Video shows South Carolina school officer tossing student across classroom floor

Reporting from Columbia, S.C. —  A South Carolina school district banned a school resource officer pending an investigation after a video surfaced Monday showing him tossing a student across a classroom floor.

The incident apparently captured on a student’s cellphone happened at Spring Valley High School in Columbia. School officials and sheriff’s deputies are investigating what happened, Richland School District Two Supt. Debbie Hamm said.

“Pending the outcome of the investigation, the district has directed that the school resource officer not return to any school in the district,” Hamm said in a statement.

The video shows a uniformed officer asking a student to rise from a classroom desk. Another adult is standing nearby. The student stays seated, so the officer wraps a forearm around the child’s neck. The officer then tips the attached chair and desk backward until the student spills to the floor. The officer then tosses the child several feet across the floor to the front of the classroom.

The video shows the officer removing a student who was disruptive and refused to leave class, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott told multiple media outlets.

“The video then shows the student resisting and being arrested” by the officer, Lott said.

The images captured an “egregious use of force” against the student, ACLU of South Carolina Executive Director Victoria Middleton said.

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