Spring Valley High School police incident

On Monday, October 26, 2015, in Columbia, South Carolina, United States, Shakara, an African American student at Spring Valley High School, was assaulted by Deputy Ben Fields of the Richland County Sheriff Department. Deputy Fields came into a classroom of the high school to escort Shakara out and asked her to get up from her desk after she refused to give her cell phone to a teacher at the school. When Shakara did not respond, he grabbed her from her desk and threw her to the floor as seen in the footage shot by Niya Kenny. Deputy Fields then continued to restrain her as she fought against him. He continuously told her to put her hands behind her back although she was already restrained. In the video footage captured by classmates, Shakara is thrown from her desk and held down on the ground. After the incident, Officer Fields was told not to return to the school until the investigation was over. As the case went forward, he was placed on administrative leave. Then, later on, he was fired from his position.
Parties involved
Shakara
Shakara, a 16-year-old student at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina was a victim of an alleged police brutality incident involving officer Ben Fields, arrested for 'disturbing schools' after refusing to give up her cellphone in class.
Niya Kenny
Niya Kenny, an 18-year-old student at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina, was arrested for recording an alleged police brutality incident and protesting loudly in attempt to stop the encounter between officer Ben Fields and classmate Shakara. She was also arrested for 'disturbing schools'.
Ben Fields
Ben Fields was a Sheriff Deputy for Richland County Sheriffs Dept. and was a School Resource Officer at Spring Valley High School for seven years. Officer Ben Fields was involved in a violent attack against 16-year-old student Shakara. He was subsequently fired from his position by Sheriff Leon Lot.
Background
In South Carolina, there has been a pattern of police exercising excessive force with questionable racial motivations in South Carolina. For instance, Levar Jones and Bobby Canipe were both shot(on separate occasions) after being pulled over for traffic violations. These cases, beyond the Spring Valley incident, suggest that the racial advocacy groups may have validity to their argument that structural components need to be changed.
According to Kenny, she understood the severity of the situation when Fields was called in, which prompted her to tell others to get their phones out to record the following events. According to students, many referred to Fields as “Officer Slam”.
Event
According to reports, the reason Shakara was being confronted by security was her resilience to the teacher who had asked her to put her phone away. Later, she refused to leave the classroom when told. This is against South Carolina’s disturbing schools law, which prohibits the interruption of school, so Officer Fields was called by the teacher to deal with the situation.
The largest source of information for the event is from Niya Kenny’s video. The video depicts now former officer Ben Fields confronting Shakara. In doing so, he wraps his arms around her upper torso and grabs her leg, after which Shakara reacts by swinging at Fields, hitting his neck and shoulder. Fields then pulls her backward, causing the desk she sat at to flip, and proceeds to pull her out from underneath by her hand and back of her leg towards the front of the room, where he holds her against the ground to arrest her.
Aftermath
As a result of this incident, Officer Ben Fields was investigated by the FBI, the Civil Rights division of the Department of Justice, and the Richland Country Sheriff’s Department. but the charges were not proceeded with. Kenny has since obtained her G.E.D. and never returned to Spring Valley High School.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu