“Truthfully if he were a valuable performer in the police department he would not be assigned as a school resource officer.”
I do not agree with that statement at all. The resource officers at our kids schools are great. They have to have a good rapport with the kids.
Well the whole incident started because of her disorderly conduct and she did resist arrest. So the charges are not without merit.
Are we arresting kids for texting in class now? Because that is the initial offense from what I can tell…
Bottom line - if you don’t want to be treated like a juvenile delinquent, don’t act like one. [-(
Good lord, what is wrong with adults that we lose our minds when children misbehave? They’re going to misbehave. They’re going to push our buttons. It’s our job to deal with it and teach them better ways. Texting in class is just the 2015 spin on flipping off your teacher; who remembers Jeff Spicoli (of Ridgemont High) ordering a pizza to arrive in the middle of a history class? No one called the cops!
Next, they’ll be arresting toddlers for peeing in their pants.
And, we’re back to blaming the victim. Unless she was laying hands on another person, there is no justification for the officer’s actions She may not be a perfect child but she did not deserve to be assaulted.
For those of you whom have attempted to justify the deputy’s actions, I recommend that you watch Anderson Cooper’s interview with Sheriff Lett. Cooper asked relevant questions and didn’t try to sensationalize the event or embarrass Sheriff Lett. A point made by both the Sheriff and a Police consultant who disagreed with the officer’s dismissal was that the South Carolina law used to charge the girl is a foolish law. Sheriff Lett said he opposed the adoption of the law and said so at the time. He essentially said that school officials call on the police when they really don’t need to.
The Sheriff sounds unusually sensible for a voice of law enforcement in a situation like this.
It is a lot harder to justify when there are videos… times they are a changin’.
Earlier this evening, I brought this up with an older relative who attended academic HS in the ROC(Taiwan) when it was still under martial law during the '50s and '60s and school discipline was not handled by teachers, but by military NCOs and officers assigned as civil defense/pre-draft training staff. The HS teacher’s job was to concentrate on teaching and academically mentoring his/her students.
He said even with the far greater latitude given to the military staff to handle student discipline, they’d never go to the extreme of this officer for that particular type of offense not only because it would incur outrage among parents…but would also signify to the military authorities the NCOs/officers involved exhibited extremely poor judgment and extreme lack of proficiency in their military training.
They’d be much more likely to try talking with the student and try convincing him/her to leave the classroom first for a longer period of time before exhibiting more modulated physical means.
Then again students back then would be very unlikely to behave in such a manner as most parents in that era would have no hesitation to employ more severe disciplinary measures against their wayward kids back home once they were notified.
Also, such behavior would likely mean immediate dismissal from academic high school with practically no second chances which means no eligibility to apply to colleges* and if the student happened to be male…his HS disciplinary record will follow him into his mandated 2 years of military service which means his stint will feel longer and be even harder than what average better behaved draftees would face as the NCOs will single him out for “extra special treatment” during training and subsequent military assignments.
The article lacks a lot of objectivity, but it is interesting to find another ??? moment in this guys past.
Obey authority and if you think you are being wronged, get a lawyer.
How hard is that to understand?
Vigilante actions lead to all kinds of problems.
"Obey authority and if you think you are being wronged, get a lawyer.
How hard is that to understand?"
So, I take it that you’ve never met a teenager.
And this particular teenager was in the midst of a personal crisis having just lost her mother and being placed in foster care. So she might have been exhibiting rebellious behavior, but allowances have to be made in view of what she was going through.
I agree with another poster who suggested this officer might have been on some kind of steroids - appears to me he just snapped.
So, the great crime that this kid committed was to text in class? I agree that students should not be using their phones in class, but it is difficult to imagine that this degree of escalation was necessary. I sympathize with classroom teachers enormously, but surely this could have been handled better. Was this really the hill he wanted to die on? Could he not have said something like, “By texting in class, the only person you are harming is yourself,” and then continued instruction? Talked to her after class?
What did the resource officer have to offer that the teacher–and administrator-- didn’t to solve the problem? His gun and brute force.
When I was in HS I had a math class that was so boring I used to see how long I could hold my breath, watching the clock, to make time pass. Luckily the teacher could not demand that I breathe or leave the class. B-)
It’s very clear that some people in this thread have never spent time around teenagers…
Texting in class is rude but it doesn’t make someone a “juvenile delinquent.” I did it. I still do it. The penalty at my high school at the time for a teacher even seeing a phone was automatic suspension. It prompted outcry and was eventually abandoned as a rule.
We treat teens like they’re delinquent no matter what they’re doing. We even more heavily pathologize black teens. It’s disgusting and the fact that ANYONE is defending the force used by this cops makes my stomach churn. It’s also why I have zero hope that anything will change anytime soon. Quite simlply, the lives being affected don’t matter to the vast majority of people in charge of this country.
No one in this thread blamed the victim or said the officer’s actions were appropriate. Acknowledging that the girl also behaved badly is not blaming the victim.
You’ll have to be more specific about your point.
If you’re talking about teenagers acting up, well, they’re in the process of learning. Some of them get it at home and some just plain need more instruction than others.
If you are talking about institutions, I know several teenagers who felt wronged and who got a lawyer to correct the situation.
Post No. 56; virtually everyone commenting on this event has said that the student’s behavior was poor, so what are you trying to make us understand?
Notice I said “some” not all or even most. Mine was in response to the acting like a juvenile delinquent comment on the last page and comments I’ve seen about this incident outside of CC.