Tolman Student Says Cop to Blame in Body Slamming Incident
Friday, October 16, 2015
A student at Tolman High School in Pawtucket says the student who was body slammed to the ground by the Student Resource Officer on Wednesday is "the most loving kid" he knows and is not to blame.
The Pawtucket Police department alleges, however, that the student assaulted the officer prior to the altercation being captured on camera -- and now the State Police have been called in to investigate.
"Everyone loves Ivander," said Tolman student Timothy John Greene on Thursday, of the student arrested -- and shown in the video. "It doesn't matter if you're the coolest kid, if you're not, he's a good friend to everyone. He just saw his brother getting maced. Imagine this is your brother, your son, and watching this happen."
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The video showed an officer taking the student down on Wednesday, following his brother being cuffed on the ground. On Thursday, ten arrests were made by Pawtucket Police of both juveniles and adults protesting the arrests.
The police issued the following statement following the incidents.
"While the officer was attempting to take the 14 year old juvenile into custody, that juvenile’s 17 year old brother entered the office and began to interfere with the officer, and then started to push the officer...The two juveniles then started attacking the SRO. The 17 year old struck the officer in the face. The officer was then engaged with 2 combative individuals. The officer managed to get the 17 year old subject on the ground and was attempting to handcuff him, when the second juvenile started to approach the officer from behind. The officer saw the individual approaching him, grabbed the juvenile and used a takedown on the juvenile."
Greene said "no way" that could have happened.
"Then why were teachers telling students to delete their cell phone footage?" asked Greee. "That's not how it went down at all."
Student Perspective
Greene said that word had started making its way around the school community Wednesday night - which included plans for a response to the videotaped encounter.
"When we heard about it, the word was, 'don't come to school tomorrow.' My first thought was I'm doing well this year -- I mean, I just got back a bunch of 80s," said Greene. "But then I thought more about how this is my friend, and this shouldn't have happened. He's more than a friend, he's like a brother."
Greene explained how he saw the protests unfold on Thursday -- and quickly become a problem.
"Things got out of hand [Thursday] morning," said Greene. "There had been 40-50 of us out there [protesting] in support of Ivander, but then kids just started streaming out, and they just wanted to cause trouble."
Garcia said that he thought that police officers at schools were in general a "good idea," but that he had concerns about this officer.
"Do we need police at schools? I believe strongly that we do," said Greene. "Some guy comes in with a gun? You want a guy there who's going to give you a chance, no doubt. But this [officer], he had a reputation. I saw him put his arm across a friend's throat last year after he accused him of stealing pizza, which I know for a fact he didn't."
Fred Ordonez with Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) said he didn't think police belong in school, however.
"I can't say what happened [on Wednesday], but the one thing that this brings up is questions about police presence in schools," said Ordonez. "We've always been opposed to them in schools. It escalates situations and they can become part of the problem instead of dealing with student issues through mediation or restorative justice models."
"The police are there to show who's boss, and that's what we call the school-to-prison pipeline," continued Ordonez. "This doesn't happen in richer towns where the school has resources, the parents have resources and support, so when [students] act out, there are professionals trying to figure out the cause. In these schools, the cops just bust heads and that's the atmosphere, and that's what the kids think of themselves -- as though they're just supposed to be getting arrested."
The Pawtucket Fraternal Order of Police did not respond to request for comment on Thursday.
Community Response
GoLocal was first to report Thursday that the State Police had been called in to investigate the incidents in Pawtucket.
"I have been in contact with the Mayor's office, we're monitoring the situation," City Councilwoman Sandro Cano told GoLocal on Thursday. "We're going to be waiting on an investigation with the State Police. What is important is that the city's taking this seriously, and we're closely monitoring the situation." Mayor Grebien spent most of Thursday at Tolman in an effort to difuse the situation.
By Thursday night, the Pawtucket Police statement on Facebook had over 700 comments, with most posters supporting the officer's, and department's, actions.
Others in the community, however, questioned the force used by the officer.
"The actions of the officer were excessive. These are our children. Body slamming a child is extremely excessive. The officer seemed frustrated and reacted to that child with extreme violence," said community organizer David Norton, who has recently been leading the effort to keep the Pawtucket Red Sox from moving out of the city. "It's a wonder that the child's neck wasn't broken. Police officers should be trained to de-escalate situations like this not react with immediate violence against our children."
Members of the Pawtucket School Committee did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday.
Editor's note: A previous version of the story has Greene referenced as Garcia, his mother's maiden name.
Related Slideshow: Rhode Island School Superintendent Salaries
Below are the salaries of school superintendents in Rhode Island, starting with the lowest paid. Data is for 2013 and was provided by the state Division of Municipal Finance. Where relevant, longevity pay is also listed. All school superintendents are listed except those in the independent school districts in Foster and Glocester. The combined Foster-Glocester district is included. In order to provide a more informed basis for comparing superintendents from one community to another, the annual student enrollment and total expenditures are also listed. (The data is for fiscal year 2012, the latest available from the state Department of Education.)
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