A North Carolina sheriff’s deputy serving as a school resource officer has been placed on paid administrative leave after violently slamming a child to the ground twice at a middle school, authorities told the Associated Press on Sunday.
The incident occurred as the deputy was escorting a student to the school administrative office Thursday at Vance County Middle School in Henderson, a town about 45 miles north of Raleigh. It was captured in a surveillance video that went viral on social media over the weekend. In the video, the deputy, who has not been identified, walks alongside a child in the school’s empty hallway. Suddenly, the officer seizes the student, lifts him into the air and up against the wall, flips him, and slams him forcefully to the ground, head-down. He then repeats the maneuver, lifting the student to a standing position before hurling him to the ground. The student doesn’t move, and the officer pulls him forcefully to his feet before physically dragging him, apparently by the shirt, down the hallway and out of the camera’s view.
The child has also not been identified, but Vance County Sheriff Curtis Brame said he is under the age of 12. He also said the child’s mother had reported that the student had a bump on his head but had not been hospitalized or injured in any other way. Vance County District Attorney Mike Waters said the boy was recovering but would not say more, other than to note that the child’s injuries would affect what charges might be filed, according to CBS17. It’s not known what the interaction was between the student and the deputy or why the deputy became violent.
On Thursday, according to WRAL, school district officials reported the officer to authorities. Brame said he had asked the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation to investigate whether the officer should be criminally charged. “We went over and when we first saw the video, we were stunned, we were shocked,” Brame told CBS17. “We all are parents and grandparents that have children at that same age, so it brought some great concern to us.”
