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District's response to the Richland County Sheriff's October 28, 2015 news conference

10/27/2015

Today during the Richland County Sheriff’s Department news conference, Richland School District Two learned that Sheriff Leon Lott has terminated school resource officer Ben Fields after his actions inside a Spring Valley High School classroom on Monday. In response to this announcement, Mr. James Manning, Chairman of the Richland Two Board of Trustees, and Dr. Debbie Hamm, superintendent of Richland Two, have issued the following statements.

Statement from Mr. James Manning, Chairman of the Richland Two Board of Trustees:

School officials and police officers both have the tough job of making on-the-spot judgment calls during the course of their daily duties. I respect the difficulty of these decisions, and I regret the fact that a bad decision can lead to bad outcomes for all involved.

Both educators and police officers, however, must be held to a high standard when interacting with students and the public. With this in mind, I respect Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott’s decision to terminate the school resource officer.

As a community, we must continue the work that we have done to support each other through all of the recent tragedies in South Carolina and to remain united as we deal with this difficult situation.

Statement from Superintendent Dr. Debbie Hamm:

I want to thank Sheriff Lott and his department for their swift response. There may be some who think this is the end of the matter. In Richland Two, however, we continue to work closely with the Sheriff’s Department and independent federal and state investigating agencies to examine exactly what happened.

We know important work is ahead of us as we thoughtfully and carefully review the decision-making process that may lead to a school resource officer taking the lead in handling a student disruption. Conversations that have already started will continue around how we work with the sheriff’s department on improvement and coordination of our work as educators and their work as law enforcement officers.

Our primary goal is to de-escalate situations through problem-solving and communication techniques, while avoiding actions that escalate and result in unfortunate confrontations. We will continue to move forward with this approach.