North Carolina Officer Slams Female Student To The Ground
A male law enforcement officer in North Carolina was placed on administrative leave after he body slammed a female high school student and dragged her body off camera. An 8-second cellphone video of the incident, which was posted Twitter Tuesday, soon went viral.
The officer in question, Ruben De Los Santos, was a school resource officer at Rolesville High School in Wake County, which is roughly 17 miles north of Raleigh, North Carolina. He has worked at the high school of about 2,200 students since 2013, according to local reports Wednesday.
Desiree Harrison, the mother of the 15-year-old victim Jasmine Darwin, told CNN Wednesday her daughter suffered a concussion. "That's not how you handle a child," Harrison said. "She's only 100 pounds. He could've killed her."
Dhedra Lassiter, the school’s principal, said the incident happened after the officer responded to a physical altercation in the school’s hallway. Lassiter was "deeply concerned about what I saw in the video," she said in an official letter on the school's website Tuesday.
"The safety of our students is always our first priority. Our school district works with many dedicated officers who protect our students. It is vital that our children have a positive relationship with these law enforcement officials. Those relationships are built on mutual respect," she said.
"Immediately after becoming aware of Tuesday’s incident, we reached out to the Rolesville Police Department," the principle added. "I appreciate the quick action of Chief Langston, who placed the school resource officer on administrative leave and began an immediate investigation."
Rolesville police Chief Bobby W. Langston II asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to launch a full investigation into the incident. "We ask the community and all members involved to be patient while we investigate this matter," Langston told local reporters Tuesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union responded to the incident. "We’re very disturbed by what we saw in the video," ACLU staff lawyer Irena Como told the News and Observer Tuesday. "This kind of force, especially with kids in schools, is never justified."
The ACLU rushed to the aid of another female high student in October of 2015. She was dragged out of her desk by a school resource officer and thrown across the classroom in South Carolina when she refused to give up her cellphone. But the officer from the video, Ben Fields, was not charged with criminal wrongdoing in September 2016, even though a cellphone video of the altercation went viral.
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