OVERKILL

School Employee Knelt on Cuffed Student’s Neck

Panther Creek’s assistant principal has been suspended, but the school won’t say if the assistant principal is the one who knelt on the student.

A school in North Carolina has suspended its assistant principal after video showed a school staffer kneeling on the neck of a student as a police officer cuffed the student. Panther Creek High School leaders won’t say if the assistant principal, Jonathan Chang, is the one who knelt on the student, however. The staffer knelt on the student in an effort to stop a fight, according to a letter from the school’s principal, though the principal did not elucidate why the extra restraint was necessary when the student was already being handcuffed on the ground. The Cary Police Department is investigating the incident. The restraint of the student calls to mind the murder of George Floyd, who died after police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes in May.