in one video, as Fields drags thehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/spring-valley-high-school-officer-tackled-teen-phone-article-1.2412665
girl toward the front of the classroom. The sight of the girl’s assault
prompted a classmate, Niya Kenny, to break down in tears and curses, the high schooler told WLTX-TV.
"I'll put you in jail next," Fields warned Kenny.
He made good on that statement. Her sobs resulted in her arrest on a
charge of disrupting school. She was released from custody on a $1,000
bond, WLTX-TV reported.
Why, why couldn't he walk her down to the Principals Office, call parents, talk about girl's behavior and discuss with parents/guardians how to address the situation.
I won't excuse the cop, but you are acting like that was the whole story. She refused to leave the class, and I think the principal was there. There was more to what led to this than we know. This does not excuse his behavior, or the way the school handled this issue. Your statement makes it sounds like she was willing to leave the classroom, which she was not, right? A lot of people mishandled this situation.
springgreen2 said:
Why, why couldn't he walk her down to the Principals Office, call parents, talk about girl's behavior and discuss with parents/guardians how to address the situation.
I'm not acting like anything. If he pulled her gently out of her seat, she might have walked with him to the Principal's office. You don't know that she wouldn't have gone with him. I know she had been refusing. It was the Vice Principal who was there. She wasn't attacking anyone. It was a jerk stupid behavior on that cops part.
There seems to be an edit in the video at about 2-3 seconds (I may be wrong - perhaps it was just a jerky video). I thought I read somewhere that the girl swung at the cop. Either way, he clearly overreacted and was fired for it. Good riddance.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/10/28/Sheriff-Spring-Valley-High-student-punched-officer/3501446023094/
"We already know his reputation, and I felt something bad was going to go down," Kenny said. "He's known as Officer Slam."
One of the reports I saw on TV indicated that both the teachers in the classroom and at least one student thought the officer behavied correctly, which is kind of scary. I guess they don't mess around in Columbia, SC and the fact that the students arrested had to post bond kind of confirms that.
Read that she was recently orphaned and living in a foster home. Don't know if it's true...
I know that CHS applied for funding to have a police officer, aka "Resource Officer" patrol the school. Very pleased to hear that the funding was denied.
I would love to have a properly trained officer in the school. Let's see, we had a knife and a gun last year, right? I don't want them involved in school discipline issues, but for safety if we could afford it I'd be okay with it.
The problem is the town on S.C. had the wrong type of police. There is too much emphasis on being a "warrior." I would hope our towns would do a much better job at staffing the schools.
krugle1 said:
Problem is that they start messing with kids and the problems start.
FilmCarp said:
I would love to have a properly trained officer in the school. Let's see, we had a knife and a gun last year, right? I don't want them involved in school discipline issues, but for safety if we could afford it I'd be okay with it.
Nah, I wouldn't- not worth the risk. Too easy for an improperly "trained" or stressed teacher or administrator to relinquish control and or responsibility and allow an armed adult to intervene and escalate. The officer in SC was "trained". Not everything needs a hammer.
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I ask because I reviewed this video of a safety officer in the S.C. school system handling a student as if she were a grown man. Even if she was a grown man, his behavior is out of control. He has no business dealing with children. When you watch it, I'm shocked that her neck wasn't broken.
What is our policy regarding these types of officers?
https://youtu.be/Tq4BR5KHuqA