HOMESTEAD, FLA. (WSVN) - A student could be seen kicking a school resource officer in the head after a fight at Homestead Senior High School.
In a video posted to Only in Dade’s Instagram page Thursday, the SRO could be seen on the ground restraining another student, whose mother later identified as 17-year-old Diamond Brady.
Moments later, another student with a pink backpack, later identified as 18-year-old Shardae Yvonne Pittman, could be seen trying to intervene.
When another person tried to move Pittman away from the officer, she kicked the SRO in the face, which the officer seemed to shake off.
Sharnelle Lee, Brady’s mother, expressed her frustration after the video surfaced.
“I’m highly upset about it. I’m pissed,” Lee said.
Lee said her daughter had been jumped by other girls in a fight minutes before the video was recorded.
She added that her daughter and the student who kicked the officer were arrested and taken to the Juvenile Assessment Center.
Lee said, “Why did she get jumped? Why, when the police officer has my daughter on the ground, allow the other young lady to spit in her face? And then the other young lady who spit in her face put it on social media. I want to see the other young lady’s mom because how it took place, no one ever acknowledged me about it. My daughter has a lot going for herself, getting ready to go off to the military. Here it is she has a record because she was defending herself.”
Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Edwin Lopez said on Twitter, “It is a shame that while this officer was attempting to break up a fight and maintain a safe learning environment, this adult student acted in a cowardly way rather than fall in line with MDCPS values.”
M-DCPS released a statement to 7News which read:
“Any behavior that endangers the well-being of students and staff at Miami-Dade County Public Schools will not be tolerated, will be handled swiftly, and result in severe consequences. When that behavior involves battery on a police officer, as it did today, offenders will be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Students will also be disciplined according to the Code of Student Conduct, up to, and including, expulsion.”
Lee told 7News the fight began sometime before 11 a.m. She was released from the Juvenile Assessment Center, Thursday night.
“She’s the victim. Of course she’s the victim,” Lee said. “They just charged her with resisting arrest with officer. She never did anything to the officer. I asked the officer to show me the video. The video was never shown to me. Two girls jumped my daughter, so apparently, she was defending herself.”
Pittman faces charges of battery on a police officer and interference with an educational institution.
She was transferred to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $5,500 bond.
Pittman was released on bond just before 5 a.m., Friday.
Brady, meanwhile, appeared in court on Friday morning and ordered to home detention.
She is scheduled to appear back in court on May 15.
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