Last October, a video of School Resource Officer (SRO) Ben Fields ripping a young African-American student from her desk and slamming her to the ground went viral, fueling another round of intense outrage at excessive use of force by government agents against African-American civilians. In South Carolina, where the incident took place, there were protests and counter-protests. Most major media outlets covered the affair, showing the video from multiple angles and debating whether to blame the student or the cop. Within a few days, Fields had been fired.
The man who fired him was Sherriff Leon Lott of Richland County. I met with Lott a few weeks ago in South Carolina to discuss the role of SROs and the problematic mission creep that has resulted in the widespread criminalization of children—especially those children already marginalized by race, disability, class, and other factors that help keep the "school-to-prison pipeline" running.
Lott told me that he had no choice but to fire Fields, and I was pleased to hear it. An officer who would do that to a student not only has no place in school, but has no place in law enforcement. But beyond holding Fields responsible, I asked him how we can avoid the next incident, rather than only reacting to the last one. The Spring Valley news cycle has long since faded, and I was hoping to find evidence of structural change.
Remarkably, South Carolina's leaders in education and law-enforcement are trying to accomplish just that. A few weeks ago, Molly Spearman, the superintendent of schools for South Carolina, released the recommendations of the "Safe Schools Task Force," a group of educators, parents, and law enforcement that Spearman had convened in the wake of Spring Valley to address the use of SROs. The task force's report, released earlier this month, coalesces around one simple principle: Stop calling the police for disciplinary reasons.
To continue reading this article by David M. Perry, go to: http://www.psmag.com/politics-...l-to-prison-pipeline
Comments (1)