Lexington-Richland School District sued after teacher put student in chokehold till unconscious
LEXINGTON COUNTY, SOUTH CAROLINA: Lexington & Richland County School District Five has been slammed with a lawsuit after it was alleged that a student fainted because a teacher had him in a chokehold. The suit has reportedly been filed in Lexington County accusing an instructor of suffocating the child during a classroom training session. It also claimed that the teacher ignored the student’s distress signals, which resulted in him losing consciousness.
On April 7, attorney Ralph Smiley, representing the student, called out the district for “intentionally or recklessly inflicting severe emotional distress on the Plaintiffs... (and) committing conduct so extreme and outrageous as to exceed all possible boundaries of decency.”
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As per reports, the January incident happened at a Specialty School in Chapin, Center for Advanced Technical Studies, when the unnamed student was participating in a law enforcement class and the instructor was showing holds on a dummy before suddenly deciding to demonstrate them on him. The suit alleges, “A chokehold, also sometimes referred to as a choke or stranglehold is a maneuver which restricts the airway and blood flow to the brain by applying pressure to the trachea and the carotid arteries, thereby allowing officers to quickly subdue criminal suspects.”
The suit also noted that a number of law enforcement organizations have outlawed chokeholds after the countrywide protests in 2020 against police brutality. The legal document stated that the instructor used the hold “with so much strength that the minor Plaintiff lost consciousness,” before adding: “Prior to losing consciousness, the student signaled several times for the instructor to stop, however, these signals and warnings were disregarded.”
Calling the child a “law-abiding citizen”, the suit mentioned that he is disabled under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and “was incapable of giving consent to be placed in the chokehold. It also says the school district did not inform the child’s mother of the incident after the fact.” The suit claimed that the teacher behaved in a “grossly negligent, willful, reckless and wanton manner,” which led not just to injuries but also gave mental distress and suffering to the child, requiring “large sums of money.” The suit has demanded money for the kid as well as for his guardian from the district.
This comes as a horrifying video went viral showing a White student putting a Black student in a chokehold until he fell unconscious while other students watched and hurled racial slurs. The incident reportedly happened on April 22 in Casey County Middle School's bathroom. Commenting on the incident, school resource officer Jordan Buis said: “I think it was reported by school staff that it was kind of a horseplay incident, and then once the video surfaced later it was discovered it was quite a bit more than that.”
Besides, Superintendent Barry Lee added: “Casey County Schools is aware of the video circulating on social media involving an incident at Casey County Middle School. The incident took place this past Friday, and the school administrators took immediate action with the support of a Liberty Police Department deputy who serves as the School Resource Officer (SRO). The school administrators and the SRO have been in communication with the parents throughout the investigation.”