LA School Police Official Explains How South Carolina Deputy Should Have Handled Situation
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — The cellphone videos showing a South Carolina school deputy slamming a teenage girl to the ground as she was sitting at a desk in her math class at Spring Valley High School and tossing her around the room as some have described like a rag doll have all gone viral.
There were reports the student refused to give up her cellphone when officials tried to confiscate it.
According to CBS2's Jennifer Kastner, the student's actions are called "willful defiance."
Kastner spoke to detective Rudy Perez, vice president of the LA Schools Police Officer's Association.
He says these types of students need to be confronted with active listeners and not threats of physical violence.
RELATED STORY: [From 2013] LAUSD Board Votes To End 'Willfull Defiance' Suspensions
"Start listening to to why he's doing it," Perez says, "Is there an audience around him that needs to be eliminated? Pull him aside. Have a side conversation with a counselor and a school administrator of 'Why are you acting up? What's going on here?'"
Perez has spent 14 years as a school police officer.
He can't speak to the video but said there are only a few situations in which he believes officers should use physical force on a student.
"If someone's being hurt in a classroom, your school police officer will probably intervene to stop any threat," he said.
But the student in the South Carolina video didn't appear to be a threat to anyone, just disruptive. Her attorney reports her arm is now in a cast, and she's experienced neck and back pain, as well as psychological pain.
The officer, Ben Fields, was fired Wednesday. It was also reported Wednesday that students at the school had nicknamed him "Officer Slam," reportedly for past aggressive actions.
Kastner asked for a comment from LAUSD police about the video, but she said they told her it was their policy not to comment about active investigations outside their district.
