Akron Mayor Shammas Malik held a press conference Monday "to provide details on an incident which occurred last week at Firestone High School between a student and a school resource officer."
According to Malik, the incident happened on the morning of Oct. 16 when a 16-year-old Firestone student bypassed the metal detector as he entered the school. The student was escorted back to the metal detector by the Firestone staff, per the policy that everyone who enters the school must pass through the detector.
Malik said there were two Akron police officers at the school that morning, one was Firestone's school resource officer (SRO) and the other was there on a "secondary employment shift."
"Surveillance camera footage from the school depicts the student being directed towards the metal detector several times. At one point, the student attempts to circumvent the officers. The officers grapple with the student. During this interaction, one of the officers punches the student in the head several times," Malik stated.
According to the police report filed by the school resource officer, the student was carrying a cell phone (which is not allowed in the school) while he was going through the metal detector.
The SRO stated in the report that he decided it was necessary to arrest the student in order to prevent him from entering the school after several attempts to get him to clear the detector fully and properly failed. The SRO and the other officer tried to bring the student to the ground to "gain better control of him," but were unsuccessful.
"After 25 seconds of fighting, I threw three punches toward the side of (the student's) the head with my right hand and a closed fist," the SRO reported, citing concerns that the fight could have grown with other students becoming involved or that he and the other officer could have become fatigued. The student was eventually taken into custody.
Danielle Wiggins reports: [ Ссылка ] --
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