Redlands CA May 5 2018 A 17-year-old Redlands East Valley High School senior was “slammed” face-first into a wall, twice, by a Redlands Unified security guard in a classroom confrontation that was captured on video.

The incident occurred in Jesse Aparicio’s fifth-period math class on April 25, when three security guards entered the classroom. “We need to take him with us,” a security guard tells the class on the video, which was shot by a teacher’s assistant.

“Security guard Marcos (Orozco) asked me ‘can you grab your things and come with us outside,’ ” Aparicio wrote in a complaint given to Redlands Unified School District. “I was confused at first but I complied with the orders. I started to put my homework in my backpack and then grabbed my water bottle to stand up. I was enclosed in my desk so standing up was awkward.”

In the video, Aparicio slowly stands up as Orozco says something to him. The security guard then steps around him and shoves the boy sideways into a decoration hanging on a classroom wall. Aparicio hits the wall loudly.

“I was shocked and not expecting this so I tensed up, which is when the officer said to release my bag, which I was not informed to leave,” Aparicio wrote in his statement. “I instantly let go of my bag and I was pushed again.”

On the video, Aparicio can be heard saying “stop.” The video ends there.

In his complaint, Aparicio said he then was taken out into the hallway and searched. He told the security guards he had a vape pen in his pocket. The guards then began handcuffing him.

“When I expressed I did not think this was right, security guard Bruce Larsen rushes from behind me, grabs my head and pushes me and said ‘oh, so he wants to resist, huh,’ and slams my head into the wall and forces the other cuff on my wrist,” Aparicio wrote. “I was led out of the math building by Larsen and Orozco. They turned me face down in handcuffs and basically dragged me across school into the security office, where I was mistreated and searched fully while in handcuffs.”

Aparicio said he asked that his parents be present during the search, but the guards denied his request. When he asked the guards why he was being searched and what their first and last names were, he reportedly was mocked by Larsen for asking.

At that point, the student wrote, Assistant Principal Laraissa Gill came running into the security office and appeared “panicked.” Aparicio said she immediately had the guards remove the handcuffs and she walked him to the health office.

Vanessa Aparacio talks about the April 25, 2018 incident at Redlands East Valley High School where her son, Jesse Aparacio a REV student, was seen being pushed against a wall, face-first, by a member of the campus security staff. The incident was video recorded on a cell phone. (Staff photo by Rick Sforza, Redlands Daily Facts/SCNG)

In an administrative statement later provided to the Aparicio family, Gill wrote that a cut was evident along Aparicio the boy’s jawline.

In his statement, Aparicio wrote that, in Gill’s office, security officer Gabriele Allen told him she had ordered him to be taken out of class, believing he was under the influence of prescription pills.

“When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they began to harass me,” he wrote.

Paramedics, who were already on campus for a separate incident, according to Aparicio, checked him out and pronounced him fit to return to class, as his parents were called.

Jesse’s mother, Vanessa Aparicio, then arrived.

“Mom stated multiple times that she was done with her son’s behavior and would be dropping him from our school immediately,” Gill’s statement reads in part.

The next day, the Aparicios were informed their son would be suspended for five days.

“Student admits to smoking marijuana before coming to school,” reads the letter from Gill, which was provided by the family to the Southern California News Group. “Student was found in possession of a vape pen, vial of wax, and lighter. Jesse acknowledges that they were his items.”

This was the second time Aparicio had been suspended this school year: In March, he was suspended for five days for possession and being under the influence of marijuana on Feb. 22.

At that time, he was also found to be in possession of a 3-inch locking blade knife, according to his disciplinary record. In Orozco’s written campus safety incident report, the knife — which was confiscated on Feb. 22 and which remains in the Redlands East Valley security office, according to the family — is cited as a reason to “keep eyes on his backpack and his person, because he is known to carry a weapon.”

In Orozco’s version of events, the four security officers were concerned for their safety, when they responded to an anonymous tip that Aparicio might have been under the influence of an unknown controlled substance.

Orozco described the boy as “disoriented and shaky.”

“I instructed him to not grab his backpack, that I was going to take his backpack for him. Jesse completely ignored my instructions. Concerned for my safety, I instructed Jesse again not to grab his backpack and that I was going to take his backpack for him. Jesse ignored me again and proceeded to grab his backpack with a strong firm grip.

He said he decided to grab Aparicio from the back of his arms and place him against the wall “for my safety and the student’s safety,” and “to prevent any further altercations inside the classroom.”

The Aparicios said they plan to talk to a lawyer next week.

 “I don’t feel like he deserved that treatment,” Vanessa Aparicio said Wednesday. “I don’t feel like they had any right to handcuff him unless he was really fighting them, but the video shows him standing up and complying with them.”

“Something’s got to be changed there,” the boy’s father, Danny Aparicio, said Wednesday. “I want to push it to that point.”

The family was told this week that Aparicio had enough credits to graduate, was now finished with school, and would not be allowed to return to campus or walk across the stage at graduation.

“As a student who has never been in this situation, I was scared and humiliated,” Aparicio’s statement reads in part. “I was treated (as) guilty, and assaulted before anyone even explained what was going on. I was bulled by two adult males in uniform. When I asked for basic information such as why I was being searched, I was just ignored and tossed around while in handcuffs.”

redlands daily

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