After a high school student appeared to punch a sheriff’s deputy in the face during a cafeteria fight, it became evident that the officer wasn’t in the mood to play such games. Instead, he was prepared to defend himself — and it was all captured on video.
Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman quickly came to the defense of a school resource officer assigned to Dominion High School in Sterling, Virginia, after the sheriff’s deputy “defended himself while taking the student into custody,” according to the sheriff’s office. That self-defense was all caught on video, but Sheriff Chapman was quick to point out that there was more to the altercation than what’s seen in the footage of the fight.
The Thursday afternoon incident, which was only partially caught on video, began after a school administrator allegedly told an unruly student to leave the cafeteria and go to the main office, WRC-TV reported. Rather than comply, the student refused multiple times and even assaulted the administrator, according to authorities. That’s when the deputy with the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, who was assigned to the school, approached the student in an attempt to calm him down.
However, things didn’t go as planned. Rather than calm down and do as he was told, the high school student turned his rage on the resource officer who had moved in and attempted to subdue him. Cell phone footage captured the violent Virginia teen taking several swings at the deputy, punching him multiple times, and even appearing to punch him in the face during the cafeteria fight.
The cell phone video of the incident shows the deputy stumble slightly after the student appeared to land a punch to his face. As the student continued to assault the officer, the deputy decided to defend himself as he attempted to take the student into custody, the Loudoun Times-Mirror reported. Having had enough, the officer began throwing a few punches of his own as the camera captured him scrapping with the student.
The deputy managed to evade some of the student’s blows, and the officer appeared to strike the student at least twice. Once he began fighting back, he seemed to have very little difficulty subduing the student, who would soon face a pair of felony charges and multiple misdemeanors related to the incident.
According to reports, the deputy was injured during the altercation. Medics took him to a local hospital, where he was treated for his injuries. The student, however, refused medical treatment and was taken to the Loudoun Juvenile Detention Center instead.
The identity of the student, who was a juvenile, wasn’t released, but it was reported that he was arrested and charged with felony counts of obstruction of justice by force and assault on a law enforcement officer, as well as three misdemeanor counts of assault on a school official, disorderly conduct in school, and destruction of property.
While most viewers of the footage are quick to claim the child should be held accountable for what he had done, there are those who question if the deputy went too far when he began punching the teen in return. For those who doubt the deputy’s method of defense, Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman had a message.
Sheriff Chapman said that the video did not capture the repeated attempts school officials and the unnamed student resource officer made to try to calm the irate student after he assaulted the staff member. Those attempts proved ineffective, and we only see the escalation that continued to occur afterward. The officer didn’t come out swinging. He swung after other measures to calm the student were exhausted.
In other words, sometimes you have to meet force with equal force. It’s the only way to put an end to violence. No, it’s not pretty, but it can be necessary. Luckily, there’s an easy way to avoid such an incident that this student failed to realize. If you don’t want to be punched, don’t be punching others. It’s really as simple as that. If you want to dish out physical violence, be prepared to take it when your target turns the tables.
