Airport High student says school resource officer used stun gun on him during fight
The family of an Airport High School student is seeking answers and asking for change after the 16-year-old says he was was hit with a stun gun by a resource officer at the school this week.
Treyvon Hampton said at a press conference on Friday outside the S.C. State House that he was waiting at the Airport High School bus loading area on Wednesday when he became involved in an altercation with other students.
The altercation ended when Hampton was stunned by a school resource officer from the Cayce Department of Public Safety. Hampton then fell to the ground and was injured on the concrete pavement, the student said.
Hampton’s family said they were outraged by the use of a stun gun on a minor and want to see changes to the school’s disciplinary protocols and the use of force by resource officers.
Later on Friday, the Cayce Department of Public Safety said that the use of the officer’s stun gun was justified.
“(T)he use of force... was both reasonable and necessary after numerous attempts to verbally and physically deescalate the altercation between the students were ignored,” the department said in a statement.
The police also say the stun gun “was used because of the continued, active resistance of one student, who posed imminent danger both to the many students involved in the altercation itself, as well as the other students, teachers and staff in the area.”
The family of the student has retained attorney Justin Bamberg, a state House representative from Bamberg County, to represent them.
Bamberg said at the press conference that Hampton was trying to defend a friend he believed was about to get “jumped” and swung at one of several boys who had surrounded the friend. That was when he said he was stunned from behind by the officer.
“This was a run-of-the-mill schoolyard fight,” Bamberg said, adding that none of the individuals involved were armed.
Hampton told reporters that he could not feel his body after he was tased and had to get an electrocardiogram.
“Tasers can kill grown men,” Bamberg said.
Hampton also apologized to the school and to his mom, Lashauna Randolph, for fighting. Randolph said Hampton had never been involved in an altercation at school before, and she was shocked to get the call.
“This is a call I don’t want any other parent to get,” Randolph said. She said she spoke to the officer involved after getting the call, but the cell phone video did not match the officer’s description of events.
Cayce police announced Friday that of the six or seven students involved in Wednesday’s fight, five of them have been charged with third-degree assault and battery. The police department does not identify the names of minors charged with crimes.
The Lexington 2 school district confirmed that an “incident” occurred Wednesday involving the school’s SRO and, “Because of the nature of the events, other law enforcement officials were contacted.”
“The district takes seriously the safety of its students,” the district said in a statement. “To that end, the district is cooperating with local law enforcement officials and conducting its own investigation into these events.”
Bamberg said the officer used excessive force on Hampton, and he asked the school board to review its policies regarding school resource officers. Bamberg also said he plans to seek body camera footage and the incident report.
“If in the end we need to sue somebody, we’ll sue them,” Bamberg said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information from the Cayce Department of Public Safety.
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
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