Video Appears To Show School Officer Hitting, Kicking Young Man

The short video clip shows a uniformed officer striking a young man three times across his face while using profanities and then kicking him once as he walks away.

According to NBC affiliate WBAL, the school district learned of the incident Tuesday afternoon upon obtaining a copy of the footage.

Administrators have not confirmed that the victim is a student, although the person who recorded the incident says the teen does attend the school.

Identities of the officer and young man remain unknown.

There’s no telling how many young students have been mistreated or harmed at the hands of school police. “I see school police escalating minor incidents that lead to altercations every week”.

Marshall Goodwin, chief of police for Baltimore City Public Schools, has been placed on administrative leave, according to AP.

Baltimore City Public Schools released a statement saying their own officials are “vigorously investigating” the Tuesday incident at REACH Partnership School.

A second officer can be seen in the video and makes no effort to intervene. Unclear boundaries between routine school discipline and law enforcement create concerns, particularly for students of color, they said. Boatwright added that the officer is still employed.

In January, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund asked the Department of Justice to expand and ongoing investigation into the Baltimore Police Department to include the school police department as well. “It is clear there are serious problems in the school police department that must be rectified immediately for the sake of student safety”. “The young man was not a student at the school”. “The behavior in the video is completely unacceptable”.

Perry was appointed to the position last June and criticized Baltimore’s school system for its “soft code of conduct”.

Over the past year, the practice of placing armed police officers inside of schools has come under increased scrutiny.

Some 43% of all USA public schools – including 63% of middle and 64% of high schools – had school resource officers on their grounds during the 2013-2014 school year, the National Center for Education Statistics noted in May.