Lately there has been a disturbing amount of reports of student abuse by their teachers, school resource officers, and bus drivers.

Whether it is a teacher berating and insulting a special needs student for his intelligence or a school resource officer ripping a student from her desk and dragging her along the floor to arrest her for mild ‘disrespect’, this is unacceptable.

Our teachers, our bus drivers, our school resource officers, our associates. When these titles are mentioned, many things come to mind. Whether they be names, memories or just faces, there are a number of thoughts a high school student should think when these titles are mentioned. One thing that should never come to mind is abuse.

A school in South Carolina, Spring Valley High, has experienced media attention in the past few weeks due to a shocking incident that occurred on October 28, 2015.

Deputy Ben Fields was working as the school’s resource officer when a student was disrupting class. She refused to give up her phone and offered disrespectful verbalizations and Fields proceeded to tear her violently from her desk and drag her across the floor to arrest her.

It has been argued that Fields was justified as the student had showed some resistance. However, it has also been pointed out that there is no reason for Fields to abuse a student in such a way when that student had not harmed or threatened anyone in any way.

ADM’s Student Resource Officer, Monte Keller, claims that it is difficult to make a judgement on how to react in any situation where a SRO is needed.

“You never have a situation where you want it, as an officer, to get physical,” said Keller. Each situation is different, having different lead-up events and different circumstances. This is a given. However, when a student is merely not responding or refusing to put her cellphone away is very far from the necessary requirements to use brute, aggressive force on a child.

The Use-of-Force Continuum is the most widespread policy used by law enforcements. This continuum graduates in the following order: Officer Presence, Verbalization, Empty-Hand Control, Less-Lethal Methods, and finally Lethal Force. Within Empty-Hand Control there is soft technique and hard technique. Deputy Fields went directly from Verbalization to the hard technique of Empty-Hand Control when he was disciplining the student he violently ripped from her desk and dragged across the classroom.

This may be at the discretion of the police officer in a dangerous situation where there was another human being’s life or safety at risk, however this was anything but. Students deserve to feel comfortable in their school environments, and I cannot speak for others, but I would not feel very safe in my school if a student was physically assaulted after merely being on her phone and expressing mild disrespect.

Officer Keller has never acted in such a way, and the actions of Deputy Fields among others do not represent their character or how SRO’s behave. This same principle goes for students and what is assumed of them. Stereotypes are so 1860s.