A Baltimore City schools police
officer is shown in a cellphone video slapping a young man Tuesday at REACH
Partnership School in East Baltimore.
Liz Bowie and Kevin Rector
Law enforcement officials
investigating video that appears to show officer slapping a young man.
Law enforcement officials
launched a criminal investigation Wednesday after video surfaced of a Baltimore
school police officer slapping and kicking a teenage youth while a second
officer watches.
The incident occurred Tuesday
afternoon on the steps outside a city high school. School Police Chief Marshall
Goodwin and the two officers in the video were placed on administrative leave,
and activists renewed calls for the Department of Justice to investigate the
school police.
School officials have released
few details of the incident, and there is disagreement about whether the youth
is a student.
On Wednesday, acting School
Police Chief Akil Hamm said the two officers responded to REACH Partnership
School in Clifton Park after two "intruders" were reported inside. He
said their presence was considered a threat.
The officers moved the two young
men outside, Hamm said. He said school officials had determined that the two
were not students by consulting with school administrators, who could not
identify them. He said police wanted the community's help identifying them.
Attorney Lauren Geisser, who said
she represents the 16-year-old youth and his parents, said he does attend the
school. Geisser said the youth, whom she declined to identify because he is a
minor, went to the hospital for injuries to his ribs and face.
Geisser said she, the youth and
his parents went to the school Wednesday to speak to Principal James Gresham
but were told he was in a meeting. Geisser said the parents wanted assurances
that their child would be safe if he walked into the school.
"We waited for a significant
period of time," Geisser said. "You would think the principal would
want an open line of communication on this issue."
She said she was able to get a
copy of the rolls that showed the youth's name on the list of students.
In a statement, Baltimore Schools
CEO Gregory Thornton said, "I am completely appalled and disappointed by
what is depicted in the video."
Schools spokeswoman Edie House
Foster said school officials are investigating the case "vigorously."
Hamm said the school system is
taking the incident "extremely seriously." He declined to identify
the officers, citing the investigation and rules on personnel matters.
The Baltimore Police Department's
Special Investigation Response Team will handle the criminal investigation at
Hamm's request, police said. The team will work closely with the State's
Attorney's Office. Police will also provide a liaison for the internal
investigation that is be handled by the Baltimore City School Police.
"This is the right thing to
do in a case like this," said Baltimore Police Department Commissioner
Kevin Davis.
Foster said the officer who
slapped and kicked the boy was part of a "multi-campus" assignment
patrolling an area that includes several schools, and not assigned specifically
to REACH.
The video was filmed by a friend
of the youth, Geisser said, and posted on Facebook.
Karl Perry, the district's chief
schools support officer, said he was "appalled" by the video as a man
and an educator. He said most school police officers would never act in such a
way.
"This type of behavior is
not indicative of our schools police officers," Perry said. "This is
unacceptable. It's not behavior that will ever be tolerated by any city
employee."
The reaction to the video came
quickly, with students and public officials calling for greater transparency
and scrutiny of school police.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
described the scene in the video as "appalling," and said the
officer's actions could further harm the relationship between the community and
the police.
"Any time there is a law
enforcement officer with that level of authority that seems to be abusing that
authority, it impacts all of us across the country," she said. "It
certainly is not helpful as we work to build bridges of trust to see that level
of mistreatment."
Jenny Egan, a public defender who
represents juveniles, said that while all the facts are not yet known, the
video is "a vivid example of the criminalization of children and of treating
misbehavior like crime."
She said it would be particularly
unjust if young black students who come from high-crime neighborhoods in the
city can't feel safe at school.
If there is "violence at the
hands of people who are supposed to be there to protect you," she said,
"then there is no place safe for our kids, and that is not right."
Karen Webber, director of the
Education and Youth Development program at the Open Society
Institute-Baltimore, called for better training of school police officers in
de-escalation and conflict resolution.
City students and advocates have
been calling for change for more than a year, after an altercation between a
female school officer and three female students at a middle school was caught
on film. The officer in that case pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and
resigned.
Last month, the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund called on the Department of Justice to expand its
investigation of the Baltimore Police Department to include the city school
police department. The two police departments operate independently.
"The video was
distressing," said Monique Dixon, the fund's deputy director of policy.
"It is an example of persistent police violence against young men of
color."
Dixon, Webber and Egan called for
greater oversight of the school police department, and said the district needs
to develop guidelines for the officers.
Dixon said information the school
system released to the Legal Defense Fund showed incidents in which school
officers used batons and pepper spray against students. She said the use of
force against students is not consistently reported.
The video is four seconds in
length. It's unclear what occurred before the officer began slapping the boy.
"We are waiting for the
department to conduct a full and complete investigation," said Sgt. Clyde
Boatwright, president of the school police union.
When David Pontious saw the
video, his first thought was "Not again."
Pontious, a 17-year-old senior at
Baltimore City College High School and a core member of the student-led
activist group City Bloc, said the school system has not been transparent about
its efforts to improve police.
"Even though we've had a lot
of meetings, a lot of input, a lot of discussions with the school system, we've
still seen very little training that school police get, and very little
accountability," he said.
He said the U.S. Department of
Justice should be investigating school police, not just the city police.
City Councilman Brandon Scott,
vice chair of the public safety committee, said that "no one's child
should be treated like that."
Scott said he knows school police
officers who mentor kids, coach sports teams and go out of their way to
contribute to their school communities. "All of that stuff just gets
forgotten" when reports surface of officers misbehaving, he said.
"It just goes to break down
all the good will and all the good work that police officers, and schools
police officers especially, do every day," Scott said. "That just
adds to my level of disgust."
Baltimore Sun reporters Luke
Broadwater, Erica L. Green and Colin Campbell contributed to this article.
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