The FBI has been asked to investigate an incident captured on video inside a South Carolina classroom, in which a school police officer appears to slam a female student to the ground and drag her along the floor.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he had asked the FBI to investigate the incident involving a so-called school resource officer at the Spring Valley High School in Columbia.
Mr Lott on Monday evening called the Special Agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigations for South Carolina, Dave Thomas to request an independent investigation, WISTV reported.
On Tuesday morning the sheriff followed up with a formal written request to US Attorney William Nettles and Thomas for the Justice Department asking for a formal investigation.
Video footage of the incident — which recalled an incident this summer in McKinney, Texas, where a white officer pulled a gun on black students at a pool party and dragged one woman to the floor, quickly went viral.
Richland School District officials have placed the officer who appears in the video, named in local media as Ben Fields, on administrative leave. At one point he can be heard saying to a second student that he will "put them in jail'. Two students were eventually arrested after the incident.
Mr Fields biography on the website said he also coaches the school football team’s defensive line and is the team’s strength and conditioning coach. But he is also the subject of two previous complaints, one of which is for excessive force.
Mr Lott said Mr Fields stepped in after the student was ordered from the classroom for being disruptive. When she refused to leave, she told she was being arrested.
Late on Monday night, News19 obtained a second video of the incident. It is a longer clip than the initial one, and some extra conversation could be heard.
"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," said Tony Robinson Jr, who made the recording.
“That's supposed to be somebody that's going to protect us. Not somebody that we need to be scare off, or afraid.”
One witness to what happened, Aaron Johnson, said on twitter that the woman in the video appeared to be a new student. He suggested her ‘offence had been to be chewing gum”
“I was here and nobody even knew what she did when he grabbed her,” he said. “That’s how f**ked up it was.”
A third video of the incident also surfaced on Instagram. It shows the student throwing punches at the officer as he tries to remove her from her desk chair.
"The student was told she was under arrest for disturbing school and given instructions which she again refused," said Mr Lott. "The video then shows the student resisting and being arrested by the officer.”
Lott, whose agency is in charge of the school resource program at the school, was in Chicago at a law enforcement meeting when the incident took place. Lott said he was disturbed by what he saw, and said he cut short his trip, and is returning to Columbia to get answers.
Parents at the school have reacted strongly and said there was a history of intolerance at the school, particulate towards pupils of colour. The police officer is white, while the student who is dragged out is black.
"As we have stated in the past, we stand ready to work in collaboration to address these horrible acts of violence and inequities among our children,” said a group calling itself the Richland Two Black Parents Association.
Richland School District Two superintendent Dr Debbie Hamm released a statement, saying the district was deeply concerned about the videos and what they portrayed. She said the district and sheriff's deputies were working in full cooperation to conduct a thorough and complete investigation.
Dr Hugh Harmon the chairman of the district's Black Parents Association said members of his group were outraged.
“It hurt, because I have a daughter in Richland Two,” he said.
She's in elementary about to go into middle school. To get a phone call that, that would have happened to my daughter, I don't know how I would have responded.”
The incident has also drawn stern condemnation from some of the presidential hopefuls.
Hillary Clinton retweeted a tweet from South Carolina democrat Clay Middleton that said “What could justify treating a child like this? Nothing. Every child should be safe in our classrooms.”
Meanwhile, Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential candidate, said he would have gone "ballistic" if such an incident had happened to his daughter.
