Florida school officer body-slams female student into concrete in viral video

The video, shared widely on Twitter, shows the school officer throwing the teen to the ground, and she appears to stop moving.

A white school resource officer was captured on video tackling a Black high school student in Florida, knocking her to the ground, rendering her unconscious. 

The violent video, which was shared widely on Twitter, shows the officer throwing the teenaged girl to the ground, and she appears to stop moving. He then kneels beside her and begins to handcuff her as another officer uses hand motions to keep other students back. 

A violent video, which was shared on Twitter, shows an officer at a Florida high school throwing a Black student to the ground, and she appears to stop moving.

The incident took place at Liberty High School in Kissimmee, Florida, where students have returned to in-person classes. The young girl and the officer were both wearing masks. 

TMZ is reporting that the unidentified officer is a sheriff’s deputy. Of the incident, Osceola Country Sheriff’s Department said its “office is in the initial stages of our investigation. We are collecting video, witness statements and relevant information related to the incident.”

One posting of the video is captioned: “This is liberty high school in Osceola county and I’ve seen my share of body slams from that school not only by officers but from Deans as well. I’ve seen grown-a** (men) hop on top of girls to hold them down while they are clearly in distress.” In a thread, the user notes that he contacted the school and was not provided any additional information. 

Academy Award-winning actor and singer Jamie Foxx commented on the clip from his verified Twitter account, saying: “What in the absolute phuck?!! Slam a girl to the concrete after you’ve already subdued her??!! What kind of heartless shit is that??!! Someone s daughter??! WTF? cowards.”

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Acclaimed filmmaker Ava Duvernay wondered about the girl’s condition.

“Does anyone know the status of this young sister? Did she make it?” Duvernay tweeted. “Does anyone have info about the men who brutalized her? Who took her down so hard that the sound of her skull hitting the concrete rings in our ears. Rage rising in our chests.”

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Another account of the incident reported by TMZ notes that the persons involved in the fight had already been separated and under control by a faculty member “when the officer came out of nowhere, picked her up and body-slammed her” on to the ground. 

The National Association of School Resource Officers notes that there are between 14,000 and 20,000 SRO’s employed by public schools nationwide. 

Florida law requires that all school district-run schools have at least one armed school resource officer on campus every day. 

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