Monthly Archives: November 2015

Filmed classroom arrest of South Carolina schoolgirl spotlights police brutality, prison pipeline

Could the cellphone do for the school discipline debate what car dashboard and body-worn cameras have done to ignite the movement to curb police brutality?

The young South Carolina woman whose violent arrest was captured by phone-wielding classmates has not yet been identified publicly. But the images of Richland County Deputy Ben Fields flipping her, still in her chair, onto the floor and dragging her across the classroom have galvanized critics of the school-to-prison pipeline. The student is black. Fields, who was fired Wednesday, is white. Continue reading