The family of a Florida girl is demanding that a school resource officer who beat her 16-year-old daughter with the body be fired for her actions, according to NBC News.
At the beginning of the week, footage of an incident between deputy Ethan Fournier and 16-year-old Taylor Bracey went viral showing Fournier’s body throwing Bracey on the floor outside Liberty High School in Osceola County, Florida.
Bracey’s head hit the floor during the encounter.
Mother of bracey said NBC said her daughter has had headaches, blurred vision and memory loss since the incident. “(We are) just angry and we want justice to be done,” said his mother, Jamesha Bracey. Bracey told his mother that she was unconscious and her mother said that the school was not willing to tell her what happened in the beginning.
“The person who should protect her is the person who brutalized her,” said prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump. “This is a problem especially in the African American community, because we often see them using this excessive use of force with our children.”
Crump, who represented the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, recently took over the case of Bracey.
Sheriff Marcos Lopez said the girl was not injured during the meeting at a news conference. “From my understanding, it was an interruption of a school function,” said Lopez. “The student was not complying with legal orders. She went after another student.”
Crump says Lopez’s description of the events is wrong and that a physical fight never took place. “There was a verbal altercation. Taylor never touched anyone and so this policeman does what we see in that video, ”said Crump.
David Bigney, the officer ‘s lawyer, said that “Unfortunately, sometimes the situation reaches a level where force is justified and necessary” and that videos that arrive on the internet like this never tell the full story.
Fournier is on paid leave while the investigation was handed over to the Florida Police Department.
The Hill contacted Crump’s office for comment.