Use police in schools for crimes, not discipline, SC board says
Police officers in S.C. schools only should get involved with student behavior when it reaches criminal levels, not to enforce discipline, the state Board of Education said Tuesday.
“Our No. 1 priority is school safety and making sure that the environment there is conducive to learning and every child feels safe,” state Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman said, before the Education Board unanimously agreed to give initial approval to the proposed rules.
The changes, which must clear several more hurdles before taking effect, come almost a year after a Richland County Sheriff’s Department deputy forcibly removed a Spring Valley High School student from her desk and tossed her across the floor.
An administrator had called the deputy — serving as a school resource officer — in to address the student’s behavior after she reportedly refused to put away her cell phone.
Caught on video and posted online, the October incident exploded nationally, sparking a debate about a controversial disturbing-schools law. Critics say that S.C. law unfairly criminalizes student behavior and raises questions about disciplinary fairness in the classroom.
The girl removed from her desk and a classmate who filmed the incident were arrested. The deputy was fired.
The proposed regulations were recommended by a task force that Spearman formed after the Spring Valley incident.
That panel recommended better training for educators and the more than 600 law enforcement officers estimated to be working in S.C. schools as resource officers. Included in the training should be pointers on how to deescalate tense situations with students so they do not become physical or result in unnecessary arrests.
The Spring Valley incident “could have been more appropriately handled within the school setting,” Traci Young Cooper, an state Board of Education member, said Tuesday. “It did not rise to the level of a criminal offense that would have merited law enforcement.”
Students with behavioral problems face so many issues – social, emotional or otherwise – that educators should strive to “nurture and better guide them and not always default to the punitive,” Cooper added.
The proposed changes include adding definitions of misconduct involving electronic devices.
Possession of a cell phone in violation of school policy would be considered the lowest level offense. A student would have to be engaged in criminal activity with a cell phone or other electronic device for intervention by a school resource officer to be warranted.
S.C. House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, an attorney who is representing the girls arrested in the incident, said he was "very impressed with (the board’s) focus on educating children rather than leaning toward incarceration.”
The proposed rules "resembled what the law and regulation should be regarding children in classroom – that law enforcement is a backstop not a first stop," said Rutherford.
The Education Board will take written comments on the proposed regulations and hold a public hearing before taking them up for final approval in October.
If the board gives its final approval, the regulations will go to the S.C. General Assembly for its approval. Lawmakers return to Columbia for the new legislative session in January.
The Associated Press contributed. Jamie Self: 803-771-8658, @jamiemself
Update: Spring Valley incident
Ben Fields was fired from his job as a Richland County Sheriff’s Department deputy after he forcibly removed a Spring Valley High School student from her desk. Caught on video and posted online, the incident prompted FBI and state investigations. The girl and a classmate who took a cell-phone video of the incident were arrested on charges of disturbing schools.
▪ No charges – state or federal – have been filed against Fields. Last month, the FBI released documents related to the investigation to some of the parties involved in the case, said attorney Todd Rutherford, who is representing Niya Kenny, one of the students arrested during the incident.
▪ Kenny’s court date is Sept. 15.
▪ The 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office did not return a request for an update Tuesday afternoon on the status of the charges against the student removed from her desk. Officials have not identified the girl, who was a minor at the time of the incident.
This story was originally published August 9, 2016 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Use police in schools for crimes, not discipline, SC board says."