Posted on 09/28/2007 4:06:03 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
PALMDALE, Sept. 26, 2007 (KABC-TV) - Three teens and a mother are arrested after a scuffle with security guards at Knight High School in Palmdale. An investigation is underway as to whether excessive force was used by the guards.
One of the students arrested caught the whole thing on video. The incident was instigated over cake.
It was a birthday party at Knight High School in Palmdale. Early last week, during lunch hour, students say the cake dropped, and then everything else dropped. There was mayhem and chaos. On the heels of this incident, a group of parents and students plan to hold a protest on Friday.
This is exclusive video that a student at William P. Knight High School in East Palmdale used his cell phone to capture video of 16-year-old Pleajhia Mervin being arrested by campus police early last week.
Mervin says a security guard slammed her against a table at a lunchroom at the high school and twisted her arms behind her back so violently, he broke her wrist. Her wrist is in a cast.
"He put my arm behind my back and he started raising it until it hurt, so I told him, 'Stop, it hurts.' He had slammed me on the table and told me to hold still. He called me a 'nappy-head,' and that's when I just started crying," said Mervin.
Mervin claims she was roughed up simply because she failed to pick up every crumb of a birthday cake she accidentally dropped on the floor of the lunchroom during a lunch-hour birthday celebration for a friend. She says she thought she cleaned up the mess, but the security guard thought otherwise.
"He said, 'You have to come pick the rest of this cake up.' So I said, 'I picked it up.' He gets on his walkie-talkie, he got a call, so I just started walking to class, and that's when he grabbed me," said Mervin.
Mervin says when the security guard realized he was being videotaped, he tackled the student shooting the video. She says another student captured photographs of that incident. She says the whole incident was unnecessary.
"I think that he could have had a better way of cuffing me and throwing me on the table," said Mervin.
Mervin's mother, Latrisha Majors, said when she rushed to the school demanding to see her daughter, she was accused of battering the principal. She says she was then arrested and forced to spend the night in jail.
"This has caused such a disruption in my life," said Majors. "I try to explain this, but I can't. The 'nappy-head' thing, she doesn't understand that there is prejudice going on every day, all day long. It's not right.
School officials had this to say:
"Good afternoon. I can just comment we did have an incident at our school last week. However, I would like to emphasize that we do have a safe campus. I've been working with our staff, with my district office staff, community leaders, and parents, to ensure that we continue to keep our campus safe for all students, but I want people to know that our focus here is academic excellence for all students," said Dr. Susan McDonald, principal of Knight High School.
Pleajhia Mervin has been expelled from school. She will have to go to an expulsion hearing. She says she's even been accused of battering the security guard, and was ticketed for littering. Her mother says she has retained a lawyer from the Cochran firm and plans to sue the school district. A group of parents, students and community activists plan to protest outside the school on Friday morning.
But breaking a kid's arm and calling her a "nappy-head"?
Someone's going to get written up.
Watch the video at the link.
What do you think?
It’s going on somebody’s permanent record.
Rent a Cop Overreacted.
I wonder what they do to kids the are chewing gum?
Break their jaw?
Jesse and Al’s next gig.
Stupid for letting something like that get out of control when someone could have just called a janitor.
Watch for the Administration response: Ban birthday cake!
Why would Jesse and Al take on this case?
Apparently the mother was arrested when she demanded that the rent-a-cop be arrested lol
She doesn’t look, nor sound like the stereotypical image of an angry minority. I think they will get a big payday.
Pleajhia Mervin has been expelled from school.
I really have to ask... how does one pronounce "Pleajhia"?
This will prepare her for life in the real world; overzealous cops who think they are above the law and a justice system that usually agrees with them.
Was there a broken wrist? I didn’t see a cast on the video - all I saw was a sling (you can get those at Wal-Mart).
The ‘everything else dropped’ line in the news story makes it sound like a food fight.
Pleasure without the last 'r'? As in 'It sure be a pleasha to meet you'
Or perhaps Ple - a - gee - a?
I'm sure there will be medical evidence introduced at the trial showing the extent of the injuries.
That said, its very very easy to sprain, if not seriously injure someone when placing their arms behind their backs while restraining them, I have seen it first hand happen by accident, and if this guard was not properly trained (and even stupider to tackle the kid with the camera, not realizing this is a school and other kids have camera phones too) there will be a big payout.
I thought maybe it was "Plee - ay - Juh", or maybe "Plee - Shuh", or "Play - Juh".
The principal doesn’t even address the issue. That makes me suspicious.
The video certainly doesn’t make the security guards look very good.
name ping
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