An Akron, Ohio, school resource officer has been assigned to administrative duty after he was recorded on video punching a high school student in the head, the mayor said.
Security video released Monday by Akron Public Schools shows the school’s resource officer, who is a member of the Akron Police Department and was assigned to Firestone Community Learning Center, punch the 16-year-old boy in the head at least three times before he is taken to the ground in front of other students and staff.
The officer had approached the student, police said, after the 16-year-old first bypassed the school’s metal detector, then triggered its alarm, and then passed through it too quickly.
No weapon was found on the student, Akron Mayor Shammas Malik said at a Monday news conference, where he was joined by Deputy Chief of Police David Laughlin. Police said the student had a cellphone on him while he was going through the metal detectors. Students are not allowed to bring phones into the school and must store them in a pouch provided by the school district.
Akron is in Summit County, about 40 miles south of Cleveland. The student was initially charged with resisting arrest, obstructing official business and criminal trespassing.
But Malik said he had spoken with the Summit County Prosecutor’s Office and they agreed to dismiss those charges without prejudice while a use of force investigation is conducted.
Malik said that he found the video “upsetting” and that he expects “many others will as well.”
According to the field case report based on the school resource officer’s narrative: At approximately 8:05 a.m. on Oct. 16, the school’s principal said in a radio call that she was looking for the student because he had not gone through the metal detectors. The principal found the student and she and the resource officer walked him back to the detectors, according to the report. The student went through the detector “and it glowed red and beeped.” The school resource officer said he then directed the student to go through the detector again but that the student “did not immediately listen,” so he put his arm in front of him to prevent him from entering the school. He said the student slapped his arm away to get around him, according to the report.
Surveillance video released by Akron Public Schools shows the school resource officer and another officer watching as students walk through the school’s metal detectors. In the video, which does not have audio, the 16-year-old appears to be stopped and told to go back through the detectors multiple times. At one point, he appears to try to move past the officers who then struggle with him as they hold on to his arms.
The school resource officer said in the field report that he and the other officer were not able to control the student and keep him on the floor, and that after about 25 seconds of fighting with the student, he punched him three times toward the side of his head with a closed fist.
The other Akron police officer was working security as a second job, Malik said. He is continuing to work his regular patrol shift.
The school resource officer could not immediately be reached at a number listed for him. The police union did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Michael Robinson, superintendent of Akron Public Schools, said in a statement that families and staff were informed of what happened the same day. He said he had reviewed the video and it was determined that the resource officer’s actions were “unacceptable.”
Robinson said the district requested that the officer who punched the student be permanently removed from all school duties and asked the city to provide a new candidate for review before a placement is made. Akron Public Schools leadership also immediately contacted the police department and city leadership to inform them of what had occurred, Robinson said.
Robinson said the district dispatched its crisis team, which includes mental health counselors.
“We deeply value the partnership we have with law enforcement and the crucial role SROs play in ensuring the safety of our students and building relationships and trust within our community,” Robinson said. “At the same time, it is equally important that accountability is upheld when incidents like this occur. The safety and well-being of our students and staff are our highest priority.”
Robinson said that a day after the student was arrested, he, along with school district officials and Board President Diana Autry, met with Akron Police Chief Brian Harding and city officials to express serious concerns about what had happened.
The student’s family has retained the law firm of DiCello Levitt, which represented the family of Jayland Walker, a Black man killed when eight Akron police officers fired 94 bullets at him after he shot at least one round out his car window in June 2022. The city reached a $4.8 million settlement with Walker’s family, Malik said at Monday’s news conference.
The firm did not immediately answer a list of questions from NBC News but said in an earlier release that it will hold a news conference in the near future with family of the student.
“He is a child. And no child deserves to be punched in the face by an adult, especially when that adult happens to be an Akron police officer,” said attorney Bobby DiCello. “Arrests by the Akron Police Department must not be a source of needless violence against the men, women, and children of the City of Akron. An arrest must follow proper procedures, not be driven by an officer’s rage, because if we let that rage be the standard that dictates how people in Akron are treated, our Constitution will be torn to shreds.”
The city is in the process of finding a new school resource officer, Malik said.
