STATEMENT: Osceola Sheriff’s deputy viciously assaults student, underscoring urgency in call for #PoliceFreeSchools
WASHINGTON, DC – On January 26, 2021 videos documenting the assault of a student by an Osceola Sheriff’s deputy began to spread across social media. The student, a girl who attends Liberty High School, was slammed to the ground by the deputy, an adult male twice her size, who has since been confirmed by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office to be employed by the agency as a school resource officer (SRO) at the high school.
According to local reports, after the student was slammed to the ground by the deputy she appeared to lose consciousness.
Advancement Project National Office and Alliance for Educational Justice are long standing partners with thousands of youth organizers who are pushing local governments to enforce #PoliceFreeSchools. The #AssaultAtLiberty can be added to a long list of infuriating attacks on youth that bring to light the continued maltreatment of Black and Brown people by this country’s police-state and the ways that our Black and Brown youth are criminalized in their places of learning.
“The same police who assault, harass, and kill Black and Brown people in the streets are now being employed by schools and assaulting our young people in their classrooms and on their campuses,” said Judith Browne Dianis, executive director of Advancement Project National Office. “In the midst of COVID, police in schools have doubly deadly consequences. The #AssaultAtLiberty is a call to action. Despite progress in cities like Minneapolis, Denver, and Oakland in 2020, there is still much work to be done and accountability to be taken.”
“Time and time again we see the harm of school police being imposed on students, especially students of color. This attack is one of the many we’ve seen, but hopefully not one of the countless attacks that have gone unaccounted for,” said Keno D. Walker of Power U Center for Social Change. “We know that school districts in Florida continue to add funding toward this false sense of school safety by pushing the narrative that SROs play roles such as counselors, mentors, and supports for students on top of creating a safe and healthy school environment. Our lived experiences as students of color encountering SROs isn’t helpful, as you can see from the attack on the young lady at Liberty High School. We are choked, slammed, arrested, Baker Acted, and seen as nuisances rather than students.”
A society that relies on policing and assaulting youth does not value human life, and it is those who are marginalized that experience this devaluing most. To learn more about our campaign for #PoliceFreeSchools and our call for #FreeAndSafe communities, visit:
