Attorney: Student slammed to floor suffered concussion
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Officer Ruben De Los Santos of the Rolesville Police Department slams a teenage girl to the floor in Rolesville, N.C. The student who was slammed to the ground by a police officer was trying to break up a fight involving her sister, said the 15-year-old who posted video of the incident.
ROLESVILLE, N.C. >> A student who was slammed to the floor by a police officer in a North Carolina high school has suffered a concussion and may have other related health issues, her attorney said Thursday.
Jasmine Darwin is having headaches, vision problems and other issues associated with a concussion, attorney Freddy Rabner of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, said. Darwin, who was a student at Rolesville High School, sought treatment at a hospital twice and has follow-up appointments with several specialists, he said.
“She’s a little 100-pound girl who was whipped to the ground so hard, she’s sore everywhere,” Rabner said in a telephone interview. “She’s a mess. She’s in pain.”
A brief video posted on Twitter showed a police officer lifting and dropping a girl on her left side, then pulling her to her feet and leading her away. The student who took the video, Ahunna Akpuda, has said Darwin was trying to break up a fight between Darwin’s sister and another girl.
The video doesn’t show what led up to or followed the episode. Akpuda said the officer arrived a few seconds after the girl tried to break up the fight.
“He drags her farther away from the actual fight after it was broken up,” said Akpuda, who spoke with The Associated Press on the phone Wednesday, along with her mother. “That’s when he proceeds to lift her up and slam her down to the ground.”
The officer, identified by Rolesville officials as Ruben De Los Santos, is on paid administrative leave. Police Chief Bobby Langston said he has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to review the case.
Town officials have declined to answer additional questions, including whether they know if De Los Santos has an attorney. The Associated Press has been unable to reach the officer by phone or email.
The officer is Hispanic and Darwin is black, Mayor Frank Eagles said.
The video prompted the state’s largest school district to take a fresh look at standards for officers assigned to work in schools. Wake County school officials will review the memorandum of understanding that places an armed police officer in every high school and some middle schools, district spokeswoman Lisa Luten said Wednesday.
De Los Santos has been assigned to the school since it opened in 2013, Eagles said. About 2,200 students in grades nine through 12 attend the school.
Wake County schools don’t have their own police force so the district contracts with local police to place school resource officers on campuses. The agreement allows officers to use force but it cannot be “excessive, arbitrary or malicious.”
Officials with the National Association of School Resource Officers wouldn’t comment on what happened at Rolesville High School. The association’s recommendations include starting with the selection of school officers, who must have the right mindset to work with young people, said D.J. Schoeff, a school officer in Carmel, Indiana, and NASRO second-vice president.
“Although we are law enforcement, that is the last-resort function that we have,” he said. Building relationships, deterring crime and acting as an informal counselor or mentor are primary duties, he said.
NASRO estimates that 14,000 to 20,000 officers work in schools in the United States, he said. About 1,000 officers worldwide trained with NASRO last year, he said.
13 responses to “Attorney: Student slammed to floor suffered concussion”
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Saw a guy get his nose broken trying to break up a fight once. Saw a guy break his hand when he punched another guy in the mouth. Never hurt the drunk who got punched. LOL. Doesn’t pay to wade into a fight.
If officer was already working in the school, he knew the kids. Maybe this girl who allegedly was trying to break up the fight, really wasn’t and was out of control. Sound weird the officer would go for the “peacemaker” More to this story. I learned that most of these press stuff is reported by lawyers who want to sway public opinion
Why Don,t you stop reading the SA if you are going to make up your own story.
Rest assured the parents of Jasmine Darwin have hired an attorney who will be suing the school system, police department, and the officer for millions of dollars in willful damages.
Sad to say sometimes it takes a multimillion dollar settlement to slap some sense into schools and PDs about how to handle school kids. Understanding at their age they will not act like adults, not all can be physically handled like them.
I think back to when I was in school and their were fights. Usually it was the gym coaches, especially the wrestling coach – built like a fire plug, who broke it up. No body slamming, no one hurt.
Unfortunately schools have not learned the lessons of history, continue to make the same mistakes over and over.
many police need better training.
The police are doing their job. It’s the kids and the parents or lack of that think rules don’t apply to them.
This wouldn’t be an issue if there wasn’t a video.
Is the officer a white hispanic?
He’s a Mexican slamming a black girl. Very common on the mainland to see Mexican violence towards blacks. As the Mexicans back in California say…”We’re taking over!” LOL
SA THIS STORY IS OLD…can we get to the 4 Blacks on 1 Challenged White Male Torture story…the Hate Crime story from Chicago please TYVM.
Giving thanks for living in Hawaii: We don’t have a single school with metal detectors (impractical anyway given the layout of our schools) or armed police officers stationed on campuses nor do we need them.
That’s how your tax dollars are spent. Liberal/permissive society breeds some evils with the good. Free expression can get out-of-hand and injury results? Have not learned the know-how to use these freedoms?
Bring back the old days when kids are bad they get swats. A lot of them deserve it.
Just ANOTHER bully cop !!!