© 2024 WFAE
90.7 Charlotte 93.7 Southern Pines 90.3 Hickory 106.1 Laurinburg
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Police Officer Who Slammed Student To The Ground Placed On Paid Leave

A screengrab of a video posted to Twitter showing a Rolesville High School student being slammed to the ground by a police officer.
A screengrab of a video posted to Twitter showing a Rolesville High School student being slammed to the ground by a police officer.

Updated at 10:45 p.m. Jan. 3, 2017

A Rolesville High School student on Tuesday posted a video to social media of a classmate being slammed to the ground by a police officer.

The nine-second video posted to Twitter appears to show a police officer picking up a black teenaged girl out of a chair and slamming her to the ground on her side.

According to a statement from the Rolesville Police Department, a fight broke out in the cafeteria area shortly after 7 a.m. between two female students.

Rolesville School Resource Officer Ruben De Los Santos responded to this incident. Officials say De Los Santos has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

In a letter to the Rolesville High School Community, PrincipalDhedra Lassiter said "the safety of our students is always our first priority."

"I, like many of you, am deeply concerned about what I saw in the video," said Lassiter, adding that immediately after learning of the incident, school officials reached out to the Rolesville Police Department.

Lassiter said the district two years enacted "a unified agreement with all local law enforcement agencies that provides training and a clear understanding of the duties and responsibilities for School Resource Officers."

As part of the investigation, the district and law enforcement are reviewing those standards.

Police officials have officiallyrequested that the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation conduct a third party review of the incident.

Copyright 2020 North Carolina Public Radio. To see more, visit .

Elizabeth “Liz” Baier is WUNC’s Digital News Editor. She joined the station in May 2016 after eight year of reporting for where she covered everything from demographic changes in rural America, agriculture, the environment and health care. Prior to that, Liz worked for six years as a newspaper reporter in South Florida, both at the and .