Cop on Leave After Video Shows Him Slamming Student to Floor

A North Carolina cop is on paid leave after video surfaced on social media showing him roughly throwing a female student to the floor, reports the News & Observer. Officer Ruben De Los Santos, a school resource officer for Rolesville High School, was responding to an early morning fight between two female students in the cafeteria Tuesday. The nine-second clip shows De Los Santos (identified by the police department, per the Washington Post) lifting up a girl in a pink shirt to about shoulder's height as a crowd of students watches, then slamming her to the ground, where she remains unmoving for a second or two until he drags her up by the arm and makes her walk away with him. The Rolesville PD says it's asked the state Bureau of Investigation to investigate and pledges to "work diligently to review any and all pertinent information so that we provide an accurate account of the events."

The school's principal said in a statement that she was "deeply concerned" about what she witnessed. The student who filmed the video posted it on Twitter and said, "THIS. IS. NOT OKAY.," including a hashtag with the school's name. The ACLU of North Carolina also weighed in, tweeting, "Disturbing use of force at #rolesvillehigh that should never be used against kids in schools." The mother of the student, identified by WLOS as 15-year-old Jasmine Darwin, says Jasmine, an honors student, has a concussion and won't be returning to the school. Jasmine, who says she was trying to defend her sister in the original fight, tells WRAL, "I was in shock." Meanwhile, Dajerria Becton, the teen taken to the ground by a Texas cop in 2015 during a pool party, has filed a $5 million suit against now ex-cop Eric Casebolt, the city of McKinney, and the police department, per the Dallas Morning News. (More police officer stories.)