Officer seen dragging student fired

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - The sheriff in Richland County, South Carolina announced Wednesday that School Safety Officer Ben Fields, seen flipping a student out of her desk and dragging her across the floor, has been fired.

The Richland School District initially banned Fields pending an investigation after the video surfaced Monday.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon, Sheiff Leon Lett said Fields was wrong with some of his actions in flipping the student out of the desk. There is reportedly another video that shows the student hitting the officer.

The incident apparently captured on a student's cellphone happened at Spring Valley High School in Columbia. 

The video shows Fields asking a girl to rise from a classroom desk. Another adult is standing nearby. The girl stays seated, so the officer wraps a forearm around the child's neck. The officer then tips the attached chair and desk backward until she spills to the floor. The officer then tosses the girl several feet across the floor to the front of the classroom where Fields ordered her hands behind her back and applied handcuffs.

"The video then shows the student resisting and being arrested by the" officer,  said Lott.

Wilson said that Lott "was very disturbed' by the video but asked for the public's patience during the investigation.

The images captured an "egregious use of force" against the student, said ACLU of South Carolina Executive Director Victoria Middleton.