Spring Valley High Confrontation

  * All public commentators that I have heard and also my wife condemned the School Resource Officer who pulled the recalcitrant girl from her chair in a South Carolina math class.  Among other things, they say that the SRO was too aggressive and that such interventions criminalize discipline problems.
  * The girl was disturbing the class by using her cell phone in defiance of her teacher.  She responded disrespectfully when asked by an administrator to leave the class.  School policy presumably required bringing in the SRO at that point.
  * The SRO spoke to the girl before the altercation.  It is said that he attempted unsuccessfully to take the cell phone.  It is said that the girl struck the SRO early in the altercation.  The SRO attempted to lift her up but she stuck to the chair tenaciously, so that the chair with her in it fell over backward.   It appears that the SRO held the back of her neck, possibly so her head wouldn’t hit the floor.  Then the SRO jerked her from the downed chair and pulled her a few feet from the chair along the floor.  A detailed account is at Daily Kos.
  * I would be surprised if the girl was injured.  (Based on two years playing football and two years wrestling with football players outweighing me by 70-90 pounds, having been slung more than eight feet out of the ring into the third row of folding chairs.)
  * On seeing the videos of the incident, I immediately felt that the SRO was too aggressive.  One always empathizes with the underdog.  But, on further thought, I recognized the responsibility of a law-enforcement officer to control any offender.  A law-enforcement officer should never confront an offender on even terms.  He/She must have the clear advantage.  Otherwise the probability of surviving to retirement is small.  It can look ugly.
  * Therefore, one shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed if the officer is eventually found to have acted responsibly.  To consider this matter objectively, one might imagine this incident were it a tough 17-year-old boy defying and insulting his teacher and assistant principal, refusing to comply with the SRO, even hitting the SRO as he attempts to raise the boy from his seat.  Should the responsible authority exhibit gender discrimination?  Imagine yourself trying to teach a class of resistant teenagers with an especially surly one defying reasonable requests for necessary participation.  As Barney Fife said about disruptive behavior: "nip it in the bud!"