The South Carolina Cop, the Classroom, and the Fiasco:

The South Carolina sheriff’s deputy seen in a viral video flipping a female student out of her desk in a classroom has been fired from his job, authorities said on Wednesday.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said at a press conference that Senior Deputy Ben Fields was terminated after it was determined by the office that the action he used to remove the student from did not follow proper procedure.

The student was being disruptive and refused to leave the classroom despite being told by a teacher and administrator to do so, Lott said, and that’s when Fields was brought in Monday at about 11 a.m. to remove her. She again refused, and Fields told her she was under arrest, Lott said.

She continued to refuse, and at that point the video shows the deputy flipping the teen backward and then throwing her across the room. At that point, Lott said, Fields did not use proper procedure.

I know we as a society have lost all ability to think and speak critically and logically about any action involving cops, use of force, and race, but since some friends and I had a pretty animated discussion about this occurrence, I thought, what the Hell? I’d try and talk us through it.

If you haven’t heard about this story yet, here’s a quick review of what we know so far: A student was messing around with her cell phone in class. The teacher asked her to put it away and she refused. The teacher then demanded the phone, which the student refused to hand over. So the teacher told her to leave the classroom. Again, she refused. So the teacher called in a school administrator, and that person asked her to leave. Again, she refused.

So then the administrator called in what’s know as a school resource officer (SRO), who is a sworn police officer. He tells her to leave. She refuses. He tells her, “Leave, or I’m going to make you leave.” Once more, a refusal. So he then takes her arm, preparing to escort her out, and she takes some swings, and then you have the chaos in the video.