Sheriff: Decision on school officer could come in 24 hours

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he could have a decision by the end of Wednesday on whether or not a deputy involved in an incident at Spring Valley High School will be allowed to continue working for his agency.

Lott said late Tuesday afternoon that an internal investigation is underway to review the actions of Deputy Ben Fields, a school resource officer at Spring Valley. Lott said his officers will look only at whether Fields acted properly under department protocols when he forcibly removed a student from a classroom. Any possible criminal investigation will be handled by federal and state agencies.

"We don't expect this to draw out," Lott said.

Fields, has been placed on administrative leave with pay pending the results of an investigation.

Deputy on leave after video from classroom surfaces

Lott had been in Chicago for a law enforcement conference when the incident, which has made national news, happened. He cut short the trip and flew back to the area early Tuesday morning to deal with the matter personally. He said just like everyone else, he was appalled by the first video that was released.

"I wanted to throw up. It makes you sick to your stomach," he said. "You can't watch the video without having those feelings."

The incident happened inside a math class at the school around 10:30 a.m. Monday. According to Lott, the student was supposed to be working on a project using her computer, but instead had her cellphone out. Lott said the girl didn't comply when her teacher told her multiple times to put away the device. An administrator then came to the class, Lott said, and the student continued to refuse to obey their requests. Fields was then called to the room to remove the student from the room.

Videos that surfaced online captured part of what happened next. Fields can be heard telling the student to get up. A few moments later, he grabs the student in her seat, causing the girl and the chair to flip over onto the floor. Fields can then be seen dragging the girl for several feet and restraining her on the ground.

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.

The student was charged with disturbing schools and was released to her parents. Another student in the classroom, 18-year-old Niya Kenny, also was charged with disturbing schools but was booked at the local jail. She was released on bond hours later.

Lott said the student was in the wrong for not complying with her school officials. He also said a third video has shown that the girl struck the officer as he was attempting to remove her. But Lott said his probe won't focus on her actions, only the officer's.

"What she did is not what I'm looking at," Lott said.

Still, videos of the confrontation between a white officer and black girl stirred such outrage that he called the FBI and Justice Department for help.

"I have spoken with the FBI and U.S. Attorney (for the District of South Carolina) William Nettles today as I travel back from Chicago," Lott said. "Their investigation has begun."

Lott also said that the FBI will be the lead agency in the criminal investigation.

One of the students who videotaped the incident said he and other students in the classroom Monday were scared as the incident played out.

Tony Robinson Jr. captured video that shows the officer forcibly removing a female student from her chair, dragging her several feet, then handcuffing her.

"It was definitely a scary experience," he said.

Robinson said he was in math class, and he and his classmates were working on their assignments.

Around 10:30 a.m., the girl who had the confrontation with the officer was working on her computer, and had her phone out, Robinson said. He said the teacher asked her for her phone, but she said no. An administrator was then called to the room, and Robinson said the administrator pleaded with the girl to get out of her seat, but she didn't.

"She really hadn't done anything wrong," Robinson said. "She said that she had took her phone out, but it was only for a quick second."

While she didn't comply, Robinson said the girl was apologetic.

Then Fields, was called to the class. Robinson said when Fields came in, he asked Robinson's friend to move a desk. According to the student, Fields then shut the girl's computer, and moved it to another desk.

Robinson felt something was wrong, and pulled out his phone and began recording.

"When I saw what was about to happen my immediate first thing to think is let me get this on camera. This is going to be something that not only I'm going to be like, 'Wow, did this really happened at my class?' but just something that everybody else needs to see. This is something that we can't let this just pass by."

Robinson said the officer then began speaking with the student.

"He asked her again, 'Will you move, will you move?'  She said, 'No, I have not done anything wrong.' Then he said, 'I'm going to treat you fairly.' And she said, 'I don't even know who you are.' ... And that is where it started right there."

Moments later, things turned physical.

"I've never seen anything so nasty looking, so sick to the point that you know, other students are turning away, don't know what to do, and are just scared for their lives," Robinson said. "That's supposed to be somebody that's going to protect us. Not somebody that we need to be scared of, or afraid.

"That was wrong. There was no justifiable reason for why he did that to that girl."

Niya Kenny, the other student charged, said she was standing up for her classmate.

"I had never seen nothing like that in my life, a man use that much force on a little girl. A big man, like 300 pounds of full muscle. I was like, 'No way, no way.' You can't do nothing like that to a little girl. I'm talking about she's like 5'6"."

The National Association of School Resource Officers recommends that schools and police agree to prohibit officers “from becoming involved in formal school discipline situations that are the responsibility of school administrators.”

At a school board meeting Tuesday night, parents spoke out about the arrest.

“This is not a race issue,” said Rebekah Woodford, a white mother of two Spring Valley graduates and one current student. “This is, ‘I want to be defiant and not do what I’m told.’ … The child is the one who can choose what to do.”

School Superintendent Debbie Hamm said “the district will not tolerate any actions that jeopardize the safety of our students.” School Board Chairman Jim Manning called the deputy’s actions “shamefully shocking.”

Fields, who also coaches football at the high school, has prevailed against accusations of excessive force and racial bias before.

Trial is set for January in the case of an expelled student who claims Fields targeted blacks and falsely accused him of being a gang member in 2013. In another case, a federal jury sided with Fields after a black couple accused him of excessive force and battery during a noise complaint arrest in 2005. A third lawsuit, dismissed in 2009, involved a woman who accused him of battery and violating her rights during a 2006 arrest.

Contributing: The Associated Press.