SC - Columbia - Sheriff Slams Female Student to Floor In Class - #2

[ohreally]

They're probably just on paid leave until the various investigations are cleared up. That's usually how these thing are handled. They will be cleared of any wrongdoing and sent back to class.

According to this link the teacher is not on leave: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article42069354.html

Roof also said a substitute teacher is currently teaching the math class where, on Monday, Fields was filmed forcefully pulling a female student from her desk and tossing her to the floor after being called in response to a discipline issue. The regular teacher, who was present for the incident, is not on leave, Roof said, without elaborating.
That can mean anything from he has to report to work, but is not teaching in that classroom to he has said take this job and shove it, but he is not on leave.
I cannot find one article that says the teacher is on leave, just ones saying the VP is and that there is a substitute in the classroom.

 

[Woodland]

I agree respect has to be earned, but that's different than saying obeying authority is optional in that situation. It is not.

I wonder though, if part of what happened was a cultural clash. The school is in a middle class district as a whole, but the student population may not be, demographically. Or, may be but the girl was new and may have come from a different environment altogether.

I've spoken many times with an acquaintance who is a cop in the very violent city where I live. I've been amazed by what he's said about the culture he must deal with successfully to stay alive and to not use force unnecessarily.

Example. He's about to arrest a 20 something black youth for (robbery or home invasion or drug dealing or discharging a gun unlawfully). What the kid cares most about at that moment is not the fact he's about to be arrested, but that the cop treats him with respect. That the cop doesn't diss him. He can arrest him, put on the cuffs, haul him away, but all hell will break loose if the cop insults him or doesn't abide by the street definition of respect.

Maybe, just as a perhaps, the stakes for the girl weren't about the phone or detention or anything other than her perception she wasn't being treated with the respect she felt she was owed.

Underlined by me.

For clarification, the post you are responding to does not express the thought or idea that obeying authority is optional.

What is does say is, a situation will escalate if the authority figure approaches a situation with 'I am not getting enough respect here'. It's personalizing - flash-point consequences in store imo.

 

[Hope4More]

People bait others on Websleuth occasionally. But it is up to us not to over react to a person who is pushing your buttons. Now once we over react; we will get a forced vacation while the button pusher moves on.

So Fields could have simply told the school that instead of extracting her violently for the minor infraction. It would be best to let her go about her business and suspend her at the end of the day. Jmo

I remain baffled why the interest here remains focused like a laser on Fields as an individual rather than Fields as a generic cop who should never have been summoned to the classroom in the first place.


SC has criminalized unruly student behavior. SC still allows corporal punishment in schools. SC hires regular police officers-- trained in how to handle adult criminals--and sets them loose in schools.

A school admininistrator summoned Fields to the classroom for the explicit purpose of removing her from the class.

WTH does anyone here think there is anything surprising about what happened?

 

[EllieBee]

Psychologist B.F. Skinner proved decades ago that a child will choose negative reinforcement (i.e., punishment, even abuse) if the alternative is no attention at all.

Which may or may not tell us everything we need to understand about the student's behavior in this case. I am NOT saying a high school math teacher had time to figure this out.

IMO, B.F. Skinner did egregious harm to the modern educational system. Extrinsic rewards negate self-motivation. Children now make good grades for short term rewards like candy and pizza parties rather than developing a love of learning for its own sake.

But your mention of Skinner helps me to understand where you are coming from, philosophy-wise.

 

[sonjay]

Let's not forget they also stated that they would have him over for Thanksgiving dinner and get him gifts for Christmas while asking him to come over to bring in the New Year. Lol.

Link, please, to where this was stated.

 

[sonjay]

BBM. I agree. I believe the teacher was attempting to apply the no-cell-phone-use-in-class policy consistently, and he was prevented from doing so by this student's defiance.

And at least three other kids in the classroom.

Thanks to the disruptive student's disruption. I've seen no reports that the teacher was having any difficulty enforcing the no-cell-phones rule until the disruptive student disrupted the class with her cell phone usage.

 

[Hope4More]

Underlined by me.

For clarification, the post you are responding to does express the thought or idea that obeying authority is optional.

What is does say is, a situation will escalate if the authority figure approaches a situation with 'I am not getting enough respect here'. It's personalizing - flash-point consequences in store imo.

I agree again, that there certainly are (too many) people in authority who demand respect and who respond very poorly if their expectations aren't met. There are too many bodies in the morgue and in the ground killed by cops like that to argue otherwise, and likewise, too many insecure jackasses all of us as adults have had to deal with.

But...we don't have enough of the facts to understand why the teacher made the decisions he did, much less to assume he was unreasonably demanding anything of her, for whatever reason.

 

[DexterMorgan]

I remain baffled why the interest here remains focused like a laser on Fields as an individual rather than Fields as a generic cop who should never have been summoned to the classroom in the first place.


SC has criminalized unruly student behavior. SC still allows corporal punishment in schools. SC hires regular police officers-- trained in how to handle adult criminals--and sets them loose in schools.

A school admininistrator summoned Fields to the classroom for the explicit purpose of removing her from the class.

WTH does anyone here think there is anything surprising about what happened?

You should take that up with the person who fired him. I really think that they were mad because the incident went viral and it could have been foreseeable since 3 kids were pointing camera phones at him during the extraction.

I'm sure she wasn't Dylan Roof and they were trying to avoid a Ferguson type backlash.

Jmo

 

[EllieBee]

And I'll add that the student in question is a minor for a few more months, but definitely NOT a "little girl". (LOL!)

The criminal justice system would charge and try her as an adult, so society as a whole does not view 16-17 year olds as "little children". A minor, yes-- for a few more months. But not a child.

The only time late teenagers (those who are intellectually within normal limits) are referred to by someone with an agenda as "little children", is when there is an effort to portray them to be not responsible for their actions. Or an effort to make them *appear* younger, so they can be portrayed as a "defenseless victim."

This 17 year old teenager is most definitely not a "little child". That term should be reserved for actual children who are elementary school aged and younger.

And she most definitely *should be* held responsible for her actions. I doubt she will be, with our current dysfunctional social and media activism controlling the narrative.

I still think she is salvageable, though, and every effort should be extended to try to help her with her social and emotional problems, and get her to graduate. It's the only and best chance she (and society) has at this point, IMO, with so much difficulty in her life already.

BBM

Like in another case here at WS where a suspect being held for another crime was also charged with "rape of a CHILD" because he was consensually dating a girl who was 17 while he was 20 or 21? Something like that.

Anyway, I do find it interesting how "boy" "girl" "child" etc, are applied in different cases. The Ga Tech student who claimed he was beaten by homeless men but really tried to jump onto a moving train while drunk. He is 24, but is often called a "boy" in article comments.

But this girl I have seen referred to as "practically an adult" "not exactly a child", etc.

And in Hanna Anderson's case, she was also 16 and referred to as a "young girl".

Sorry for the tangent, I just find the social commentary attached to how people are described very interesting.

 

[DexterMorgan]

Link, please, to where this was stated.

No actual link. But hopefully you get the gist of the conversation. Thanks and hugs.

 

[EllieBee]

You should take that up with the person who fired him. I really think that they were mad because the incident went viral and it could have been foreseeable since 3 kids were pointing camera phones at him during the extraction.

I'm sure she wasn't Dylan Roof and they were trying to avoid a Ferguson type backlash.

Jmo

Not to mention the Sheriff said Fields broke protocol by throwing the girl. So even if it is legal to throw children in SC schools(which is Draconian), maybe it is NOT allowed by the SO?

 

[bluesneakers]

I remain baffled why the interest here remains focused like a laser on Fields as an individual rather than Fields as a generic cop who should never have been summoned to the classroom in the first place.


SC has criminalized unruly student behavior. SC still allows corporal punishment in schools. SC hires regular police officers-- trained in how to handle adult criminals--and sets them loose in schools.

A school admininistrator summoned Fields to the classroom for the explicit purpose of removing her from the class.

WTH does anyone here think there is anything surprising about what happened?

IMO my focus is on an officer who was called in to do a job he never should have been called in to do. I question the whole practice of having SROs in schools frankly.

But my main reason for focusing on him as an individual is because he is the individual responsible for his own actions and those actions include brutalizing an unarmed young woman who was not posing a threat to anyone. No one made him to what he did to that girl.

I really hope for the sake of students in public schools everywhere he is not a generic, typical SRO. It would be nice to think he's a lone bad apple.

 

[bluesneakers]

Thanks to the disruptive student's disruption. I've seen no reports that the teacher was having any difficulty enforcing the no-cell-phones rule until the disruptive student disrupted the class with her cell phone usage.

If other kids in the class had cell phones he was obviously having difficulty enforcing the no-cell-phones rule.

 

[sonjay]

No actual link. But hopefully you get the gist of the conversation. Thanks and hugs.

So you made it up?

 

[sonjay]

If other kids in the class had cell phones he was obviously having difficulty enforcing the no-cell-phones rule.

I'm pretty sure the policy isn't against having cell phones; it's against using them during class. The disruptive student violated that policy, initiating the entire disruption and confrontation.

 

[LietKynes]

The ones supporting him aren't afraid of him. What about the students who aren't supporting him?

RSBM

Trying to look at this from both sides, or at least somewhat objectively.
My .02 would be that the wiser action would have been to have two people pick her up and carry her out into the hall and then possibly be looking at a detention or suspension ?
If possible, it should be the last resort to get physical and then only if there is imminent threat to other students.
My question is what about the teacher's ability to control the classroom ?
I don't want to be critical of the teacher since I do not know what may have transpired before he (the teacher) asked her to put away her phone --- had this happened before, and this time the teacher had had it ?
:moo:

 

[Hope4More]

You should take that up with the person who fired him. I really think that they were mad because the incident went viral and it could have been foreseeable since 3 kids were pointing camera phones at him during the extraction.

I'm sure she wasn't Dylan Roof and they were trying to avoid a Ferguson type backlash.

Jmo

?? Take what up with him? I don't think you understand my point.

There has been no new information released about what happened for days, and there was never enough made available to fully understand why the situation escalated as it did.

Posts here are 99% about Fields the individual, and the student who nobody knows much anything about (mercifully), and a teacher about whom absolutely nothing is known.

Especially given the dearth of actual verifiable information, I'm far more interested in the larger picture, which IMO is about the wisdom of criminalizing mishavior by kids, and having real life cops on site who are called into classrooms to deal with kids who are now to be considered as and responded to as perps.

Again, why would anyone be surprised by what happened, given the built in situation has every potential to spiral out of control?


ETA. Silence .....hmm. Must be tuned into the wrong WS channel.

 

[sonjay]

He did not beat her. He did not choke her. I never said he didn't get fired for it. You are wrong on all counts. It's not disputable.

Now you are disagreeing with the internal investigators who investigated the case. If what you say is true, then the department would be hit with a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Please provide a link to the internal investigation report that states that he beat her and/or choked her.

 

[LietKynes]

Here's a thought... what happens if the schools remove all law enforcement and allowed the school admin. to deal with the students ; with absolutely no police involvement whatsoever ?

And for some students who don't want to follow the school's guidelines, use suspensions.
Shouldn't the school admin. be allowed to set the rules and enforce them as they see fit ; and with no other outside sources being brought in ?
MOO

 

[sonjay]

Here's a thought... what happens if the schools remove all law enforcement and allowed the school admin. to deal with the students ; with absolutely no police involvement whatsoever ?

And for some students who don't want to follow the school's guidelines, use suspensions.
Shouldn't the school admin. be allowed to set the rules and enforce them as they see fit ; and with no other outside sources being brought in ?
MOO

I would very much favor allowing the school administration to deal with the students. Up to and including suspending and expelling as needed.