{"id":12537,"date":"2015-11-05T14:09:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T19:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=12537"},"modified":"2017-07-11T10:45:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-11T15:45:36","slug":"officer-canned-over-viral-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2015\/11\/05\/officer-canned-over-viral-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Officer canned over viral video"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Screen<\/a>Sheriff\u2019s Deputy, Ben Fields was fired on Wednesday, Oct. 28 after county officials reviewed a recording of the officer who picked up a student and threw her across the classroom at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe picked a student up, and threw the student across the room; that is not a proper technique,\u201d Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County said at a news conference in Columbia. \u201cDeputy Ben Fields did wrong\u2026so we\u2019re taking responsibility for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lott said he was glad students documented the arrest with video recordings because it was easier to review the case and the \u201cmaneuver\u201d that Fields used to control the student.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Fields was called to an Algebra 1 class because a sophomore student was refusing to listen to her teacher\u2019s request to stop using her cellphone. After she refused to leave the classroom, Fields forced her from her desk by flipping the desk on top of her and dragging her to the front of the classroom. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not what I expect from my deputies, and it\u2019s not what I tolerate from deputies,\u201d Lott said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Although the Sheriff said Fields used improper technique, he also said part of the incident is the student\u2019s responsibility because she was disrupting the class and refused to leave the classroom. \u00a0However, Lott said the student\u2019s actions don\u2019t justify what the deputy did. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet me tell you what he should not have done\u2026he should not have thrown the student,\u201d Lott said. \u201cHe tried to do his job\u2014it happened very quickly. His actions were something that, if he probably had to do it over again, he\u2019d have probably done it different.\u201d Lott said Fields\u2019 goal should have been to talk with the student about the situation before resorting to any physical content. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s sorry that this whole thing occurred,\u201d Lott said, who had spoken to Fields about the situation. \u201cIt was not his intent. His intent was not to do anything that brought discredit on this Sheriff\u2019s Department or him or that school. He tried to do his job, and that\u2019s what he feels like he did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The teacher and administrator who were in the classroom at the time of the incident supported fields, as well as one student, saying they \u201cfelt the deputy acted appropriately.\u201d Lott said they supported his actions and had no problem with the physical part. Although Spring Valley officials supported Fields\u2019 actions, Lott said it was \u201cvery evident\u201d to decide to fire the deputy. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to NPR, Lott requested an independent federal investigation after the incident made headlines. Lott said the U.S. Justice Department said it\u2019s opening a civil rights investigation.Fields has been a subject of previous lawsuits. One of the cases was decided in his favor, another was pending, according to the New York Times. Along with law enforcement work at Spring Valley, he was also a football coach. <\/span><\/p>\n

During a regular scheduled board meeting for Richland School District 2, more than a dozen parents and residents spoke about the videotape and the incident. Many observers discussed the motives for his behavior. <\/span>\u2018<\/p>\n

Superintendent, Debbie Hamm thanked Lott for a \u201cswift response.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know important work is ahead of us as we thoughtfully and carefully review the decision-making progress that may lead to a school resource officer taking the leading handling a student disruption,\u201d Hamm said. \u201cConversations that have already started will continue around how we work with the sheriff\u2019s department on improvement and coordination of our work as educators and their work as law enforcement officers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lott said that he expected that the student would still face the prosecution, who was arrested on a charge of disturbing the school. According to NPR, Lott said he\u2019s not analyzing the student\u2019s behavior\u2014only the officer\u2019s actions. Lott said that he doubts whether race played a role in The Justice Department is also conducting a civil rights investigation that could lead to criminal charges against Fields. <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Gabrielle Sharp<\/strong><\/p>\n

Executive Editor<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sheriff\u2019s Deputy, Ben Fields was fired on Wednesday, Oct. 28 after county officials reviewed a recording of the officer who picked up a student and threw her across the classroom at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina. \u00a0 \u201cHe picked a student up, and threw the student across the room; that is not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[2030],"class_list":["post-12537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-gabrielle-sharp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-3gd","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12537"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12543,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12537\/revisions\/12543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}