A San Antonio school police officer was fired after he was caught on camera body slamming a 12-year-old middle school student, momentarily knocking her out.
We reported about the incident last week before it went viral on mainstream news outlets.
After San Antonio Independent School District police officer Joshua Kehm body slammed Janissa Valdez’s face into the concrete, the district started an inquiry, putting the officer on paid administrative leave.
According to New York Times, the school district is still investigating, but immediately decided to terminate Kehm.
“We understand that situations can sometimes escalate to the point of requiring a physical response; however, in this situation we believe that the extent of the response was absolutely unwarranted,” said Superintendent Pedro Martinez.
The superintendent also remarked about the truthfulness of the subsequent police report.
“Additionally, the officer’s report was inconsistent with the video and it was also delayed, which is not in accordance with the general operating procedures of the police department. We want to be clear that we will not tolerate this behavior.”
Kehm, it turned out, did not know he was being recorded. When the district looked at the dishonest report and the video, they decided to fire him.
The incident occurred at Rhodes Middle School on March 9.
Janissa’s father, Raul Valdez III, said his sixth-grade daughter has been bullied since the start of the school year by a group of students. But when they complained to school administrators, they did nothing to help.
Contrary to the initial narrative submitted by Kehm, Janissa’s bullies had confronted her and other students surrounded expecting a fight.
So when Kehm grabbed her, she thought it was a student trying to attack her.
“It hurt me really bad that a grown man could do that to a little girl. I want to confront the officer, but thought it would be better to do everything legally,” said Valdez upset over his daughter’s treatment.
“I want justice for my daughter. These police are getting out of hand. They think they are above the law.”
To add fuel to the fire, the girl’s mother, Gloria Valdez, was waiting to pick Janissa up in the school parking lot and saw the commotion.
Kehm told Mrs. Valdez, “he did what he had to do because he said my daughter was trying to kick him in the groin area.”
He also threatened, “You know I can press charges on your daughter.”
Janissa was taken to the hospital and later released. She has been suffering from headaches ever since.
Officer Kehm was with the department since February 2015.
He was unavailable for comment.
We’ll update if and when San Antonio police decide to criminally charge him.
They posted to Facebook on April 1st and said they are celebrating National Child Abuse Prevention Month.
We’ll update if they put their money where their mouth is.
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