12-year-old girl arrested at Manatee school after officials wanted a fight video deleted
When a fight erupted in the courtyard of Palm View K-8 School in September, one 12-year-old student took out her cellphone and recorded video of the melee.
School administrators ended the fight. Then, they quickly shifted their attention to the girl, demanding she delete the video and give up her phone.
The student refused, setting off a chain of events that ended with a deputy twice forcing the seventh-grader to the ground and arresting her.
George Schrenk, the sheriff’s deputy who works as a school resource officer on campus, captured about an hour of video on his body camera. Throughout the footage, Palm View staff are seen contemplating how to handle the student.
“I don’t think I want her in handcuffs, but I do want a severe consequence and I want her off my campus,” Principal Kaththea Johnson said in the body camera footage.
Mary Dietrick, a counselor at Palm View K-8 in Palmetto, later said the school should use the girl “as an example.”
School staff repeatedly said they wanted the video deleted from the girl’s phone, alleging the student committed a crime by recording school employees as they broke up the fight — a statement refuted by experts and the county sheriff.
One school employee, standing off camera, is later heard expressing concern that the video would end up on social media.
Principal Johnson also said the student evaded school employees and pushed the deputy when they tried to confiscate her phone and stop her from moving around the campus.
In response, the girl’s mother said her daughter felt cornered and overwhelmed by the school leaders and the deputy. After the school fight, they isolated the girl in an empty classroom for about an hour, rushing toward her whenever she appeared to touch her phone.
It was in that room where the girl became agitated and tried to push past the deputy and the assistant principal, Michelle Clark, after they repeatedly stood in front of her and demanded her phone. And it was in that room where the deputy twice forced the student to the ground, charging her with battery on a law enforcement officer, battery on a school employee and resisting arrest.
The 12-year-old girl, who the Bradenton Herald is not naming, was taken to the Manatee Regional Juvenile Detention Center shortly before her mother, Cecelia Jones, arrived at the school.
Not believing her daughter would push an officer unprovoked, the mother said she immediately knew the deputy must have grabbed her and triggered a response. That suspicion was confirmed by the body camera footage.
Her daughter grapples with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and behavioral struggles. She also has a documented plan on file with the school, describing how to avoid triggers and de-escalate tense situations.
A cellphone video, the mother said, was no excuse for the agony her daughter endured.
“I don’t think it was that serious for her to get tortured like they tortured her in that room,” she said.
Two experts — a Miami-based criminologist and the CEO of a national parent advocacy group — watched the footage at the Bradenton Herald’s request. Both said the outcome was avoidable.
Members of the Manatee County School District security staff also watched the body camera video in a meeting with the sheriff’s office, said Mike Barber, the school district spokesman.
“Representatives of both agencies used the recording as an opportunity to discuss protocols, expectations and ideas for handling similar situations in the future,” he said in a written statement. “We continue to constantly examine ways to enhance the safety and security of all students and staff.”
Barber declined to comment further, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal student privacy law.
Sheriff’s office investigates
Contrary to statements made by school leaders, the student did not break any laws by recording the school fight, Sheriff Rick Wells confirmed to the Bradenton Herald.
He said Schrenk, the campus deputy, immediately reported the incident to his chain of command, and that the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office soon decided to review the incident.
“He was basically going by what the principal and staff were telling him. He was not sure at this point what they were talking about, but they kept referring to the phone and a recording they wanted from the phone,” Wells said.
In the body camera footage, the deputy is heard questioning school staff and their claim that recording fights or school employees was unlawful.
“She recorded you,” the assistant principal said, addressing Principal Johnson after the campus fight. “I think that might be a felony, too, when you record a staff, like, one of us, without permission.”
“I will have to look that up,” the deputy said, indicating that he was unsure if the student committed a crime.
Schrenk then joined Palm View’s principal and assistant principal in the empty classroom, where they confined the girl.
“If you video one of our staff members that did not give you permission to video them, you can be charged, and I do not want that for you,” a school leader said off camera, noting that she wanted the video deleted.
“If that gets out on social media...,” she continued, before the audio becomes unintelligible.
“I think that was a key focus for them, the phone and not wanting that video to go out on social media, from what they were saying,” the sheriff told the Herald. “I think the deputy got caught up in that particular moment, trying to preserve that evidence that the school wanted and not something that we wanted as a law enforcement agency.”
Minutes later, the deputy grabbed the student’s wrist to stop her from touching her phone, leading to the struggle and felony charges.
“He was just trying to get her to stop messing with the phone so he asked her to take her hands out of her pocket,” Wells said. “When he went to grab the phone, she reacted by pushing on him. Obviously, she was not happy about that. He took great care trying not to hurt her as she was struggling.”
After reviewing the incident, the sheriff’s office has since warned all Manatee County school resource officers about getting involved in cellphone issues or other school policies.
“We have no basis to take action on such policies,” Wells said. “That’s not why we are there.”
‘Use one as an example’
How does a student go from recording a school fight to facing charges of battery and resisting arrest?
At about 2:25 p.m. on Sept. 22, two kids fought at Palm View K-8 before the school principal put herself in the middle of the feuding students.
Meanwhile, the 12-year-old girl was “within reaching distance of us, phone up and laughing, videoing the incident,” the principal said in her written account of the incident, which the Bradenton Herald recently obtained.
“I directed her to turn it off at which point she continued,” Johnson wrote. “I repeated my directive, and she ran off, continuing to run around the courtyard, causing a further disruption with students. I called on the radio for staff assistance to locate her and confiscate the phone; she continued to run from staff, pushing (the deputy) out of the way.”
The deputy’s body camera started after that incident. In the video, the principal and assistant principal discussed ways to ensure the girl is removed from Palm View K-8, while Dietrick, the school counselor, stood nearby.
The principal asked the deputy what his protocol is when someone puts hands on him. He then referred to an incident earlier in the day, when the girl allegedly pushed past him in the cafeteria, and he said “on the street, she’s arrested.”
“We need to use her as an example at this point,” one of the school employees said. The principal and school counselor wore face masks, while the assistant principal stood off camera, making it hard to identify who made the statement.
When the principal and the assistant principal walked away, the counselor made similar statements while talking one-on-one with the deputy.
“I’m all for saving all the kids, but when you use one as an example...,” Dietrick said, just before the deputy cut her off.
“I don’t want to make examples,” Schrenk said. “Just so we’re clear, my objective is not to make an example. If she becomes an example, well, then so be it. But no. If they’re going to take her off campus the way Ms. Johnson and Ms. Clark want to take her off campus, then that’s fine. But we also have my option as well.”
“Right, we need to support our law enforcement — the respect of the badge’‘ the counselor continued.
The student’s arrest
The deputy then walked to a nearby classroom, where a Palm View teacher could be seen leaving the room as Johnson and Clark kept a watchful eye on the student and her phone.
Clark, the assistant principal, is heard calling the girl’s mother, informing her about the fight video and asking her to “help me make sure that video is deleted.”
“The concern is (the student) is recording the fight and recording staff and possibly recording the principal, which is absolutely not allowed,” Clark said, just before the mother agreed to pick up her daughter.
Meanwhile, as the girl sat atop a desk in the classroom, both the principal and deputy rushed toward her and tried to grab her hand, fearing she was using her phone.
“Get out of my face,” the student said as she began to pace around the room. “You all are messing with me.”
“She’s about to get in handcuffs,” the assistant principal followed, still on a phone call with the mother.
The girl sat back down, and the situation remained quiet for about two minutes before the deputy again moved toward the student and demanded she stop touching her phone.
“Leave me alone,” the student said, again standing up, pacing around the empty classroom and then sitting back down.
That pattern repeated for the next 11 minutes, with stretches of complete silence and brief moments of agitation as the deputy and the assistant principal demanded the girl either give up her phone or keep it in her pocket.
Those moments came to a head when the deputy again told the student to keep her hand out of her pocket.
“Why are you manipulating your phone?” Schrenk said before moving toward the student and grabbing her wrist.
As the girl stood up, the phone flew out of her hand and she yelled, “Bro, you just threw my phone.” She then walked toward the deputy, who responded by pressing a hand under the student’s breast, attempting to hold her back.
Growing more agitated, the student tried to push past Schrenk for several seconds until he forced her on the ground and placed her in handcuffs, bringing the student to tears as she called out for her mother.
The crying girl later stood up and paced around the room before she picked up what appears to be her phone, prompting the deputy to again grab her arm and toss the object.
The student soon moved toward the classroom door and pressed her body against Clark, the assistant principal, who stood between the student and the exit, prompting the deputy to again force her to the ground.
“I was trapped,” the girl said in a recent interview.
In the minutes that followed, the student sat in a corner while the deputy and the assistant principal talked nearby, discussing how to escort the handcuffed student out of the building without students and families watching during school dismissal.
They decided to wait 15 or 20 minutes, letting the traffic die down. Meanwhile, a second sheriff’s deputy, Judd Beckwith, arrived to watch over the student before transporting her to a detention center.
“You f****d up enough to the point where I have to come here. I ain’t like these other guys,” Beckwith said, pointing to the assistant principal and the campus deputy. “I don’t deal with this s**t.”
“Are you done with this tantrum or what? You just sit here and cry and beg for mom a little more,” he continued minutes later.
Didn’t have to end this way
Alex Piquero, a criminologist and professor at the University of Miami, said leaders at Palm View K-8 should have handled the situation informally, waiting for the girl’s mother to arrive before taking any further action.
Piquero also stopped short of questioning the deputy. Schrenk was calm while talking to the student, and when she eventually pushed him, the deputy had grounds to use force and charge her with battery — even if the girl’s only goal was to distance herself from the officials, Piquero said.
But the altercation and arrest, he said, could have been avoided if school leaders allowed the girl’s mother — not law enforcement — to handle the situation.
“It’s a kid and a phone, and this kid didn’t need to go to (juvenile) detention,” Piquero continued. “This didn’t need to happen this way.”
Denise Marshall, chief executive officer for The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, said the body camera footage was “very difficult to watch,” and that she saw “no imminent threat of harm or reason for law enforcement involvement.”
“This could have been handled entirely administratively,” she said in an email.
“There was a foregone conclusion demonstrated by the words and actions of school personnel that the student ‘had to go’ and ‘was about to be handcuffed.’ The presence of (a deputy) in such instances seems to be self-fulfilling,” she continued.
The girl’s mother was quick to agree. In a recent interview, she said her daughter has documented needs that were never considered during the Sep. 22 incident.
She has “a tendency to become irritable quickly and has difficulty maintaining self control when faced with adversity,” her Individual Educational Plan states.
But she was also a joy to have in class, and she “does better when working with a trusted adult that she has built a rapport with,” the plan continues.
A second document, known as the Functional Behavior Assessment, highlights de-escalation strategies to avoid further triggering the student and worsening the situation.
The mother said neither plan was kept in mind before her daughter’s arrest. If greater care were taken, she said, her daughter would have never left Palm View in handcuffs.
“By the time I made it to the school, she was already gone,” the mother said.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we reported this story
The Bradenton Herald used a public records request to obtain and review body camera footage from the school resource officer. Reporters spent weeks poring over school and law enforcement records, as well as interviewing experts, public officials and the affected family to report this story.
This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
