A girl who refused to surrender her phone after texting in math class was flipped backward and tossed across the classroom floor by a sheriff's deputy, prompting a federal civil rights probe.
The sheriff said the girl "may have had a rug burn" but was not injured, and said the teacher and vice-principal felt the officer acted appropriately. Still, videos of the confrontation between a white officer and black teenager stirred such outrage that he called the FBI and Justice Department for help.
Sheriff Leon Lott suspended Senior Deputy Ben Fields without pay, and said what he did at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina "made him want to throw up."
Videos taken by students and posted online show Fields warning the girl to leave her seat or be forcibly removed on Monday. The officer then wraps a forearm around her neck, flips her and the desk backward onto the floor, tosses her toward the front of the classroom and handcuffs her.
Lott pointed out at a news conference that the girl can also be seen trying to strike the officer as she was being taken down, but said he's focused on the deputy's actions as he decides within 24 hours whether Fields should remain on the force.
"I think sometimes our officers are put in uncomfortable positions when a teacher can't control a student," the sheriff said, promising to be fair.
The deputy also arrested a second teenager who verbally objected to his actions. Both girls were charged with disturbing schools and released to their parents. Their names were not officially released.
The second student, Niya Kenny, told WLTX-TV that she felt she had to say something. Doris Kenny said she's proud her daughter was "brave enough to speak out against what was going on."
Appearing on MSNBC last night, Niya Kenny said an administrator told her to sit down, be quiet and to put her cellphone away. She refused.
"'This is not right. This is not right,'" Kenny recalled saying in the classroom. "'I can't believe y'all are doing this to her.'"
Kenny said Fields arrested her and handcuffed her inside the classroom.
Lt Curtis Wilson told The Associated Press in an email to "keep in mind this is not a race issue."
"Race is indeed a factor," countered South Carolina's NAACP president, Lonnie Randolph Jr, who praised the Justice Department for agreeing to investigate whether the girls' civil rights were violated.
