I imagine the same people who blame the 16-year-old student in South Carolina for her behavior before Officer Fields brutally yanked her from her desk also believe women are raped because of what they wear. Those folks love to blame the victim, even better when said victim is a woman (rather, girl, in this case) or a person of color. I hear the murmuring, the eye rolling, the judging. “She wouldn’t be in this predicament if she hadn’t…”
The true victims are those who have been violated and faced violence, not the perpetrators. Officer Fields is no victim here. The court of public opinion is not leaping on a bandwagon that fuels the latest ire-of-the-day rampage. We’ve seen over and over again scenes like this play out, too many to number.
It is our job as adults to know our limits especially when dealing with kids, and simply walk away. This officer was specifically trained in how to handle situations like this. I’m pretty sure going off the deep edge so violently and impulsively was not in the training manual. If that is part of the protocol, indeed something must change. Who as a parent has not been pushed to the point of no return, clenching your jaw and fists tightly so as not to wallop your child? How many of us have just wanted to unleash physically while swirling in a cocktail of anger, craze, frustration, and discouragement? Yet, most of us walk away. We know our limits. We check our pulse. We know our responsibility. We do not react the way this Officer Fields reacted.
There is no excuse for this. Period. I work in child abuse prevention in my county. It does not matter what a child or a student does to provoke us adults and caregivers. We are the grown-ups here and need to know how to react, how to behave, and model what we want for our children. Nothing about this is acceptable or defensible. Even the “best” of children are disobedient. Kids are mouthy, arrogant, and brimming with hubris. Teenagers push buttons and limits. They smirk, taunt, and test. Such is the nature of those wonder years. I remember.
School should be a safe place, and sadly, it’s often the only safe place a child has. It matters not what this girl said or did before the altercation. She is the victim, regardless of her culpability that drove the officer over the edge.