A video of a Tennessee school resource officer (SRO) dragging a student down the bleachers by his hair and neck has gone viral, sparking outrage across the country.
The officer in the video, Tyler McRae, stepped down after his near hour-long tussle with East Ridge High School student 18-year-old Tauris Sledge surfaced online.
The officer was called into the gym to de-escalate a verbal altercation between the student and the gym teacher. Sledge informed the teacher that he did not want to participate in kickball because he did not feel well enough. However, shortly after, Sledge was seen playing basketball. He then accused the gym teacher of racism and of disrespecting him.
“So I come to him and said to hold up, ‘you said you was sick,’ and he said, ‘Don’t approach me like that.’ I said, ‘I’m a teacher; I can talk to you how I want to,'” the coach told the SRO.
“He sort of bucks me and come at me into my face,” the coach added. “And he won’t talk to me, and he says you’re racist mother f-cker. I’ll kick your f-cking a–.”
“I was feeling sick,’ Sledge told the teacher. “If I’m feeling sick, I’m gonna be up there on the bleachers. What [are] you not understanding.”
McRae told the student to lower his voice while placing his hand on Sledge’s shoulder. Sledge then tells the officer to remove his hand and begins walking toward the bleachers.
“All right, man, take your backpack off. Don’t resist me, dude. Don’t resist me,” the officer can be heard saying.
McRae’s bodycam then shows him grabbing Sledge by his hair and yanking him down the bleachers.
“You’re still going to resist?. You want some more dude? That’s fine because I have a whole can,” he says and maces Sledge.
The teen, obviously in pain, is then heard saying, “Why are you harassing me?” I can’t breathe.”
Sledge was arrested after and charged with disorderly conduct, assault, and resisting arrest.
McRae has not faced any charges.
The courts approved a request from McCrae’s attorney to have him removed as a school resource officer at East Ridge High School and back on street patrol. An internal investigation has been started into McRae’s actions, according to Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garret.
