We Now Live In A World Where Cops Can Violently Tackle A High School Student For Using Her Phone

Screen Shot 2014-09-12 at 11.59.37 AMA 10th-grade student was tackled to the ground last week by three police officers on her Houston-area high school campus — for using her phone. Nothing about this is acceptable.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73PIJLNp07A]

Ixel Perez told KHOU News that her reading teacher caught her using her cell phone in class and told her to go into the hall. She says she was then confronted by an assistant principal who asked her to give up the phone. Students who are caught using their phones in class are required to turn them over. She didn’t, because she claims her mom is suffering from a medical condition and she needed to be able to keep in touch with her father.

This is where I will interject that I don’t care what her excuse was for keeping her phone. I do believe that she should have followed the rules and turned it over. She didn’t. Oh, well. Suspend her. A student’s disobedience still gives you NO RIGHT to put your hands on her. Certainly there was no cause to tackle a 70-pound student and pin her to the ground with a knee on her head. Not okay.

The only positive thing that is coming out of this over-the-top show of police force is a lesson in peaceful protest of unjust circumstances. Her peers are seeing injustice and protesting. I’m sorry this lesson had to come at the price of the terror of another student, but the lesson is invaluable nonetheless.

I plan on teaching my kids to speak up for themselves and others when this kind of gross display of force is shown. I am proud of the kids who are making signs, shouting, and standing up for their peer. The last thing we need in this country is more sheep blindly agreeing with unnecessary force. Let your voices be heard, kids. You are right.

Perez’s parents are transferring her to another school.

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