The school-based cop had been called to the Algebra 1 classroom that momentous morning in 2015 to help remove a student who educators reported was being disruptive and refused to put away her cell phone. The violence that ensued ended with two students under arrest and Fields without a job. 

Other Spring Valley High School students used their phones to capture a viral video and, almost instantaneously, spurred a national debate about whether police should be stationed in schools and the factors behind stark racial disparities in school-based arrests. Federal officials launched a civil rights probe into Fields鈥檚 use of force, and the disgraced cop 鈥� who was fired days later 鈥� became the latest white officer to face national scrutiny for manhandling a Black teenager. 

The high-profile incident in Columbia, South Carolina, which unfolded amid an early wave of national Black Lives Matter protests, is one of 285 documented incidents in the last decade where school-based police subjected students to physical force or misconduct. They are detailed in that calls attention to the frequency that campus officers place students 鈥斅燼nd Black teens in particular 鈥� in harm鈥檚 way.聽

Black students were the recipients of force in 84% of campus incidents between 2011 and 2021, researchers found, while just 3.2% of incidents involved white youth. , Black students make up 15% of public school enrollment while white students account for 46%. 

Yet, in reflecting on the incident more than seven years later, Fields is not persuaded that longstanding racial disparities in student discipline reveal an underlying problem in his actions or those of any other school-based police officers. Instead, he said he was victimized after being cast on the national stage as a racist cop with a penchant for violence. He told 社区黑料 that Spring Valley High, where nearly half of students are Black, is situated in a 鈥渃rime-infested county鈥� and that schools are 鈥渂urning to the ground in this country鈥� because of fights and drugs, but nobody 鈥� including educators and cops in schools 鈥� are willing to stop it because they鈥檙e too busy 鈥渨orshiping at the church of race and race ideology.鈥� 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 care if someone disagrees with what I did,鈥� he said. 鈥淚鈥檓 not here to defend it because I really don鈥檛 care anymore.鈥�

In his seven years of school policing, he claims he never once had to arrest a white student for fighting on campus. Nationally, Black students are about than their white classmates to get arrested at school yet Fields denied that implicit 鈥� or even explicit 鈥� racial bias is a factor in the stark gap. People should visit schools firsthand, he said, and 鈥渓ook for yourself where the problems are coming from.鈥� 

鈥淭he problem is, if I tell you that Black girls are more prone to fight than white girls, then guess what, I鈥檓 racist,鈥� Fields said. 鈥淚鈥檓 racist. You can鈥檛 even say something like that 鈥� that鈥檚 factually true 鈥� without being racist.鈥�

It鈥檚 this precise disposition, critics of school policing said, that make armed police officers a poor fit to create safe and welcoming learning environments. It represents a policing culture, researchers said, that鈥檚 led to hundreds of student injuries over the last decade and, in a handful of cases, student deaths. 

Students sustained serious injuries in more than 60% of documented police use-of-force or misconduct cases since 2011, Russ Skiba, professor emeritus at Indiana University who has spent years researching racial disparities in school discipline, found in his latest research. For the report, he teamed up with The Advancement Project, a nonprofit racial justice group that in response to the situation at Spring Valley. The report is based on an analysis of news reports and likely presents a significant undercount of use-of-force incidents. Meanwhile, the use-of-force cases represent just a fraction of interactions that school-based police have with students. 

Among those documented in the report, five students were killed 鈥� three by gunshot. 

Cops tased students in nearly a quarter of incidents. Students were sprayed with pepper spray in more than 10% of documented cases and sexually assaulted by police in more than 8% of incidents. Student injuries include broken bones and concussions while more than 10% of student hospitalizations were required to remove taser prongs lodged beneath a young person鈥檚 skin.

Researchers have long struggled to document clear benefits of having officers patrol school hallways, with the latest report adding fodder to a growing body of research that suggests campus cops may actually do more harm than good.

Still, in the face of mass school shootings, their presence in schools has grown exponentially in recent decades with support from educators and the general public despite little evidence they鈥檙e effective at thwarting or mitigating such attacks. An August poll by the education group PDK International found an overwhelming 80% of people support school resource officers, including 94% of Republicans and 70% of Democrats. 

While the Advancement Project began to map police misconduct in schools after the Spring Valley incident, multiple school districts embraced calls to remove police from schools in 2020 after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. Since then, several districts have and reinstated campus law enforcement amid concerns of pandemic-era student misbehavior. 

Raw video footage from Spring Valley in many ways brought the police-free schools campaign into the national discourse, Skiba told 社区黑料, crystalizing it as an exemplar of 鈥渢he problem of school police assaults.鈥� But the problem remains present tense, he said, and 鈥渢his is not in any way an isolated incident. There is at least one of these cases happening in schools across America every week 鈥� and it鈥檚 not surprising that some end in death.鈥� 

鈥極fficer Slam鈥�

Even before Fields became the subject of national scorn, he had developed a bad reputation at Spring Valley 鈥� and 鈥� for being confrontational with students. On that brutal day, his reputation wasn鈥檛 lost on senior Niya Kenny, who recorded Fields on her phone and confronted the veteran officer about the way he was treating her classmate. 

At the time, Kenny wasn鈥檛 trying to be an activist, she told 社区黑料. She was simply reacting to what she was seeing with her own eyes. Kenny and the student in the video, who couldn鈥檛 be reached for comment, were both criminally charged with 鈥渄isturbing a school function.鈥� Both teens disenrolled from Spring Valley soon after and the about a year later. 

Still, confronting Fields 鈥渨as one of the best decisions I could have made,鈥� said Kenny, now a 25-year-old substitute teacher in Atlanta. 鈥淚鈥檓 always so hard on myself about my impulsive decisions, but that one impulsive decision changed the entire trajectory of my life.鈥� 

With support from the American Civil Liberties Union, Kenny went to court to challenge state laws against disturbing schools and disorderly conduct. Last year, a federal judge struck down the vaguely written statutes, which allowed police to slap students with criminal sanctions for cursing, engaging in undefined 鈥渄isorder鈥� or being otherwise 鈥渙bnoxious鈥� at school and were used overwhelmingly to punish Black youth. Meanwhile, the South Carolina legislature rewrote its disturbing schools law so that students could no longer be arrested for disrupting their own schools.

In the interview, Fields portrayed himself as a man who was simply following the law, enforcing rules created by lawmakers against two 鈥渂ad girls鈥� who had gotten into trouble before. But the laws offered police discretion 鈥� wiggle room that made them impossible to enforce objectively, said Sarah Hinger, the staff attorney at the ACLU Racial Justice Program who represented Kenny. 

鈥淭hey violate due process because they don鈥檛 give an objective way of determining when someone is disturbing or disorderly or obnoxious,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat means that every single time a police officer, or somebody else, has to look at a child and make their own subjective judgment about whether they should be arrested or not.鈥�

Not only did Kenny鈥檚 arrest make clear the subjective nature of the law, Hinger said, but the footage that she and other students uploaded to the internet was instrumental in the public鈥檚 understanding of police misconduct in schools. 

鈥淭he degree of violence that鈥檚 visible in the video likely is what sets it apart for the public perceptions, and I think that鈥檚 why our client Niya was arrested because of the recognition of what it means to shed public light and scrutiny on those types of police actions,鈥� Hinger said. 

Similar incidents have been documented in schools across the country. In one, a 17-year-old student was in 2013 after getting tased while attempting to break up a fight between two of his classmates. Officials had accused the student of acting aggressively and failing to listen to their commands. 

Last year, a former school resource officer from Farmington, New Mexico, was after he was caught on camera in 2019 slamming a disabled 11-year-old girl against a wall and wrestling her to the ground. 

In 2018, five students from suburban Pittsburgh reached a $500,000 settlement after accusing school-based police of assault, intimidation and filing false criminal charges to justify excessive force. In 2019, with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in his office at a local high school. 

Even as such confrontations unfold, Kenny said that her arrest 鈥� and the video of her classmate getting manhandled 鈥� ultimately led to progress, not just in changing laws locally but changing the national conversation around school policing. 

鈥淚 never expected it to be this big and I never expected to have such an impact on the world,鈥� she said. To this day, she recounts what happened to her nieces and nephews. 鈥淚 told them, 鈥榶ou know, I鈥檓 a part of Black history in South Carolina.鈥� 鈥� 

Accountability remains elusive

Despite the public outcry and a sheriff who said that Fields failed to follow procedures, the former cop, who now works in sales, never faced criminal charges. 

In dropping its federal inquiry, it failed to identify sufficient evidence to charge Fields with a crime. Federal civil rights law required prosecutors prove that Fields 鈥渨illfully deprived an individual of a constitutional right,鈥� an exceedingly high bar that excludes mistakes, misperceptions, negligence or poor judgment. 

Such a reality is commonplace in use-of-force incidents at schools, the report found. In nearly 60% of the 285 documented cases in the last decade, officers were cleared without facing any consequences. Officers generally faced penalties in instances of sexual assault but punishment was rare in other contexts, with only 6.9% of officers suspended or fired and only 7.4% arrested or charged with a crime. 

While previous research has found that school policing leads to a and , Skiba said the physical injuries and deaths highlighted in the new report are the most extreme harms of campus policing. 

鈥淲e can expect that without accountability 鈥� for these incidents with a very low rate of accountability 鈥� that there really isn鈥檛 any incentive for change,鈥� Skiba said. 鈥淭here isn鈥檛 any incentive for schools or districts or police departments to monitor this, to stop this.鈥� 

For Fields, the lack of criminal charges left him feeling emboldened. To him, it鈥檚 proof that he didn鈥檛 do anything wrong. 

鈥淧eople calling for cops to be removed from schools or society are the very people who are probably committing crimes and standing up for criminals,鈥� he said. 鈥淪chools did not get better the day that Ben Fields was fired.鈥�

Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo was placed on administrative leave Wednesday, schools Superintendent Hal Harrell announced in a . The move came after Steven McCraw, the director of the state Department of Public Safety, told state lawmakers Tuesday that Arredondo’s decision to wait more than an hour to confront the gunman during a May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School “put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children.鈥� Two teachers and 19 students died in the attack, which is now under investigation by multiple agencies. Harrell said it was the district’s intention to wait until those investigations were complete before making any personnel decisions. But because of “the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations,” the schools chief said he decided to place Arredondo on leave effective Wednesday. A lieutenant in the six-member department will take over. The Texas Tribune reported that a district spokeswoman if the leave was paid or unpaid.

Police and school security experts are questioning why the Uvalde, Texas, school police chief remains on the job nearly a month after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the local elementary school.

While Chief Pete Arrendondo鈥檚 fiercest critics have following reports that officers under his command waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter, school safety and police accountability experts criticized education leaders for failing to remove him as head of the six-member school police force, even temporarily. 

Placing cops on 鈥減aid administrative leave or in a no-contact assignment鈥� after an officer-involved shooting is , according to the world鈥檚 largest professional trade group for police chiefs. Those standards, experts told 社区黑料, are critical to the public鈥檚 confidence in the ensuing investigations, the school community鈥檚 safety and even the chief鈥檚 well-being. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 just baffling that you would have this conversation days after the incident, much less weeks or a month out,鈥� said school safety consultant Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services. Trump said the standards for officer-involved shootings should apply to Arredondo, a nearly 30-year law enforcement veteran whose response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting is the subject of investigations by the local district attorney鈥檚 office, state law enforcement and elected officials and the U.S. Department of Justice that will likely take months. 

Investigators will scrutinize why officers waited outside a classroom door for more than an hour despite from the children inside begging for police to save them and that there were others trapped with the gunman who were injured but still alive. Eventually, Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement stormed in and killed the shooter. Arredondo, who as the incident commander on the scene, reportedly made the call not to go in immediately.

Steven McCraw, the director of the state Department of Public Safety, on Tuesdayresponse an 鈥渁bject failure,鈥� and said the classroom door was apparently unlocked despite the cops鈥� decision to wait for a key before entering the room to confront the gunman. Just minutes after the first shots were fired, he said, the police had enough firepower and protection to act.

鈥淭he only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander,鈥� McCraw told Texas state lawmakers. Instead, Arredondo 鈥渄ecided to put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children.鈥�

Before those statements, Trump said that Arredondo should be taken out of his leadership role with the school district.

鈥淚f there indeed is something found where he made some fatal errors in his decision making, then you don鈥檛 want that person still there making decisions on that or other situations,鈥� Trump said. Arredondo witnessed one of the deadliest mass school shootings in U.S. history, a traumatic event that Trump said could cloud the chief鈥檚 decisions. 鈥淲hy would you put somebody under that duress 鈥� whether they鈥檙e consciously aware of it now or at a later point in time 鈥� in a position where they could encounter another stressful or life-threatening situation?鈥�

Arredondo鈥檚 position at the police department’s helm remains uncertain as he avoids public appearances and Uvalde district officials . But evidence suggests he鈥檚 taken on additional responsibilities since the May 24 shooting, with his attorney that the chief has picked up extra shifts to cover for grieving officers. The Texas Rangers had asked Arredondo to participate in an interview for their investigation into the immediate police response, attorney George Hyde told the news outlet, but he was too busy filling in for his officers.

Arredondo also made time to go to City Hall and as a newly elected Uvalde city councilmember a week after the mass shooting. The New York Times reported that the Uvalde City Council voted Tuesday not to offer Arredondo a leave of absence. The chief has not attended meetings since his swearing-in, its story said, and could be forced to give up his seat after missing three meetings.

The Uvalde school board at its first meeting since the armed assault, whether to reassign or fire Arredondo, but after chose not to take immediate action. Board members and a district spokesperson didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment. 

The law firm representing Arredondo said he declined to comment for this article, but the 50-year-old police chief defended the police response in his extensive June 9 interview with The Texas Tribune. Arrendondo pushed back against statements that he was the incident commander, saying he did not consider himself to be in charge of the scene and did not give orders to other responding officers, including holding off cops who were impatient to breach the door.

鈥淣ot a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” Arredondo told the nonprofit news outlet, though his comments appear to obtained by The New York Times and later the Tribune itself. 鈥淲e responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could.鈥� 

McCraw reiterated Tuesday that Arredondo had assumed the role of on-site commander by issuing orders and directing action.

鈥楬e really failed鈥� 

Since the horrific shooting, Trump and other school security experts have been highly critical of officers鈥� decision to wait in the hallway. For decades, law enforcement has been trained to confront the gunman 鈥� even at the cost of their own lives. 

Such standards grew out of the 1999 mass school shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Denver, with a realization that every second counts during a mass shooting, most of which are carried out in a matter of minutes. A more aggressive response at Uvalde, experts argue, could have saved lives, perhaps including one teacher in an ambulance and three children who passed away at nearby hospitals.

Public information about Arredondo鈥檚 actions that day 鈥� and his own admissions that he ran into the school without his police radio or quick access to the key he said was necessary 鈥� raise significant questions about his ability to perform his job, said Samuel Walker, a national expert on police misconduct and professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Those questions, he said, necessitate action as investigators examine his conduct. 

鈥淚t appears that his actions were not appropriate and it鈥檚 entirely appropriate that he be on leave,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淯nless some new evidence comes to light, it looks like he really failed in his responsibility and I think that disqualifies him from working any job in that school district.鈥� 

Sheldon Greenberg, an education professor at Johns Hopkins University and a former police officer, said that disciplinary procedures for cops vary greatly across the country and officers often benefit from policies and labor contracts that protect them from facing repercussions for failures on the job. 

Several factors complicate this particular situation, Greenberg said. For one, as chief, Arredondo would typically make disciplinary decisions for officers in his department. In the case of the chief, that responsibility would fall to the district superintendent and the school board, who may have little to no experience in police disciplinary matters, Greenberg said. Additionally, he said it鈥檚 notably difficult to hold an officer accountable for failures to perform job duties. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a difference between a police officer who commits an act,鈥� like the Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd 鈥渨here the officer had his knee on his neck and was forcing compression on his neck for nine minutes,鈥� Greenberg said. With Arredondo, 鈥渨hat he did you might categorize as omission, which is very different.鈥� 

Officers at the 4,100-student Uvalde school district, including Arredondo, had been trained as recently as last year on how to respond to an active shooting, and materials by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement urge cops to 鈥淒isplay uncommon acts of courage to save the innocent.鈥� 

鈥淎s first responders we must recognize that innocent life must be defended,鈥� according to the state training materials. 鈥淎 first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field.鈥� 

Despite the hardline language in the training materials, Greenberg said an officer isn鈥檛 helpful during an emergency if they get killed. 

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do much if you鈥檙e dead or disabled,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou still go in with reasonable caution, just don鈥檛 go barging into a room unless you鈥檙e sure you have a genuine opportunity to stop the gunman.鈥� 

Trump, the school safety consultant, said that placing Arredondo or any officer on administrative leave shouldn’t necessarily be framed as a disciplinary measure. While Arredondo鈥檚 continued role in the department could raise concerns about obstruction in the active investigations and about his capacity to keep the community safe, he said that any officer who responded to the elementary school should have a chance to go on leave to recover from the traumatic event. 

In many police departments, he said the move is routine procedure, yet it鈥檚 unclear what policies are in place for the school district鈥檚 six-person police force. A notes that the police chief  鈥渟hall be accountable to the superintendent,鈥� but a review of the rules did not yield any insight on leave of absences. Arredondo and any other officers who are placed on leave should continue to receive a paycheck, Trump said. 

鈥淭hey shouldn鈥檛 have to worry about income for their family, but they should have that paid leave for them to debrief, to decompress, to process, to not be exposed to continual trauma,鈥� Trump said. While any police-involved shooting can cause distress for the officers involved, the Uvalde shooting resulted in the deaths of 19 children. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been exposed to major trauma and stress of the worst kind.鈥� 

Trump was less sympathetic to Arredondo鈥檚 assertion that he鈥檚 been too busy to participate in interviews with investigators. Making himself available for questioning, he said, should be the chief鈥檚 number one priority. In fact, it鈥檚 another reason to put Arredondo on leave: To ensure he has the time and flexibility to cooperate. Meanwhile, officers from outside police departments across the state . 

鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of anything that anybody should or could be doing that would make them too busy to participate in an investigation into a major school shooting like this,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 among the biggest and the worst [mass shootings] that we鈥檝e ever had. That answer certainly doesn鈥檛 carry water with most anybody, including the school community.鈥�

鈥楥oward of Broward鈥�

Arredondo is not the first school-based police officer to face scorn for his performance during a deadly crisis. School resource officer Scot Peterson was placed on administrative leave in 2018 for failing to confront the gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 

Peterson ultimately chose to retire and was subsequently charged with seven criminal counts of child neglect. Prosecutors said he took cover behind a wall while the gunman killed 17 people. Those actions earned him the nickname the 鈥淐oward of Broward鈥� by ardent critics in his Florida county. Even his boss, then-Sheriff Scott Israel, said at the time that Peterson鈥檚 actions made him 鈥渟ick to my stomach.鈥� 

But Peterson the steps taken against him as a 鈥減olitical lynching.鈥� His attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, told 社区黑料 this week that with both his client and the Uvalde school police chief, 鈥淭he court of public opinion is unfortunately so quick to condemn responding officers and the incident commander without knowing all the facts.鈥� 

鈥淯nfortunately, due to the unprecedented and irresponsible decision鈥� by prosecutors to charge Peterson, he said in an email, he fears that other officers, including Arredondo, 鈥渕ay also be stripped of their liberty and face decades in prison solely because a finding is made after the fact that things could have been handled differently.鈥�  

The case against Peterson is in September. 

Despite the numerous investigations into the Uvalde shooting, the accountability that many in this small Texas community are demanding , according to legal experts. Qualified immunity, which protects cops from liability for their mistakes on the job, could challenge civil lawsuits. Meanwhile, charges against police officers 鈥� like the ones against Peterson 鈥� are extremely rare. But Walker, the police misconduct expert, expects the federal investigation to uncover failures in Uvalde that could help districts nationwide respond to similar attacks moving forward. 

鈥淚t looks like he failed, and if you fail and cause the death of a number of children, then it鈥檚 pretty serious,鈥� Walker said. Yet such shortcomings likely extend beyond Arredondo, he said, and it鈥檚 important that the chief doesn鈥檛 become the scapegoat. 鈥淐learly there鈥檚 what we would call systemic failure, and the school board probably failed in some respects鈥� if it lacked sufficient policies to respond to such a lethal event. 

As a talent show came to a close in the winter of 2007, hundreds of children and parents poured out of a Minneapolis high school only to be met by the piercing blast of gunfire. 

North High School students and their parents rushed back inside and police raced to investigate the commotion. But the guns and bullet shells were nowhere to be found. A campus security guard who helped in the search, they鈥檇 soon learn, had already stashed them in his pockets and, later, his wife鈥檚 purse. 

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The weapons turned up that evening outside a gas station a few blocks from the school where the security guard, Kelly Woods, got into a heated altercation with his ex-girlfriend. Police, who observed witnesses screaming 鈥淭hey鈥檝e got a gun,鈥� arrested Woods at gunpoint.

For Woods, the arrest added to a lengthy criminal record, including drug trafficking, auto theft, armed robbery and a federal firearms conviction, which didn鈥檛 stop him from becoming a security guard in charge of protecting students. For police officer Charles Adams III, the security guard鈥檚 colleague at North High, the ordeal became part of his internal disciplinary record. When officials pursued fresh criminal charges against Woods, Adams pressed them to 鈥済o easy鈥� on a man he described as a 鈥済ood guy,鈥� according to police records obtained by 社区黑料. The move infuriated the lead prosecutor on the case. Assistant County Attorney Diane Krenz said it was the first time in her decades-long career an officer had pressured her to go lenient on a suspect, according to the records. The last thing the community needed, she said, were 鈥渕ore guns on the North Side.鈥� 

The incident linked to Adams 鈥� the and now-former cop 鈥� is included among dozens of allegations and disciplinary findings against campus police officers recently stationed inside Minneapolis public schools that include claims of police brutality, racial discrimination and domestic violence. 

In one incident, officers were accused of beating and arresting a man for carrying a handgun despite having a concealed carry permit. In another, police were accused of pounding in a man鈥檚 face because he littered the crust from a slice of pizza. Both incidents ended with court settlements, against Minneapolis officers that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars. The city after a man said at least six officers punched, kicked and tasered him during a traffic stop. One of the accused officers became a school-based cop, a position he held until last year.

After George Floyd was murdered in 2020 at the hands of a Minneapolis officer, the city school board was quick to end its longstanding contract with the police department for campus cops, a move that some critics said was politically motivated. Floyd鈥檚 death put a national spotlight on police brutality and excessive force. 社区黑料 obtained public officer misconduct records and court files to explore whether similar interactions between police and students had transpired in Minneapolis classrooms 鈥� and if such incidents may have contributed to the school board鈥檚 decision to cut ties with the department. Ultimately, few of the records involved on-campus incidents or youth, but the lengthy list of allegations and disciplinary findings 鈥� many alleging violence on the part of police 鈥� raised separate questions about how the officers wound up inside schools in the first place. They also offer new context for an ongoing national debate about the role police should play in schools and whether they鈥檙e best equipped to ensure students are safe. 

Ben Fisher, an assistant criminal justice professor at Florida State University whose research focuses on the efficacy of school-based police, said the Minneapolis officers鈥� disciplinary and court records 鈥渟eemed quite problematic.鈥�

鈥淪chools contain some of our most vulnerable people in society,鈥� Fisher said. 鈥淚f we are putting officers in there who have abused their power in some way outside of the school, it鈥檚 a very scary proposition to imagine that track record following them into schools.鈥�

Minneapolis Police Department spokesman Garrett Parten said officers鈥� disciplinary records were considered before they were stationed inside schools, but he declined to comment on specific allegations or findings against officers. School resource officers took the job to build trust between youth and police, serve as positive role models and ensure children could learn in a safe environment, he said in an email. Effects of the school board鈥檚 decision to end the school resource officer program, he said, 鈥渨ill become evident over time.鈥�

Dozens of school districts across the country severed their ties with police after Floyd鈥檚 murder, but broader police reform efforts have so far faltered. In Washington, legislation that sought to improve transparency around officer misconduct and make it easier to prosecute bad cops, among other changes, failed as bipartisan negotiations broke down. 

Locally, Minneapolis voters will consider a ballot question next week that could remove from the city charter a police department that鈥檚 long been . As the school district navigates its first year without a full-time police presence in classrooms, the ballot measure would create instead a city Department of Public Safety that would use a 鈥渃omprehensive public health approach鈥� and employ police officers only 鈥渋f necessary.鈥�

National industry recommend collaboration between police and education leaders when stationing officers inside schools, but researchers who study the efficacy of school resource officers said that little evidence exists about how such selection processes actually work. Anecdotally, the job is highly regarded in some districts and officers compete for the position, Fisher said. In other places, being stationed in schools is 鈥渁 punishment where police are put there if they can鈥檛 cut it on the streets.鈥�

鈥楥ompletely out of control鈥�

社区黑料 obtained Minneapolis Police Department misconduct records for the 24 officers assigned to public schools for the five years prior to Floyd鈥檚 murder. Of those, 21 officers faced 105 internal complaints, 11 of which resulted in discipline of varying severity. Those records span the duration of officers鈥� employment with the department. Separately, the officers stationed in schools were named in federal lawsuits on at least two dozen occasions, according to an analysis of court records. 

The police disciplinary issues range in seriousness. One officer who worked in the schools was cited in 2019 for unintentionally firing his service rifle while responding to a call about a man with a gun, and another was given a letter of reprimand after getting arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. In two of the 11 cases which resulted in official department action, officers were disciplined for using excessive force. 

About half of the Minneapolis officers who were sued or disciplined remain on the force, according to a department spokesperson. 

Among them is Mukhtar Abdulkadir, who has faced 11 internal complaints 鈥� two that resulted in discipline 鈥� and two federal lawsuits. He reported to work as a school resource officer as recently as 2017, district records show. Records suggest the officer has a tendency to respond violently when under stress. 

In 2010, a young Ethiopian immigrant accused Abdulkadir of choking and punching him and calling him a racial slur after he was pulled over and cited for riding a bike at night without a light, a citation the man called 鈥渟tupid.鈥� A federal lawsuit following the incident . Abdulkadir and his attorneys couldn鈥檛 be reached for comment. 

In 2011, Abdulkadir was arrested on assault and terroristic threat charges after his then-wife accused him of punching her in the ribs, smothering her face with a pillow and hitting her in the face with the butt of his service pistol. Abdulkadir was but was rehired with back pay after his former wife retracted her allegations. Yet according to his disciplinary file, internal investigators believed her decision to recant was obvious: 鈥淥nly if he is reinstated will she obtain child support when they divorce.鈥� Additionally, internal records note that domestic abuse victims often 鈥渢ake the blame鈥� because their abusers maintain control over them. 

Abdulkadir was also accused of repeatedly punching a man outside a car wash in 2013. The man honked at the officer because he was next in line at the automatic car wash but hadn’t moved forward, according to a complaint in a federal lawsuit. In response, Abdulkadir was accused of punching the man repeatedly before charging him with disorderly conduct, according to the lawsuit that also . 

Then, in 2014, Abdulkadir was reprimanded for becoming irate after he failed firearms training. Officers who witnessed the outburst reported feeling afraid because he 鈥渨as completely out of control鈥� and had easy access to a gun. 

鈥淭hat night I truly believed that at any time he could grab his weapon, load it and use it against officers,鈥� a police sergeant told internal investigators. In a less controlled environment, the sergeant said he could see a situation where Abdulkadir would 鈥渃ompletely lose control of everything and harm himself, other officers or the public.鈥� 

District records show Abdulkadir was assigned to Minneapolis campuses a year later, including Andersen United Middle School and Seward Montessori School. 

When officers protect their own

The disciplinary findings against Adams put the storied coach and second-generation Minneapolis cop on defense, a position he isn鈥檛 used to playing. After the school board voted to break with the police department, some students at North High School, the predominantly Black school where Adams worked as a school resource officer, So did the school鈥檚 principal. 

On after reinvigorated the Black Lives Matter movement, The New York Times examined how his roles as a football coach and a Black police officer placed him on both ends of the debate on policing in America. As Adams , 鈥淚 wear blue, but I鈥檓 Black.鈥�

The records suggest that Adams, who left the police department last year and is now head of team security for the Minnesota Twins, was willing to go to great lengths for a colleague accused of a serious crime, a reality he acknowledged in an interview with 社区黑料. Woods, the North High School security guard, and his attorney couldn’t be reached for comment. 

鈥�I stood up for him as a character,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淚 never said that it was OK for what he did.鈥�

North High School Principal Mauri Friestleben, who has been outspoken against the school board鈥檚 decision to cut ties with the police, similarly stood behind Adams. With officers in schools, she said she witnessed a 鈥渉ealthy discourse about what real protecting and serving looked like,鈥� including situations where campus cops helped students avoid arrests. 鈥淚 have no reservations about my public support鈥� of Adams, she wrote in an email, and called the officer 鈥渁 protector鈥� who came to the job 鈥渨ith multiple dimensions and this may be just one of them.鈥� 

Adams sought to downplay his own disciplinary record, arguing that police leaders and prosecutors overreacted to his intervening in Woods鈥檚 criminal case. Prior to becoming a school security guard, Woods was convicted of armed robbery in 1992 and became ineligible to possess a firearm. Six years later, police arrested Woods with a gun outside a Minneapolis Greyhound bus station. Woods, who is Black, unsuccessfully accused the officers of racial discrimination when they stopped him while investigating drug and gun trafficking, according to court records. 

Adams said that Woods was a positive force in the community and shouldn鈥檛 be defined by the years he spent in prison. After the shooting outside North High, Woods wasn鈥檛 trying to keep the guns for himself, Adams maintained. Instead, Woods knew the students involved in the shooting and didn鈥檛 want them to get arrested. Woods recognized them as gang members, according to court documents.

鈥淚 took it as him looking out for those two kids,鈥� said Adams, who added that he didn鈥檛 observe the shooting himself. 鈥淗e took [the guns] from them and said 鈥楪et out of here,鈥� one of those types of deals because that鈥檚 just the type of person that he is.鈥� 

Adams scoffed at the suggestion from Krenz, the prosecutor, that his defense of Woods conflicted with his role in keeping the community safe. Krenz declined to comment for this article. Adams said she wouldn鈥檛 know where North High was if it 鈥渟macked her in her face.鈥� 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to hear that,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淚 hear so many people talk about what should be good for our community. They have never stepped one foot inside of it.鈥� 

鈥楪ood ol鈥� boy network鈥�

Internal police records obtained by 社区黑料 likely offer a significant undercount of officer misconduct. Just 2.7 percent of complaints resulted in discipline between 2013 and 2019, according to a nonprofit news outlet. After lengthy investigations, disciplined officers often received letters of reprimand or brief suspensions. 

A pattern of officers protecting their peers allowed abuses to remain under the radar until it went to court, the investigation found. Three years before he murdered Floyd, for example, Derek Chauvin and pinned him to the ground for 17 minutes. The incident, which could be seen as a precursor to Chauvin kneeling on Floyd鈥檚 neck, from his public records. 

社区黑料 sought comments from Minneapolis officers previously stationed inside schools, school board members, the city and state police unions, an attorney who represents many officers in misconduct litigation, the city and the county attorney鈥檚 office. Each declined to comment or didn鈥檛 respond to interview requests. 

Among the lawsuits against officers placed in schools, civil rights attorney Zorislav Leyderman represented the plaintiffs in six. Police misconduct incidents that occur outside schools, he said, should influence whether those involved are assigned as school resource officers. Leyderman cited the allegations as contributing to a larger culture in the city where many Minneapolis residents fear the police. 

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 want to interact with law enforcement because they鈥檙e worried that if they do, they鈥檙e going to get injured,鈥� he said. The allegations against the officers stationed in schools 鈥渟hould have been looked into, both the lawsuits and these internal complaints.鈥� 

Oftentimes, he said police misconduct remains outside the public eye because officers are 鈥渃oached鈥� following incidents, a practice the department has maintained isn鈥檛 a form of official discipline. The department was sued and , including in cases of serious wrongdoing. In , investigators found that Minneapolis police used coaching to resolve more than a quarter of complaints over a six-year period.

Local parent advocate Khulia Pringle, who helped the school district hire security staff to replace sworn police last year, said that officers鈥� disciplinary records should be a major factor when placing them inside schools. However, that history only reinforced her belief that police have no place walking hallways. 

鈥淚n any other situation, when we need the cops, we call them,鈥� said Pringle, a Minnesota-based representative of the . If they鈥檙e going to be there, there 鈥渟hould have been more protocols in place as to which officers are in schools,鈥� she said. 

Adams said he was surprised to see the allegations against other police officers who worked in the schools, and although negative interactions between cops and youth have occurred, he couldn鈥檛 recall any recent instances that could鈥檝e motivated the school board鈥檚 decision to end its police contract. Yet Adams, who said he can 鈥渟peak freely鈥� now because he鈥檚 no longer a cop, portrayed his former department as one where officer misconduct is routine. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 the good ol鈥� boy network,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got guys who are in the police department that treat people wrong on purpose and you can see it.鈥� 

鈥楶art of the game鈥�

As communities across the country grapple with the role police play in schools, new research serves to highlight the issue鈥檚 complexities. On one hand, the officers reduce some forms of violent crimes like fights, according to the research. At the same time, their presence prompts a dramatic uptick in suspensions and arrests 鈥� especially for students who are Black. Little academic research explores the types of officers who are more effective than others in schools.

But being named in a federal lawsuit shouldn鈥檛 be automatically disqualifying, said school safety consultant Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland. Filing civil rights lawsuits against an arresting officer is all 鈥減art of the game,鈥� he said. Police misconduct suits often end in settlements, yet Trump said the final results should become part of the equation when making school resource officer assignments.

鈥淚f you鈥檙e a police officer and you鈥檙e doing your job on the streets, there鈥檚 a really good chance you鈥檙e going to get sued somewhere in your career,鈥� said Trump, a proponent of school-based policing. 鈥淏ut there should be some sort of baseline criteria and screening set by your police administration before that pool of officers is ever presented at that next step to your school people.鈥�

Parten, the Minneapolis police spokesman, said that all officers were eligible to apply for the school resource officer program and were interviewed by a panel of police department and school district officials. The police chief had the final say in hiring decisions. Parten said he collaborated with education officials when crafting a statement for this article, but Minneapolis school district spokeswoman Julie Schultz Brown didn鈥檛 respond to multiple requests for comment. 

鈥淐andidates were presented with scenario-based questions designed to evaluate critical thinking skills necessary for a school setting and further examined each individual鈥檚 understanding of the challenges and rewards associated with the position,鈥� he said. 

Policing in Minneapolis remains contentious in the larger community, and voters will soon decide whether to go in a completely new direction. Ahead of next week鈥檚 election, suggests the question of whether to dismantle the traditional police department will be close. Black voters were less likely than white voters to support the idea. 

A similar course change 鈥� to remove cops from Minneapolis schools and replace them with district security staff 鈥� was ultimately detrimental, Adams maintains. 鈥淐rime is outrageous鈥� at North High School, he said, and the security team hired to replace sworn officers is 鈥渟tretched thin.鈥� 

And even though he defended a security guard who he said sought to keep kids out of the criminal justice system, the former cop said stationing police in schools was an effective strategy to catch suspected criminals.

鈥淎 lot of kids would obviously show up to school and investigators and a lot of police knew the kid would be there,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淭hat was a good way to get bad guys.鈥� 

Lead Image: Former police officer Charles Adams III’s actions to intervene on behalf of a school security guard arrested on gun charges are among dozens of disciplinary findings and misconduct allegations involving campus police officers recently stationed inside Minneapolis public schools. (Andrea Ellen Reed / The New York Times / Redux)