When this nation rose up in protests and riots following George Floyd’s murder last year, the intent of the American people was multi-faceted.
Yes, we wanted justice. We wanted to see Derek Chauvin and his accomplices held accountable for the life they took. But we also wanted reform. We did not want to see Floyd’s death go down in vain, swept under the rug, as more and more people (namely people of color) continued to suffer and die at the hands of a broken system.
THAT is why we took to the streets. It was high time for people to learn and do better.
And yet here we are.
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The Raleigh News & Observer reports, “Staff at Panther Creek High School in Cary responded to a fight between two students during lunch on Tuesday, Principal Greg Decker said in the letter to the school community. Footage recorded by students and the school’s security cameras appears to show a staff member restraining a student by placing his knee on the student’s neck, Decker said.”
On Friday, the school district publicly confirmed that assistant principal Jonathan Chang was effectively suspended from his position without pay.
“In addition to the employee with his knee on the student’s neck, the roughly 30-second video appears to show a uniformed officer cuffing the student’s hands behind his back on a patch of dirt outside of the school,” the local publication goes on to report. “At no point in the video does the officer stop the employee from placing his knee on the student’s neck.”
According to the report, the officer belongs to the Cary Police Department, the very same entity that’s now investigating the occurrence.
President of the Raleigh-Apex NAACP, Gerald Givens Jr., described the incident as “very disturbing,” especially given that the nation as a whole is still reeling from George Floyd’s untimely death in the Minneapolis streets, at the hand of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for a total of nine minutes, take his life.
Jayla Walker, a Panther Creek High School senior who launched the activist group Teens Dreams following Floyd’s murder, spoke with WNCN-TV, on the heels of the incident at her school.
“It is kind of uncomfortable to walk around the school with school pride,” she said, going on to call the incident “absolutely insane.”
“How are these people we look up to and we are supposed to feel safe around?” Walker said in a statement to WRAL. “How does this occur? Everyone is going crazy right now I think.”
WRAL also spoke to one parent who stated that the assistant principal’s suspension is “just not enough.”
“He needs to be removed from the school and they need to look into criminal charges,” the parent asserted to the local publication.
You can watch raw footage of the incident here:
Panther Creek High School,
Whether he is a domestic terrorists?!
Or a 🦝?! Unless they live under a rock they saw the knee on George Floyd’s neck & apparently they don’t give AF!!! pic.twitter.com/vy6vv0jIzt— Truth Be Told (@TruthBe83976522) December 9, 2021
And WRAL’s reporting on it here:
Featured image via screen capture
