A San Antonio school district police officer has been placed on paid leave following a video depicting him slamming a middle school student to the ground face-first, CBS
.
The San Antonio Express-News reports that police are investigating a possible case of excessive force at Rhodes Middle School following the release of the video, which was posted to YouTube on Wednesday; the footage is eerily similar to an October 2015 incident in which a South Carolina school officer was seen slamming a female student to the ground and dragging her across the floor.
According to the Express-News:
SAISD spokeswoman Leslie Price said the incident began when two students became verbally aggressive toward each other around 4 p.m. on March 29 at the West Side campus.
[…]
The district did not identify the officer or the student. The person who posted the video said the officer was Joshua Kehm and the student a 12-year-old girl.
The video shows the student lying motionless for several moments after being slammed to the ground. She is then pulled up and led away in handcuffs.
Price told the paper that the administration learned about the incident and the video on Tuesday night. “This video is very concerning, and we are working to get all of the details,” she said. “We certainly want to understand what all occurred, and we are not going to tolerate excessive force in our district.”
