The Black Lives Matter movement organized a protest Saturday at the South Carolina State House in support of the high school student arrested by school resource officer Ben Fields. The event came on the heels of Friday's student walkout at Spring Valley high school to protest his firing, according to The State.
Saturday’s peaceful protest had a different feel than Friday’s student walkout. The protest began with a tribute during which someone would call out the name of a deceased person and everyone would respond by saying, “Ashe.” Among the names called out were the Charleston 9, Martin Luther King, Jr., Treyvon Martin and Harriet Tubman.
Several different groups from all over the country put the protest together. While those in attendance had differing goals, nearly everyone interviewed expressed a belief that the high school girl involved was treated unfairly and the school resource officer, Ben Fields, should face charges for his actions.
“[We are here] to demand that all charges are dropped against the victim of Ben Fields, that Ben Fields be prosecuted, that Spring Valley School be investigated and the principal and discipline administrator and the teacher be fired,” Efia Nwangaza, one of the organizers of the protest, said.
“The majority of white people have a monomaniacal visceral hatred of African Americans; most of them hate us, and we gotta accept that,” John White, a protester, said.
Not everyone protesting shared such views. There were many high school students in attendance, and they expressed their own experiences in their schools.
“I just feel like we should be able to feel safe in the school,” 15-year-old Jacksonville, Florida, native Yehedit Toure said. “I can’t even speak for all the police officers because there are some who actually try to be friendly and nice and actually try to do their job while at the same time being professional.”
Richland County State Representative Joe Neal was also in attendance. Neal was one of the speaking attractions, discussing both the incident at Spring Valley High and a piece of legislation he is introducing soon, which will aim to make changes in the South Carolina school systems and provide further definition to existing laws.
“As we gather here today, I simply want to say that it will be my effort come this December to pre-file a piece of legislation that will challenge first this law that says that any child can be charged with disruption of school,” Neal said. “As well, we want to challenge this zero-tolerance policy that has evolved in this state and this country that has resulted in tens of thousands of children running afoul of law enforcement not just in South Carolina, but across this country.”
After the protest, many in attendance planned to go to the Sheriff’s Department and hang a full list of their demands on the walls there. One of the more common demands was the removal of all school resource officers from schools in South Carolina, as well as better training for school employees for situations like the one at Spring Valley.
“South Carolina needs to lead the way in undoing this damage that has been done in our school systems," Neal said. "It’s no wonder so many of our children drop out and leave. Because these school systems, these policies, have been confrontational. We need schools who council, guide and discipline, not incarcerate.”