The View co-host Raven-Symoné had more to say on Thursday about a violent arrest of a South Carolina high school girl that was caught on tape, but made no mention of the online backlash against her regarding her previous comments on the incident.
The 29-year-old, who rose to fame as a child star on The Cosby Show, first expressed her opinions about the case on The View on Wednesday. A video, which has gone viral, shows a white police officer summoned to remove a 16-year-old female black student from a classroom at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C. He is seen approaching the girl, flipping her desk over and dragging her across the floor before arresting her, in front of her classmates, on a charge of "disturbing school."
Raven-Symoné, who has stirred controversy with her remarks on The View before, had said the student "was told multiple times to get off her phone" and that, while the officer's actions were "ridiculous," "you've got to follow the rules in school."
On Thursday, without mentioning the backlash, the co-host and her fellow panelists continued their discussion in wake of new information—that Fields was fired after the incident after from civil rights groups insisted he get the boot. The case is under federal investigation, NBC News reported.
"There's an issue with police officers in predominantly minority type of schools taking kids for disorderly conduct right to prison," Raven-Symoné said. "That is a problem. You're not even asking and figuring it out. That is a problem."
Field's lawyer told CNN the officer's actions were "justified and lawful throughout the circumstances of which he was confronted during this incident." Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott had told reporters that the girl had attacked Fields physically after he put his hands on her, CNN reported.
The outlet quoted a classmate as saying the confrontation began after her math teacher told the girl to give up her cell phone. She refused and subsequently refused orders to leave the classroom.
While the sheriff's department said there were no reports of injuries, the student's lawyer said she suffered a bruise on her head and also has to wear a cast on her arm, CNN said.
"Now, if a teacher cannot handle a specific situation, I want to know how are you trained? Are you not trained?" replied co-host Whoopi Goldberg. "You know kids, they're not like kids used to be. They're not like us."
"We're feisty," Raven-Symoné said.
"Very feisty. How do you combat that?" Goldberg said. "Until you give these guys some training for how to handle these kids, this is going to keep happening 'cause they sent for the police...If all the help a teacher has is calling the police, something is wrong."
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