"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 scared for their lives." Tony Robinson Jr. -Spring Valley High School student who recorded assault video.
After viewing the video several times and listening to recorded first hand accounts of student witnesses it's clear the resource officer, Deputy Ben Fields used excessive force against a minor who showed no sign of threatening behavior. Tony Robinson Jr. a classmate of the assault victim recorded the resource officers actions on his cell phone. The teacher who appears briefly in the video had requested the student leave the classroom. When the student refused the officer was asked to escort the child from the classroom. Deputy Fields, as of this writing, is on administrative leave.
Personally, I feel adamant that Deputy Fields be charged and fired. The police department, school district or both should be sued. There is absolutely no excuse for this type of violence against children in our schools. As a former administrative assistant, substitute teacher and teachers aide for disabled students, I am deeply disturbed by the way this child was violated. Students in the classroom were stunned. The teacher stood silently watching the child brutalized. Another child was arrested for standing up for the abused student. Charges against both girls should be dropped.
As a society are we giving away our rights and our power to live in fear of a police state? Don't speak out when you see something wrong or you'll go to jail? Threatened with violence, don't we all become a little more quiet, a little more afraid until a part of us is diminished, unemotional, uncaring, numb. Is that what we want? Don't give a damn? There is no justification that warrants this type of violent force against a young, defenseless child who was terrified and half the size of a brutal grown adult. If you're not disturbed by the level of violence in the video then you need to examine your conscience.
