This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Videos of disturbing police behavior have helped to shape a national conversation about law enforcement's treatment of African-Americans and the problem of excessive use of force. So let's hope the searing images of a black high school girl being thrown across a South Carolina classroom galvanize a similar discussion of school discipline. Here is the issue: Black and other minority students are far more likely than their white counterparts to be suspended, expelled and — as was so painfully shown in that classroom — even arrested for comparable offenses.
The white sheriff's deputy whose brutal mishandling of the student at Richland County's Spring Valley High School went viral on social media has understandably lost his job for use of excessive force. "Deputy [Ben] Fields did not follow proper training, did not follow proper procedure, when he threw the student across the room," Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a news conference Wednesday. At the same time, though, the sheriff noted that when police are summoned by schools, there will be a law enforcement response.
That highlights the all-too-prevalent problem of schools escalating routine disciplinary infractions into criminal offenses, particularly when racial or ethnic minorities are involved. It is an issue that Education Secretary Arne Duncan spoke eloquently about in September, when he detailed how schools that criminalize nonviolent student behavior only feed the school-to-prison pipeline.Just as Fields has had to answer for his actions, the teacher and administrator who summoned him to the classroom and stood by as the girl was flipped backward over her desk, dragged and then handcuffed should be held accountable. So, too, must the school district, which has been the subject of long-running complaints from black parents about bias in school discipline. Appropriately, it now will be the focus of federal inquiries as a result of Monday's incident.
There is no question the young girl involved in the incident was wrong in allegedly refusing the teacher's request to stop using her phone, and in not leaving the classroom when asked. But there are methods short of slapping on handcuffs available to schools for dealing with disrespectful children. Not only does this girl now face criminal charges that could dog her for the rest of her life, but a classmate who recorded the incident on her cellphone was arrested as well.
The principal's office — not a police station — is where both should have ended up, and it is hard not to suspect that would have been the outcome had the offending students been white. That underscores the need for school officials everywhere to take a hard look at their disciplinary systems for bias and put in place practices that make schools safe, and also inclusive, for all students.