The girl, Pleajhai Mervin, told Fox News LA that she was bumped while queuing for lunch and dropped the cake. After being ordered to clean it up and then re-clean the spot three times, she attempted to leave the area out of embarrassment but was jumped on by security who forced her onto a table, breaking her wrist in the process.
Pleajhai also says that the security guard in the picture yelled “hold still nappy-head” at her, which at the time she did not know was a racist comment.
And who says school can’t teach you anything? A whole new racial slur and all it took was a broken wrist. But wait, that’s not all. Here’s what happened when her mother complained, lawyer in tow:
In an even more shocking development the security guards later had the mother of the girl arrested after she sought out an attorney and demanded that the guard be arrested, telling her that if she wanted the guard detained then she herself would also be charged with battery after she allegedly pushed the guard and an assistant principal of the school. She has also been suspended from her job at another school in the county.
The school expelled Pleajhai for five days before then having her arrested for battery and for littering (the dropping of the cake). Then they had the pupil who captured the video arrested along with his sister who was merely present at the scene.
Yes, there’s video, from the local Fox affliate here and here. So of course they arrested the student who videoed their assault, for making them look bad.
Meanwhile Knight High School has attempted some damage limitation, by spreading the story that the assault was the result of a food fight, as seen e.g. in news item from abc7. As if that would justify this assault, not that it’s true. The Knight High School (37423 70th Street East ? Palmdale, CA 93552 ? (661)533-9000 if you want to congratulate them on their security) must be hoping that smearing the victim will get them off the hook; unfortunately previous experiences have shown me that for a lot of people it does. If there’s even the smallest possibility that the victim of an assault by authority figures has “done something” to “provoke” the attack, no matter how ridiculous, it’s enough for some people to blame the victim. We saw the same happen with Andrew Meyer, where people laughed as he was tasered, so we’ll definately see this now the victim is female and Black.
Palau
October 2, 2007 at 8:32 amAre these security guards or police? What are their powers of arrest anyway?