School Guard Threatens To Kill Student Leaving With Excused Absence: ‘You’re Gonna Get Shot’
Pasco County FL Feb 11 2020
As William Miller tried to drive out of the high school parking lot, two adults stopped him, blocking the exit lane with a golf cart.
A school resource officer employed by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office and a school discipline assistant told him he couldn’t leave the campus in New Port Richey, Fla., on the morning of Dec. 17 or he’d be classified as truant and suspended.
William, 17, had just dropped off a friend at River Ridge High School before heading to a morning orthodontist appointment. The boy told the adults he had an excused absence and would return later in the day with a note. After arguing for several minutes, he tried to pull his gray Ford F-150 around the golf cart to leave.
“You’re going to get shot, you come another f—— foot closer to me,” the deputy said. “You run into me, you’ll get f—— shot.”
The tense interaction played out on a body camera video that William’s mother, Nedra Miller, shared on Facebook last month. Miller told the Tampa Bay Times on Friday that she had called the school to excuse her son’s absence in advance and that he didn’t want to interrupt her at work.
The school suspended William from Dec. 17 to Jan. 9, his mother said. Then, River Ridge High School expelled him permanently.
Despite the dire consequences for William, the two adults involved in the interaction have faced few repercussions. The school district told the Times it is not investigating the incident. The sheriff’s office opened an internal review to determine whether the deputy, who has not been named, violated any policies. However, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office told the newspaper the deputy has not been suspended and continues to work at the high school.
“All three were acting like children and all three are wrong,” Miller told the Times. “But the cop more so. He’s just flat out not okay to be around children. I was shocked that an officer of the law working with children would speak to my son that way.”
The Pasco County school district and sheriff’s office did not immediately return requests for comment early Monday.
Armed police officers have become common fixtures on school grounds nationwide in recent years, as mass shootings have grown more frequent and deadlier. In Florida, where William goes to school, lawmakers voted last year to allow teachers to carry guns at school in the wake of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people.
The tolerance of guns on campus has not been universally welcomed by students, parents or teachers. Supporters, including the Trump administration, say armed guards would prevent mass shootings. Critics argue the presence of guns would actually lead to an increased risk of violence at schools.
When lawmakers first allowed school employees to be armed in Florida in 2018, the Times reported the legislation did nothing to bar school employees who had been disciplined for threats or violence from bringing guns to class. At least 19 times, employees had been formally disciplined by the state for making threats, illegally using firearms or harming people at school.
In Florida and across the United States, legally carried guns have been involved in many headline-making incidents on school campuses.
A school resource officer in a Chicago suburb threatened to kill a student while grabbing his neck in November 2018, then drew his gun and pointed it at several students after breaking up a fight, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
In William’s western Florida school district, a school resource officer accidentally fired his service weapon while it was holstered inside a middle school cafeteria last April.
Two students were shot by police officers at Wisconsin high schools in two days in December. One refused to drop a gun he had brought to school and the standoff ended when a police officer shot him. The other student stabbed a school resource officer, who then fired one shot.
On Jan. 31, a school resource officer threatened students and cussed at them after breaking up a fight near a North Miami high school campus. On a cellphone video recorded by students nearby, the officer is shown placing her hand on her gun.
“I’ll shoot all your asses,” she said. The officer was placed on administrative leave last week, pending an internal investigation.
“The behavior portrayed in this video is inappropriate for any person associated with Miami-Dade County Public Schools,” school district spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego told The Washington Post in a statement. “The District takes great pride in promoting core values, such as respect and restraint, to students and we expect employees to lead by example.”
