S.C. Sheriff Says Officer Involved in Controversial School Arrest Has Been Fired

A South Carolina police officer has reportedly been fired following the release of a video that shows him wrestling a female student to the ground after she refused to put away her cell phone in class.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott announced that Senior Deputy Ben Fields has been fired from his position as a resource officer at Spring Valley High School in Columbia after a video shows him wrestling a female student to the ground and then dragging her across the room when she refused to put her cell phone away in class, and then refused to get out of her chair.

The video, which as been circulated widely on the internet, was filmed by a fellow student. It shows the officer asking the student to leave her chair, and when she refuses, he attempts to forcefully remove her from the chair, and then drags her across the floor to the front of the classroom before arresting her.

Sherriff Lott said in a statement regarding the police officer's firing that Fields, who has worked at the school for seven years, did not use proper technique in handling the student, adding that the officer "lost control" of the situation.

"That is not a proper technique and should not be used in law enforcement. And based on that, that is a violation of our policy and approximately 20 minutes ago Officer Ben Fields was terminated from the Richland County Sheriff's Department," the sherriff said in a statement this week.

Lott added that his officer is not the only one at fault for the incident.

"If she had not disrupted the school and disrupted that class, we would not be standing here today. So it started with her and it ended with my officer. What I'm going to deal with is what my deputy did," Lott said.