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Louise Thomas
Editor
A school official was filmed slamming a young female student to the ground at a North Carolina school and has since been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
A school resource officer at Rolesville High School, identified by police as Ruben de Los Santos, a five-year veteran of the Rolesville Police Department, can be seen throwing 15-year-old Jasmine Darwin to the ground, with the circumstances that led to the incident as yet unclear.
The victim's mother said to a local radio station that the young girl was trying to break up a fight between her sister and another student when the officer intervened.
The officer's use of force has elicited heavy criticism on social media, while Darwin went to hospital to check for injuries, but returned home later that evening, on Tuesday.
Desiree Harrison, Darwin's mother, says that Darwin has concussion and that she plans to take her out of the school.
Police confirmed that the State Bureau of Investigation is now reviewing the incident, with the cooperation of the Wake County Public School System.
The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina have heavily criticised the officer's behaviour, saying it was a "disturbing use of force....that should never be used against kids in schools".
The principal of the school, Dhedra Lassiter, has said that she is "deeply concerned about what I saw in the video".
Earlier in the week a Philadelphia police officer was filmed repeatedly punching a young black woman in the head and is under investigation.
A similar incident to the Rolesville body slamming was a violent restraining in October 2015 of a young black student at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, South Carolina that brought attention for the ability of police brutality to be exhibited in schools.
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