WATCH: Florida cop making arrest is kneed, kicked in face by student
FOX NEWS - Video from an altercation inside a Florida high school on Thursday shows a student kneeing and then kicking a police officer, both times in the officer’s face, while the officer is apprehending another student.
The student doing the kicking was identified as Shardae Yvonne Pittman, 18, who was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer and interfering at an educational institution, the Miami Herald reported. She was being held at Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $5,500 bond, the report said.
Cellphone video of the officer being kicked was posted on a private Instagram account by a user with the handle @onlyindade.
At the time of the incident, the police officer was arresting a 17-year-old girl who was allegedly involved in a cafeteria fight, the newspaper reported. As a result of the kicks from the 18-year-old, the officer suffered a cut lip and abrasions, the report said.
“It is a shame that while this officer was attempting to break up a fight and maintain a safe learning environment, this adult student acted in a cowardly way rather than fall in line with MDCPS values,” Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Edwin Lopez wrote on Twitter.
A chaotic scene unfolded Thursday at Homestead Senior High School when several students got into a fight and one of them is caught on video kicking a police officer in the head.
The school district also issued a statement:
“Any behavior that endangers the well-being of students and staff at Miami-Dade County Public Schools will not be tolerated, will be handled swiftly, and result in severe consequences. When that behavior involves battery on a police officer, as it did today, offenders will be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Students will also be disciplined according to the Code of Student Conduct, up to, and including, expulsion.”
The 17-year-old who was being arrested at the time was charged with resisting arrest with violence, but was later released, Fox affiliate WSVN of Miami reported.
The teen’s mother told WSVN that she shouldn’t have been charged at all. She claimed that two students “jumped” her daughter, sparking a melee.
“She’s the victim. Of course she’s the victim,” parent Sharnelle Lee said about her daughter. “They just charged her with resisting arrest with officer. She never did anything to the officer. I asked the officer to show me the video. The video was never shown to me. Two girls jumped my daughter, so apparently, she was defending herself.”