Spring Valley High Girl Assaulted by Cop to Face Criminal Charges

*Here’s something to be outraged about.

Remember the Spring Valley High School (in Spring Valley, SC) school cop who was caught on camera putting a student in a chokehold and then violently slamming her to the ground? Well, you would think it would result in disciplinary action for the cop (Ben Fields) which it did; he was fired. But check this out. The teen (known as Shakira) who was assaulted and the other student (Niya) who filmed the incident are also facing criminal charges.

Yes, you read that right. According to The Huffington Post: “Both girls face a misdemeanor charge of disturbing schools and, if found guilty, could be fined up to $1,000 or face 90 days in jail.”

Here’s what Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of ColorOfChange, had to say in a statement:

“These two young women have suffered enough without the justice system dragging out the process of eliminating these ridiculous charges. Solicitor Dan Johnson has the ability and opportunity to do the right thing.

“By failing to take action, he has aligned himself with far too many prosecutors around the country who criminalize black youth while failing to hold police accountable.”

On Thursday, ColorOfChange, the Alliance for Educational Justice, and the Justice for the Spring Valley Two Coalition reportedly delivered a petition to Johnson demanding now former officer Ben Fields be prosecuted for his actions and that the charges against the two teens be dropped. Johnson responded to the petition, saying he won’t move forward with the charges until the FBI has finished investigating Fields, according to Clutch.

However, Efia Nwangaze of the Justice for the Spring Valley Two Coalition, said in a statement that the underlying issues of this case are bigger than 16-year-old Shakira and her classmate Niya.

“There is a racially biased system of school discipline across the country,” she said. “Black girls are six times more likely to be punished — and more severely so than their white counterparts — and three times their black male counterparts in Richland.” Let’s not forget this is all over a student refusing to leave the classroom after being labeled “verbally disruptive.”