By now you’ve probably seen the horrific video of school resource officer Ben Fields assaulting a high school student at Spring Valley High School in South Carolina.
In the controversial clip, an unassuming black girl gets grabbed by the neck, flipped over in her desk, and thrown across the room after refusing to put her phone away and leave the classroom.
While most people are outraged at the officer’s behavior and call the situation an excessive use of force no matter the circumstance, Raven-Symoné appeared on ‘The View’ and blamed the girl for being on her phone.
“The girl was told multiple times to get off the phone. There’s not right or reason for him to be doing this type of harm, that’s ridiculous,” said Raven. “But at the same time, you gotta follow the rules in school. First of all, why are there cellphones in school? This shouldn’t even be a problem to begin with, and he shouldn’t have been acting like that on top of it.”
That’s when co-host Michelle Collins chimed in with the officer’s history of abuse, while Paula Faris co-signed Raven’s thoughts that children lack “respect for authority.” She further blamed parents for not instilling respect in their children and suggested that parents expect school administrators to discipline their kids because they’ve been “bringing their kids up wrong.”
Raven-Symoné brought up several facts regarding Officer Fields’ history of misconduct — all while STILL asking what the child was “doin’ on Instagram.”
“He was actually sued for false arrest, excessive force and battery in 2007 after a couple accused him of manhandling them. He has a record, and he’s still hired. But at the same time, get off yo’ phone. You are in school, get off yo’ phone. What you doin’ on Instagram?”
Watch Raven-Symone and the rest of ‘The View’ discuss the Spring Valley High School assault below. The discussion begins at the the 2:50 mark.
[via VIBE]
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post featured a short clip of Raven’s commentary in which she appeared to defend the officer. Upon watching the full discussion, changes were made to accurately reflect Raven’s point of view.
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