Rosewood Elementary student bites deputy, pulls principal’s hair out

An eight-year-old student at Columbia’s Rosewood Elementary School “went wild” on the playground Tuesday, attacking other students, pulling a principal’s hair out and biting a deputy on the arm to the point where the skin was torn, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said.

“This kid was out of control, running around hitting people,” said Lt. Curtis Wilson.

A female deputy stationed at the school, who is called a school resource officer, then tried to get control of the child, but the child fought back. She called a male school resource officer for help, Wilson said.

At that point, the child tried to climb a wrought-iron fence – the playground faces Rosewood Drive – and the male deputy pulled him down, Lt. Curtis Wilson said.

“While he’s getting control, the kid bites him in the arm, breaking the skin,” Wilson said. The child was then taken into the school, he said.

Meanwhile, a passerby began videotaping the situation with a cell phone, Wilson said.

“He was yelling, ‘What are you-all doing to that kid’?” Wilson said.

Initially, the sheriff’s department reported that a teacher’s hair was pulled out. But Richland School District 1 spokeswoman Karen York said later Tuesday that the child had yanked on principal Elizabeth Williams’ hair and pulled some out.

“She’s fine,” York said, explaining that Williams had tried along with several teachers to calm the child down before calling a school resource officer.

The child, for whatever reason, became “very agitated during recess,” York said. “A teacher was kicked, and three other staff members tried to get the child to calm down, but the child was kicking and hitting, trying to get out of the gate, and at one point tried to run out into the street. They were, luckily, able to get him back.”

The staff decided the child was “a threat to his own safety” and called for the school resource officer as well as an ambulance to take the child to the hospital, York said.

“We didn’t arrest him; he was only eight years old,” Wilson said.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 3:04 PM with the headline "Rosewood Elementary student bites deputy, pulls principal’s hair out."