A recent video was released of a police officer at Spring Valley High School forcefully removing an African-American female student from her desk. I'll admit, at first glance, Sheriff Ben Fields' actions seem unwarranted. However, there is also another video that is longer, which shows the student being disrespectful and defiant, and also shows her punching the officer repeatedly beforehand. The officer clearly warned her that if she wouldn't get up, he would make her, and so he did. With so many outraged responses, the Sheriff Fields has been suspended. Fields' boss, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, said: "If she (the student) had not disrupted the school and disrupted that class, we would not be standing here today. So it started with her and it ended with my officer. What I'm going to deal with is what my deputy did," Lott said. In my opinion, the officer was doing his job and he shouldn't have to lose his job over this. The teenager was resisting arrest, and he was dealing with her in the classroom just as any other officer would have dealt with an adult on the street. His actions also had nothing to do with the color of her skin, and I feel as though some people are reacting much more harshly due to the fact that the student isn't white.
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