San Antonio district fires officer who body-slammed girl
SAN ANTONIO » A San Antonio school officer caught on tape body-slamming a middle-school student was fired today by the district, which said the officer’s misstatements about what happened were revealed by the video.
Officer Joshua Kehm’s statements on the March incident were “inconsistent” with the video and his response was “absolutely unwarranted,” the San Antonio Independent School District said in a statement.
Superintendent Pedro Martinez said Kehm’s case has been referred to the Texas Rangers, the state law enforcement agency, for possible criminal charges.
The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas will represent Kehm and plans to appeal his firing, the group’s executive director, Charley Wilkison, said Monday.
“There’s two sides to every story,” Wilkison said. “We intend to fully, fully defend this officer and make sure that all of his rights are upheld.”
Martinez said in an interview that he didn’t find out about the incident until seeing the video on the Internet, and that staff at Rhodes Middle School also face discipline for not immediately reporting what happened.
The video shows Kehm struggling with the 12-year-old girl before body-slamming her to the ground. He then appears to handcuff the girl before having her stand and leading her away. She had been fighting with another girl before Kehm body-slammed her.
Kehm first told the district that the girl’s fall was accidental, then that she had been fighting an arrest in some way, Martinez said.
“Our conclusion was the action wasn’t warranted,” he said.
The district is supposed to be notified whenever a student is restrained, and officers are strongly discouraged from using physical force unless absolutely necessary in the case of “imminent danger,” Martinez said.
“It never should have gotten to this point,” Martinez said.
Martinez also faulted school staff for not calling the parents of the two fighting students or taking other action before the incident. An assistant principal has been placed on paid leave, he said.
According to state records, Kehm had been a school police officer for just over a year.
17 responses to “San Antonio district fires officer who body-slammed girl”
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It’ll be interesting to read an actual transcript of the officer’s own description of the incident. I’m almost sure he noticed (or should have assumed) other students were holding cell phone cameras pointing at him, so it seems a bit strange that as Superintendent Martinez suggests, at least two conflicting statements were made. Martinez also seems to be saying teachers and other officials at the school may have let a bad situation escalate “for not calling the parents of the two fighting students or taking other action before the incident.” If true, then you could say the school dumped the officer into a worsening mess that he was expected to clean up without undue delay.
AAGAIN…WAS OR IS SHE A 6FT 230LB LINEBACKER?
The long version of the video suggests the girl was heavily resisting the officer as he commanded her to stop struggling. In order to complete the restraint by cuffs the safest way for the officer is to ensure the person to be restrained is on the ground facing down. Obviously the girl was resisting–for a while–and refused to comply with the repeated request by the officer that she not struggle.
School administration needs is responsible, too, for letting the situation escalate to that point. To me the officer was thrown under the bus.
I hate to agree with you, but the school should have taken some action. Would you say that firearm manufacturers do the same things to police officers? They know they’re guns get into the hands of bad people, and also mentally ill or drunk folks. Officers are certainly dumped into worsening messes there too.
What on earth are you saying? I’m trying to parse this paragraph to English but having problems with the syntax.
Sorry, you are right. My position goes off on a tangent. But, for a bit of clarification. Delta’s position is that the school is at least partially responsible for the officer’s actions because it failed to address the situation before hand…that is, they knew these girls would be a problem, but left the officer to “clean up” its mess.
My point for the guy (or girl), who always supports overly aggressive officers and the NRA, is that he if he blames the school for putting the officer in a bad situation, then shouldn’t he feel the same about gun manufacturers who sells weapons knowing that at least some will be used in crimes.
No, I’m sorry. My comment was not directly about Delta’s, rather the one directly above mine. I still don’t understand it but perhaps I haven’t studied it sufficiently.
I need to add, that we as a society, are negligent in teaching children the difference between the Juvenile Justice System and what may happen to them as an adult. (I remember very clearly, being down in the cellblock at the old Police Station waiting for my suspect, when an 18 yr. old was brought in. He was making big body and saying “I like call my ‘Muddah.'”) He had turned 18 three days before and was now being arrested as an adult for the first time. Nobody had ever prepared him for this transition. (I was on Midnight Watch) When I went down early the next morning, this kid was sitting in holding and sobbing. The whole world had changed for him and no one had prepared him for it.
A part of societal education needs to include responsibilities, rights, and consequences. When I subsequently became an educator, I would have speakers from the Police, the Prosecutors and Public Defender’s Office, and the Judiciary come speak with my students and answer their questions.
advertiser1, please point to any specific series of remarks I’ve posted here in at least the last three years that “always” supports the actions of “overly aggressive officers.” You’re making an unqualified statement so in all fairness I expect some unambiguous evidence from you. As for “always” supporting the NRA, please clarify exactly how. Since you, for some peculiar reason see fit to drag the NRA into this specific discussion, do you mean insofar as the organization itself has positioned itself regarding application of reasonable force in middle schools? If not, then what are you talking about? In the same vein, what does the liability of firearms manufacturers have to do with the price of tea in China? To spare you a little trip to Googleland, I’ll give you an answer: it is not reasonable to sue a company for the legal manufacture of a mechanical/electrical product if the the product functions as it is made to do. In simple terms this means that barring a manufacturing defect, if a gun legally made to proper specifications goes “BANG” when the trigger is pulled, the manufacturer is neither criminally nor civilly liable for damages, including damages due to human misuse. It is the same legal standard applied to the manufacturer of your car, microwave oven, propane torch, water heater and countless what-have-yous. Firearms manufacturers and by extension, ammunition makers, are no strangers to product recalls and even class-action lawsuits – but only as they pertain to manufacturing defects. Now what about that evidence I earlier requested. It’s quite simply put up or shut up time.
giggle…
Sadly, many police are poorly trained. This kind of misuse is uncommon but too many cops are just not trained to deal with stress. That includes HPD.
It’s sad that it even has to get to this point but there seems to be absolutely no penalty for the student. If she didn’t want to cooperate and was out of control, what was supposed to happen? I guess a time out was in order!
Of course, I don’t know, but there will certainly be some sort of punishment for fighting. The only reason it makes the news is because someone in a position of power acted in what appears to be an overly aggressive manner.
Sad part here is the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas failing to believe the officer is guilty of egregious charges against a minor. I sincerely doubt if any Association member, executive director, Charley Wilkison would be ok if the officer had done the same to their son or daughter then tried to cover it up with an in your face lie.
How many times has video caught a Law Enforcement Officer in a direct lie? Way too many times. The majority of professional LEO’s have no tolerance for one of their own willfully telling lies on their report as it can make all officer’s look bad.
Officer Joshua Kehm would do well to Man Up to his willful failure to follow the high standards professional officers do. Admit his mistakes and accept his penalty even if it includes jail time.
What’s going to happen is that this will be decided by the Court. Most jurisdictions explicitly state that school personnel and law enforcement personnel may use necessary force against minors to ensure the safety of self and others. The key question will be “Was this level of force necessary given the circumstances in which it was applied?”
Of course, once this child turns 18, the rules change in ways she can’t imagine.
localguy, you do believe in the legal principle of due process don’t you? Superintendent Martinez, hardly a disinterested (or maybe even fair) party, was the one who stated the officer’s statement was inconsistent with the video. Were you somehow privy to what the officer actually said? If not, then why do you take Martinez’s word at face value? From the S-A story alone we can’t even assume if any students or school staff were permitted to make statements or give their accounts. Was it only between the officer’s words and a snippet of video? Again, we don’t know. If the officer is willing to see the entire process through to the end, then we’re only beginning to learn what really happened. No, a misuse of force should never be rewarded or tolerated, but then neither should readers here be satisfied to pronounce guilt or innocence based solely on what a news story says or what an edited video shows.
If he had body slammed someone his own size, things may have turned out differently.