CONSEQUENCES

School Resource Officer Charged With Misdemeanor Child Abuse for Slamming 11-Year-Old Boy to the Ground

The officer was fired Monday after a Dec. 12 video showed him throwing an 11-year-old student to the ground twice before dragging him down the hall.

A North Carolina school resource officer was charged with assaulting a child and misdemeanor child abuse on Tuesday after he slammed an 11-year-old boy to the ground twice. In the surveillance video of the Dec.12 incident, the resource officer at Vance County Middle School in Henderson can be seen walking down a hallway alongside the child before suddenly grabbing him and slamming him to the ground twice. Sheriff Curtis Brame told WRAL-TV that the child was not hospitalized, but he has a bump on his head.

The school informed the sheriff’s office immediately after the incident took place, and the officer was subsequently placed on paid leave pending investigation. On Monday, the officer—who has been with the department for two years—was fired.  The Vance County District Attorney said the law would not allow him to file felony charges because the student was not seriously harmed. “I am not happy about the misdemeanor charges,” Pastor John Miles, the student’s godfather, said Tuesday. “We wanted it to be felony charges. As the DA just said, they went by the law book and they went by the guideline.”