When a sheriff's deputy body-slammed a female student in a South Carolina classroom, other adults should have stepped in.
A national study that looks at how well each state delivers well-prepared teachers was just published.
New Jersey ranked second best in the nation right behind Massachusetts, which debunks some of the political rhetoric from Gov. Chris Christie about how "evil" teachers and their union are in New Jersey.
The study, "Report Card on American Education: Ranking K-12 State Performance Progress and Reform," was issued by the American Legislative Exchange Council. It also examined how well each state expands the teacher pool, how well the state identifies and retains effective teachers, and how ineffective teachers are managed and -- if needed -- dismissed.
South Carolina ranked dead last, No. 51 out of 51, with Washington, D.C., included in the study. In other words, the public schools in South Carolina are dreadful, a condition which has existed for decades. Its schools are underfunded, and the skill set of many teachers and administrators is inadequate.
Even so, I was stunned when I watched videos taken by students at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C. They show the school's police resource officer, Deputy Sheriff Ben Fields, brutally dragged a female student out of a chair and threw her because she would not obey requests to leave a classroom. Some claim that the student was disrupting the class.
There is no defense for Field's actions, no matter what the student did or did not do. The reality is that obedience from human beings is often difficult to obtain but, to do so, effective communication and patience are paramount.
Our current norms demand that if an adult had treated a dog in the brutal manner that Fields had assaulted that child, he would be facing significant jail time for cruelty to an animal. (Fields was subsequently fired, but is not currently facing any criminal charges.)
To those who will still adamantly state that race was not a major factor in how this black student was treated, you are living in denial. I point you toward voluminous data from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Joint Center for Political & Economic Studies on juvenile justice and school suspension rates. But there are equally troubling aspects of the Spring Valley High event.
I take issue with the blame-the-victim mentality of Sheriff Leon Lott, who is on record as saying the female student should have accepted responsibility for starting the incident when she would not get out of her chair as directed. This escalation of this incident was started by the deputy, who apparently did not know what to do. He should have requested assistance from a female teacher familiar to the student, or a female member of the sheriff's department. Sure, that would have taken time, but the girl was not seen disrupting the class loudly. She could have continued to sit in class while the officer sought appropriate response.
In one of the videos, a tall black male with a radio on his belt is visible observing the deputy's actions. He watches the entire event as if he was at a tennis match, silently and politely. If he's a member of the staff, he does not belong in any classroom. He does not say a word, nor does he try to verbally de-escalate or challenge the deputy's level of force. If he's a staff member, he does not belong in any classroom, and it's unfair to the deputy and students that the man's non-response has gone unchallenged.
Another student in the classroom, a senior who had seen and heard all she could stand, finally pleads verbally for the deputy to stop. Then she, too, is maliciously handcuffed and arrested. This young woman exhibited a higher level of moral principles and than the adult male who had authority.
The lack of courage and flat out cowardice displayed by too many men at a moment when "manning up" should be the guiding principle speaks volumes about our societal ills and often misguided culture.
This cowardice can be seen when someone walks through a football locker room at Penn State University room and sees, but does not act, as a coach sexually assaults a small boy in the shower. It can be observed when someone fails to help after seeing an assailant knock a woman down and take her valuables. The same is true in a school where another adult does nothing but watch an officer who has lost all semblance of self-control brutalize a student -- no matter the student's race or gender.
We as a society, and individually as men and women, have to own these things which we allow to happen in our America.
Milton W. Hinton Jr. is director of equal opportunity for the Gloucester County government. He is past president of the Gloucester County Branch NAACP. His column states his personal views, not those of any organization or agency. Email: mwhjr678@gmail.com.