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I think a lot of these issues are long overdue for discussion. I do agree that trial by media sucks and cameras can catch people at their worst and ruin their life. I'm not sure how to change that but I think the conversation over the mans actions are very necessary.
Edit: just watched, that was hard to see, I looked away. I'd want to know if that was happening in my kids school.

I was talking to a non-minority friend about this incident and I used the word "officer" and "student." Before I could even continue with telling him about the media firestorm he wanted to know if the cop was white and student was black. I told him, but said I don't really think race is playing into the outrage in this particular case.

Still, I don't think that even though I have heard more talking heads discuss the difference between disciplinary consequences for black and white students and heard the account from the former soldier who sued the officer for excessive force.

I am shocked how quickly the officer was fired and a bit peeved how one sided the coverage has been, but I don't think the races of the actors in this incident has to do with the outrage. Who wants to see a male cop forcefully remove a female student from one of those semi-enclosed desks?

I would love for the conversation in this case to turn to what is the role of a resource officer in school? How do we get thick-headed students to obey class room rules and teacher instructions? Are school rules keeping up with the way students interact with each other and their techno world?

I'll come back to write more on your question in general because I have been thinking about the same thing.

There are so many more situations when having a camera there would answer important questions ... off-hand, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, etc.

I have absolutely NO problem with cameras capturing police/officer brutality (because that's what this was). -- I do not want to see it, ever, but I do think it helps prosecution, and could leave one less mother thinking, "Did my child deserve this treatment?!"

In regards to the media, meh ... I don't know. They are reporting the facts they know (maybe some speculation), but I wouldn't say they've caused our society to distrust police. I think the police are creating this by killing/hurting innocent people. It's an abuse of power that's very, very common.

I do the your point about speculation when there is no camera evidence. Of course, the barrage of videos showing white officers using excessive force on minority citizens has totally impacted my reaction when I hear of a new situation. My first thought is that the police officer likely overreacted.

I would like to see the police being way more active in the positive parts of the community. If all of us were exposed to the positive side of policing from the beginning, we would likely have more trust in them. Then, when an idiot pulls a teenage girl to the floor in her classroom, we could identify it as a stupid move by a person who shouldn't have a badge vs. a cop just "acting like a cop".

ETA: I don't have any police officers in my family, and I am sure if I was close to one, my opinion might shift a bit when it comes to automatically assuming they did something wrong.

@littlejoy: "In regards to the media, meh ... I don't know. They are reporting the facts they know (maybe some speculation), but I wouldn't say they've caused our society to distrust police. I think the police are creating this by killing/hurting innocent people. It's an abuse of power that's very, very common. " While you're absolutely correct. We have to also acknowledge that the media digs in and hangs on to incessant reporting on a story of a bad cop much more than on the hundreds of good cop stories that happen every day.

@Truth Bombs: Sure. That leads to my point of police officers really needing to take a more proactive role in our society. I do know they do amazing work, and help more than hurt ... but the media doesn't portray that. In the same breath, it's wrong and inexcusable that minorities are targeted, abused, and prosecuted by our criminal justice system more in this country. I think it's important that our society knows this. We are so whitewashed, we don't even realize it.

If the police had an open dialogue with the students and parents, I don't think things like this would happen. The police fear these kids. The kids fear the police.

I imagine a high school that had small groups (during study time, or whatever) where the kids and police could interact honestly with each other, would be invaluable.

@MrsSCB: @ms.line: I agree that kids need to see repercussions because I think that is part of the media outrage right now that officers are "getting away with it".

But yes, there is a second part of the message to kids that media isn't highlighting that the student needs to also be punished.

@Mrs D: Well, she had been recently orphaned and is/was living in foster care - - so, that probably contributed to her actions.

No matter what the circumstance, no adult has the right to physically manhandle minors who are not presenting *immediate* and clear physical danger to themselves or others. Even if kids are acting like little shits, you don't get to assault them.

ETA: we had school officers (both active on-duty police and private security force officers) at my middle school. Nothing like this ever happened, even though there were plenty of disrespectful and trying students.

@Mrs D: At risk of what? Do you think her fellow students were less disturbed by seeing her body slammed and dragged out of the room than they would have been had she been allowed to remain in class until the end of the period? This was poor classroom management by all adults involved.

@Mrs D: one might be to give her a little leeway since she'd had so much tragedy recently and find resources after class to help in the future. Another would to be to request another adult - each link an elbow and slide and lift. Another would be to drag her desk into the hallway.

@Mrs D: admittedly, I have never seen someone so willfully disobey a teacher or an officer, but once she decided to take her stance I would have removed the rest of the class. The teacher stopped teaching because he was focused on her. The mere presence of the officer didn't change her stance. So get the other students out of there and isolate her since that's what the teacher and officer wanted to do. The student basically practiced a non-violent protest (sit in) because she didn't agree that she broke just rules or at least remedied the rule she broke.

@yoursilverlining: oh wow, I hadn't heard much about the student in this case. Some of her classmates were not really sure what she even did for the school administrator and resource officer to be called to the classroom. Shouldn't the administration have details on students such as their living situation and thus know how to better handle certain students?

@Mrs D: I meant two people to help escort her out of the desk if that's the route they were going to take.

@Mrs D: @Mrs. Lemon-Lime: I brought up demographics, because it's what we're seeing over and over again: white police officers using excessive force on people of color. I think the media is latching onto this, because it's happening over and over again. It's a pattern. It's a truth that white mothers probably don't have to sit their children down and tell them that a police officer will automatically profile them because of their skin tone. I know that much force was not needed to get this student to cooperate.

It all comes down to a power trip, improper training (or execution of that training), and a lack of respect on both sides.

I think what's disturbing to me is that in so many of these situations they escalate quickly. I used to work at a homeless shelter, and often I would see male staff members escalate a situation (because they wanted to demonstrate their authority and rules are rules and if someone is breaking the rule, they need to start obeying it ASAP or else, and then all of a sudden everyone is yelling and someone has to call the cops because a fight is breaking out.)

i took a training in descalation techniques and found it very helpful. A lot of the reason I didn't have to call the cops as often was simply because I was female - a client could act like he was listening to me just because he decided to respect the lady, not because he lost an argument.

I saw cops escalate things with clients often, but I also saw some who were really excellent at calming a situation down.

In all the rhetoric on this event I keep seeing people saying things like, "well, she didn't do X, so obviously next step is physical force. That just doesn't make sense to me. That's just escalating a situation.

Like with toddlers. they can go all day long in a screaming match, but what usually ends tantrums is figuring out what the real problem is and addressing it together.

I think when a teacher or officer is more focused on winning and being seen as the authority, things will escalate quicker. And really what was the goal - to get her to put away her phone and stop disrupting the class? Or for the officer to be listened to? If it was the first, sounds like she did that. Consequences could've been dealt with later.