How Could You? Hall of Shame-Ex-Deputy Ben Fields
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Columbia, South Carolina, “Life for a 16-year-old black girl in the New South living in a foster home is no crystal stair.
In an interview with the Daily News, Todd Rutherford, the respected Columbia, S.C., attorney representing the assault victim of the recently terminated Deputy Ben Fields, revealed that his client, in addition to suffering injuries on her face, neck, and arm, is living in foster care.
While her identity, no doubt, will eventually be leaked to the media, it’s the goal of her foster mother to protect and care for her as well as she can considering the circumstances, according to her lawyers. She communicated to us that the young victim is devastated and emotionally traumatized by all that has happened to her.
School, as you can imagine, could be particularly tough for a young girl who has experienced so much pain and loss in her young life. To think that she has now suffered police brutality and is facing trumped up criminal charges for age-appropriate classroom behavior is just despicable.
Some trauma cannot be undone. The experience of police brutality is an example of such trauma.
Our kids, who already face enormous pressure in life, should never be subjected to state-sponsored violence while in school. For this young girl, Spring Valley High School should’ve been a refuge.
Instead, it was something far worse.”
Life is even harder now for the South Carolina teen assaulted by ex-Deputy Ben Fields — she’s in foster care [Ny Daily News 10/29/15 by Shaun King]
“Several videos of Deputy Ben Fields flipping over a Spring Valley High School student in her chair and dragging her across the classroom floor have emerged, along with a 3rd video at the center of the controversy. A reported 3rd video claims to show the student fighting back, even though it’s unclear what “3rd video” is being discussed, and if that supposed 3rd video has even been released to the public. The first versions of the Fields’ videos seen on social media were from different vantage points in the math class, with some closer than others.
The above GIF video is likely the 3rd video in question, with Heavy reporting the 3rd video having the best angle of Fields’ attack on the student, whom classmate Niya Kenny says was only about 5-feet 6-inches tall against Deputy Ben’s “300 pounds of muscle,” as reported by the Inquisitr.
As reported by NBC, Sheriff Leon Lott claims that a 3rd video exists that shows the unnamed student punching Fields or flailing at Deputy Ben as Fields flips over her chair. However, the publication notes that it isn’t clear if Sheriff Lott is referring to a 3rd video that’s already been released to the public, or some other mysterious 3rd video that the public hasn’t yet seen. Either way, Lott claims that the 3rd video will also be used as evidence as part of the investigation by Internal Affairs into what really happened when Deputy Fields assaulted the unnamed student and caused injuries, as reported by the Associated Press.
If the above video from NBC is the alleged 3rd video of which Lott speaks, it is fast, and it is unclear if the student is directly punching at Fields. The publication notes that at least three videos have been published of Deputy Fields’ altercation with the student, who reportedly suffered the wrath of Fields when she refused to turn over her phone after texting in math class, reports the Associated Press. The above video appears to be the closest one to the incident of all three videos that have been published online.”
“As reported by WLTX, one of the students who took the video of Fields as he sat in the front of the class said Deputy Ben was wrong for his actions, but the unnamed videographer also says that the student was wrong. He said that the students in the class warned the girl to leave when the administrator came in, but she refused, and when Fields was on the way, he pulled out his phone to begin taking video. The student then posted his video on Instagram.
The 3rd video is mysterious because searches for 3rd video and “third video Ben fields” on Twitter’s video feed do indeed turn up the video of what’s being called the 3rd video with the best vantage point on Fields’ actions. In that third video, the student can be seen flailing and perhaps trying to punch at Fields, but it’s after Deputy Ben is already in the process of flipping over her chair, so debate exists over whether the teenage girl is actually punching and hitting Fields or trying to get him to stop flipping her in the chair.”
Watch 3rd Video of Ben Fields Filpping Student in Chair[The Inquistr 10/28/15 by Paula Mooney]
“The school resource officer who was caught on camera violently flipping a South Carolina high school student at her desk has been fired, authorities announced Wednesday.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said an internal investigation over the Monday incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia focused on whether Senior Deputy Ben Fields had violated the department’s policies.
He said at a news conference that the department looked at cellphone videos taken from the classroom and interviews with witnesses, and concluded that the maneuvers he used in the confrontation were “not acceptable.”
“From the very beginning that’s what’s caused me to be upset, and (what) continued to upset me is that he picked the student up and threw the student across the room,” Lott said.
“Deputy Ben Fields did wrong this past Monday,” he added.
Fields, 34, was initially suspended without pay, and the FBI, the Justice Department and state law enforcement have opened separate investigations into the brutal take down.
Lott said that while Fields had no prior complaints against him during his seven years at Spring Valley, his actions that day were enough to warrant his termination.
A memo of the results of the department’s investigation says deputies, in instances where the suspect is in a seated position and is nonthreatening, are trained to use “tactical communication to try to talk them into compliance.” If that fails, deputies can use “pain compliance techniques,” but aren’t supposed to “throw or push away a suspect” unless the person is trying to harm them.
Still, Lott said, people shouldn’t “lose sight” that the student’s unruly behavior set off the incident.
“What she did doesn’t justify what our deputy did. It doesn’t justify his actions, but she needs to be held responsible for what she did,” Lott said.
Lott had earlier said the female student, who has not been identified, only suffered a rug burn, although her attorney said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she “has a cast on her arm, she has neck and back injuries.”
Police say the incident began around 11 a.m. when the girl became disruptive in her algebra class and was texting on her phone. Her teacher asked the student to leave, and when she refused, an administrator was called in, Lott said.
Fields was then ordered to the classroom. Cellphone videos taken by students show him standing before the girl, commanding her to stand up or be forcibly removed. She refuses to leave. Fields is then seen body-slamming the student to the ground backwards while she’s still in her seat, and then dragging her and her desk across the floor.
A “third video” reviewed by police for the internal investigation shows the girl swinging at the officer’s head after he puts his hands on her, Lott said.
The girl was arrested along with a second student who police say was also “contributing to the chaos.” That student, later identified as 18-year-old Niya Kenny, told NBC News on Tuesday that she witnessed the officer put his arm around her classmate’s neck, and that’s when she fought back.
She said she was stunned to see the mayhem in the room, and said she “felt something bad was going to go down” when Fields entered the class. “He’s known as Officer Slam,” she added.
Lott said Tuesday that he did not know if race was a factor in the case, but didn’t believe so because Fields, who is white, has been dating an African-American woman for “quite some time.” Fields, however, has been the subject of racial bias and excessive force allegations.
Lott said he earlier spoke with Fields, who told him he’s sorry for how Monday’s confrontation played out.
“He tried to do his job, and that’s what he felt like he did,” the sheriff said. “It happened very quickly. His actions were something that if he had to do it over again, he probably would have done it different.”
The FBI and the Justice Department probes will determine whether the girl’s civil rights were violated in the incident. Lott said any criminal charges against Fields would also be decided by those agencies.”
The president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP, meanwhile, has called for Fields to be charged with assault.
School district officials also blasted Fields’ actions as “outrageous” and “reprehensible,” and the video itself “shamefully shocking.”
Schools Superintendent Debbie Hamm said the district is strengthening its training efforts with school resource officers to ensure such an incident doesn’t happen again.”
South Carolina Deputy Ben Fields Fired After Body Slamming Student: Sheriff[NBC NEWS 10/28/15 by and
“My questions now arise to be presented as to why there was no IEP on record for the child being in foster care or for emotional issues on file with this so-called school officer.
When a child is at school and/or foster care, the responsibility to protect and serve falls upon the state as de facto parents.
South Carolina failed to protect the student.
What the nation has witnessed is an everyday occurrence of the trauma of what goes on in child welfare which includes schools and foster care,.”
South Carolina Foster Child Attacked By Deputy In School [Beverly Tran blog 10/29/15]
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