BALTIMORE (AP) — Two Baltimore schools police officer have been charged after cellphone video surfaced showing one of them slapping and kicking a teen at a school while the second officer stood by.
Anthony Spence, 44, and Saverna Bias, 53, turned themselves in Tuesday night, city police announced in a statement Wednesday morning. Both are charged with second-degree assault and misconduct in office. Spence is also charged with second-degree child abuse. Online court records show both posted bond and were released Wednesday.
Spence acknowledged in a telephone conversation with The Associated Press on Friday that he was the subject of a criminal investigation into the actions captured on cellphone video last week at the REACH Partnership School. Spence said last week that he wouldn’t discuss the matter because the news media would “twist” the story.
“Right now I’m the bad guy,” he said. He referred questions to his lawyer, Michael Davey, who didn’t immediately respond to a phone call Wednesday morning.
City police began a criminal investigation into last week’s incident at the school after the eight-second clip surfaced. The school district has its own police force separate from city police. The school police department is handling the internal investigation and city police said in the statement Wednesday that case is now in the hands of the city’s State’s Attorney’s Office’s public integrity unit.
School officials initially said officers responded to a reported intruder, and that the young man in the video wasn’t a REACH student. On Friday, the school system said in a statement that he is “believed to be a student on the school’s roster,” as asserted by his lawyer, Lauren Geisser. Geisser has said he’s a 10th-grader.
On Monday, Baltimore City Schools CEO Gregory Thornton met with parents to discuss the video and said he will review training and selection of school police officers.
The two officers were put on paid administrative leave. School Police Chief Marshall Goodwin is also on leave, but officials have not said why.
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“Right now I’m the bad guy,”…and given that video I think it’s going to stay that way. And for goodness sake can’t they come up with better lies? They thought the kid was an intruder? That’s not credible but so what? It doesn’t license you to beat him like that.
This tendency to post LEO at schools is just wrong. Schools are supposed to be a classical liberal learning environment, not an authoritarian prison camp. Just the other day I talked to my son about LEOs, and told him to stay away from them. If ever in a situation where they question you to stay silent unless a parent is present. I informed him that it’s legal, and expected for police to lie to you to build a case, whether you are innocent or not.
Seriously. I’ve had the same conversation with my child. But she’s half Hispanic and looks white. I can only imagine what the parent of black children must have to tell them, not only to protect them from the legal problems that come with LEOs on campus, but also the very real possibility of being put at risk of physical abuse or worse.
Fix the training.
Fix training and put on UNpaid administrative leave. I am all for unions (I am assuming there is one for these guys and they are members), but if training is not adequate, maybe a financial penalty will motivate them to stop abusing students.