By RICHARD FAUSSETOCT.

27, 2015

NEWS CLIPS By REGINALD SEABROOKS 00:10Police Officer Grabs High School

Student
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Police Officer Grabs High School Student
A police officer at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina appears to flip a
student out of her chair and drag her across a classroom floor.
By REGINALD SEABROOKS on Publish DateOctober 27, 2015. Watch in Times Video

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COLUMBIA, S.C. The Justice Department will investigate an episode at a high

school here in which a white police officer is seen in a video upending the desk of a
black female student in a math class and dragging her when she refused to leave
the classroom.
The video of a deputy sherif, Ben Fields, in the classroom quickly went viral, and
prompted the Richland County Sherif, Leon Lott, to ask federal officials to
investigate the encounter at Spring Valley High School. On the departments
Facebook page on Tuesday, Sherif Lott said the federal investigation had begun.
Local law enforcement officials believe that the criminal investigation will be best
served with the F.B.I. as the lead agency, Sherif Lott said, adding that the state
police had also been asked to investigate.
The sherif said Officer Fields had been placed on leave, pending the outcome of the
investigation.
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Outside the school on Tuesday morning, some were shocked by what they had seen
in the video, which had set of a new round of angry and anguished debate over
how police officers treat African-Americans. Others said they were not shocked at
all.
Continue reading the main story
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Some students praised the deputy, Ben Fields, as fair and friendly, a professional,
authoritative everyday presence in the halls of the vast tan complex set near a few
big-box stores in a sprawling maze of suburban-style housing.
It was crazy Deputy Fields was always nice to everyone, said Quentin Jones, 15,
a sophomore.
Another student, Michael Workman, 16, a junior who is white, said that Officer Fields
arrested him on suspicion of stealing a phone during his freshman year (Mr.
Workman said that he did not steal the phone and that he was not convicted of a
crime). He said that after he was handcufed, Officer Fields lifted him by the
handcufs for a few seconds.
I had bruises on my wrists and I wasnt even handcufed for that long, Mr.
Workman said.
Charles Scarborough, a sophomore, saw the confrontation in the classroom. He said
he was sitting quietly in his Algebra I class working on some math problems.
He said that the young woman, a sophomore, was on her phone, and that the
teacher asked her to put her phone away, getting close to her face.

When an administrator and Officer Fields were brought in, students in the class
barely knew what was going on, he said. The administrator and Officer Fields each
asked her to leave multiple times and requested that she cooperate.
The young woman said she did not do anything wrong and refused to leave. She
remained quietly in her desk as they continued to ask her to leave. Then Officer
Fields grabbed the girl, flipped her desk and dragged her across the floor. Mr.
Scarborough saw the officer put his knee on her as he attempted to arrest her.
Students in the classroom stood up, confused about what was happening. Mr.
Scarborough said that he and his friends were trying to defend the young woman,
but the officer told them to sit down or you all will be next.
The officer also detained a second student, Niya Kenny, who told a local television
station that her only ofense was objecting to his treatment of the other girl.
I was crying, like literally screaming, crying like a baby, Ms. Kenny, 18, told WLTX.
I couldnt believe that was happening. Id never seen nothing like that in my life, a
man use that much force on a little girl.
As she protested, she said, He said since youve got so much to say, youre
coming, too.
Students in the class were unsettled after the arrest, and many felt the situation
could have been handled in a better way.
I feel like it shouldnt be done like that, Mr. Scarborough said. Even if she was
causing a problem, it could be handled diferently. Thats a grown man handling a
girl thats someones daughter, thats someones kid, thats someones sister.
Several students said that the young woman was quiet and generally not a
troublemaker another reason the confrontation surprised them.
Two friends of Mr. Jones, Xavier Glover, 15, and Jaiden Garner, who are cornerbacks
on the school football team, knew Officer Fields better than most. In addition to
being a defensive line coach for the football team, Officer Fields is also a strength
coach, they said. And like many coaches, he would get loud and boisterous if he
thought it would improve a students performance in the weight room or on the
field.
If youre not low enough on your squats, hes going to be in your face, Mr. Garner
said. But the young men, both of whom are African-American, felt that Officer Fields
always had the students best interest at heart. He yells a lot, Mr. Glover said,
But its for the best of us.

Mr. Jones, listening to his friends, felt the need to interject. No matter how cool he
is, theres no reason for him to do that to a lady, he said. Because hes a grown,
strong man.
Nygel King, 16, another sophomore, said that Officer Fields acted like a typical cop
in the hallways But never in a bad way, he said.
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RECENT COMMENTS
redsix
5 minutes ago
Ultimately and unfortunately, all these videos will do is have law enforcement back
down and have crime rates go up.
Stan C
5 minutes ago
I completely agree with some comments here that we hear the whole story, all of it,
from all parties, and in context before making judgments...
karenk
5 minutes ago
Conservative or Liberal, surely no readers want this sort of Stasi-like behavior on the
part of law enforcement. I'm appalled. Left...

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The video, he said, stunned him. For one, she wasnt resisting at all, he said. And
two, Ive never seen him be super-aggressive with another student.
But some of the students said that they had heard that Officer Fields had a
reputation for treating students harshly when he was called to intervene in a
skirmish or make an arrest. Several of them told stories, but about incidents they
had only heard about, not personally seen. What it said about Officer Fields record
was not altogether clear: It is, perhaps, an immutable law of nature that an officer in
a school will be treated, in some quarters, with a certain amount of suspicion.

Officer Fields joined the Sherifs Department in 2004 and was assigned to the
school in 2008, according to a department newsletter, which also noted his
receiving the school districts Culture of Excellence Award.
He has had two lawsuits filed against him. The most recent, filed in November 2013
by a former Spring Valley student, Ashton Reese, accused him and the school
district of violating his civil rights. Mr. Reese was expelled in February 2013 for
unlawful assembly of gang activity and assault and battery after an investigation
by the officer concluded that he had been involved in a fight behind a store near the
school, according to the complaint filed with the Columbia division of Federal
District Court.
The lawsuit said Officer Fields unfairly and recklessly targets African-American
students with allegations of gang membership and criminal gang activity. A jury
trial is set to start on Jan. 27.
In 2007, Carlos Martin and his wife, Tashiana Martin, sued Officer Fields, Sherif Lott
and another deputy, Robert Clark, accusing them of violating their civil rights during
a routine investigation of a noise complaint. A jury ruled in favor of the deputies in
2010, and they prevailed again when the couple appealed.
On Tuesday, as the drizzle turned to a steady rain, a long string of minivans and
sport utility vehicles pulled into the gates of the school. One woman called out to a
reporter: You all really need to stop adding fuel to this fire. You really do.
Moments later, another woman, Carla Frierson, 47, said through her S.U.V. window,
I think the officer was 100 percent right in what he did.
Later, Ms. Frierson pulled over in the parking lot of a Carrabbas Italian Grill across
the street to explain. She said she had two girls, a sophomore and a junior, at
Spring Valley, which she characterized as a great school.
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Maybe, she said, Officer Fields did use a little bit of excessive force. But she
thought that school systems like this one erred when they removed corporal
punishment from tools educators may use to control their classrooms. These kids
have no respect for anybody anymore, she said.
Ms. Frierson, a former emergency medical worker who grew up in Texas and is
white, said that the suburban tracts around the school were racially mixed, and that
people generally tended to get along out here a sentiment echoed by many of
the students, who said that students of all races at Spring Valley worked, played and
socialized together.
She said that she did not see races playing any role in the episode on Monday.
Disrespect of authority, she said, is an issue with all kids.

Natalie Pita contributed reporting from Columbia, S.C. Richard Perez-Pena

contributed from New York.