High School Police Ask Judge to Let Them Pepper-Spray and Arrest Unruly Students

[unhappycamper]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/birmingham-school-police-trial-splc



Countless kids are busted for minor rulebreaking, a lawsuit claims. A decision is expected Monday.

High School Police Ask Judge to Let Them Pepper-Spray and Arrest Unruly Students
—By Allie Gross
| Sat Feb. 7, 2015 6:00 AM EST

When B.J. ambled into his fourth-period class at PD Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham, Alabama, he could hardly have predicted that he would soon be handcuffed and crying, with pepper spray searing his eyes and nasal passages. Nor would he have guessed that by the day's end he would be sequestered in a holding cell, vomiting from the chemicals.

Here's how it happened, as described in court documents: One day in September 2010, "Mr. Cook," a substitute teacher in the Birmingham City Schools, told B.J. (his initials), then a wiry 10th-grader, that he couldn't be in the classroom until he tucked in his shirt. The teen obliged—dress violations were known to escalate at the school—but as he slipped back into the room a few minutes later, the sub heard someone among the rows mutter, "Fuck you, Mr. Cook." Unsure who'd dissed him, he zeroed in on B.J. and summoned "Assistant Principal Gaston."

Out in the hallway, Gaston subjected B.J. to a forced physical search. B.J. objected, and wriggled to loosen himself from the administrator's grip. He tripped and landed facedown on the floor—whereupon Gaston took advantage of B.J.'s vulnerable position to check his back pockets. B.J.'s defiance led Gaston to call in backup. The kid soon found himself upright and pinned to a row of lockers by Gaston and a fellow administrator, "Assistant Principal Gates."

That's when School Resource Officer (SRO) Marion Benson arrived on the scene. Her face was the last thing B.J. saw before she blasted him with a cloud of pepper spray. He sunk to the ground in tears. If you try getting up, I am going to spray you again, she told him, her knee digging into B.J.'s back. She handcuffed him and led him to the main office.

[pipoman]

1. The school police shouldn't be allowed to do anything to students

Parents can't. ...if a parent pepper sprayed their kid...regardless what the kid did, I'm guessing AL police would charge the parent with some sort of abuse....