Police Officer Assaults Student

[SC911]

Both. The officer is a city police officer. The school district pays a portion of the officer's salary to the city to have the officer's presence at one of their campuses. So, the officer is an employee of the city and of the school district. Thanks for your question!

 

[stephenk]

what is the officer's official reported version of what happened?

 

[SC911]

Oh, it's a good one. Despite the student and the counselor's version of being thrown against the wall, the officer says that she was using the 'escort' position and then gave him a little shove in the direction of his class. Yeah, by way of the wall first!

 

[SC911]

My friend gave me the police reports (criminal and investigative) to look over myself today, and I'm not a detective or anything, but I was amazed at how right my friend was regarding all of the discrepancies in the reports. Also, they say in the report that since the officer told the student to go back to class because she didn't want to hear a dang word he had to say, and he asked if he could call his mom (right before she threw him against the wall,) that the officer could have cited the student for 'disturbance of class' if she had wanted to! I think that is just ridiculous, but that's just my opinion.

Also, it says in the report that the PD where this officer works wanted a 'nonbiased' criminal investigation so they referred it out to the PD in a neighboring town. Well, 5 days after it was referred out, the criminal investigative division of the PD where the officer works, faxed a copy of THEIR "criminal investigation" (which was a joke) to the neighboring investigating PD. This doesn't look like a 'nonbiased' investigation when the employing PD seems to be coercing the investigating PD of what their findings should be.

I think this looks like a story for a TV news investigative reporter to look in to. Any advice for or against this idea?

 

[stephenk]

cmon now. the kid wasnt hurt except for his feelings. He wasnt beat over the head or arrested. He was pushed against a wall.

No TV station, radio station, or newspaper is going to make this a front page or headline story.

If your son's friend's parents want to do something, let them hire an attorney to file a civil rights lawsuit against the officer. But once again, the kid hasnt suffered any recoverable damages.

 

[SC911]

Thanks for your input, stephenk. I appreciate it. I do think it's a big deal because this is a special education student. No, he's not retarded, but still it's quite clear to me that the PD's are covering up the officer's abuse of a special ed student. Anyone can look at the police reports and see that. If anyone else off the streets walked into that school and threw a kid, especially a special ed kid, against a wall, they would have criminal charges filed against them immediately. Why is it different for cops? I'm telling ya, just my 2 cents here, but I would be completely embarrassed and ashamed if I had been the investigators in this case. The police work is unbelievably lacking in accuracy and professionalism. Don't these people have someone above them that looks over their reports for these two characteristics? *I* could do better investigative work and I'm just a regular guy. I've always heard that an education makes a world of difference and I think these people forgot to attend the class when they covered investigations. Thanks again.

EDIT: My friend is not looking necessarily for money damages. It would be nice if the police would admit that the officer was wrong in her choice of actions, especially since it wasn't even a law enforcement situation. When the police behave this way and get away with it, how is that going to cause her son to feel towards law enforcement? That right there is probably the main reason that today's youth don't respect law enforcement. They see them getting away with all kinds of crap everyday. I know this doesn't even compare to the Rodney King situation or anything like that. Still, it's a sad situation when cops can get away with laying their hands on a child for no reason. The boy has a right to attend school without being abused by the campus police officer. I'll have my friend talk to a lawyer. Thanks again.

 

[mipwtf]

It shouldn't have anything to do with whether or not the kid was special ed- the officer acted out of line and now even "thoughtful" people are saying that it shouldn't matter because the officer wasn't *too* out of line. Funny, the same people who ream apart first time shoplifters on this same site because, for gods sake it's illegal and good people never do anything illegal! Yeah, if you shoplift you pay a fine. And, if your a cop who uses unreasonable force you gets fired. Or you ought to, anyway.

 

[SC911]

I'm glad it's not just me that sees that on this message board - if you're a shoplifter or got pulled over for a DUI or whatever, then you're raked over the coals, damned to hell, and called trailer-trash by most everyone here. But, this cop throws a kid against a wall AT SCHOOL - where he should be safe from abuse - and it's considered no big deal because he didn't get a skull fracture. I just really don't get it. I'm saddened by it, but I'm more saddened that the police departments are letting this cop just get away with it.