An Orange County school resource officer was let go after a video surfaced last week showing him using excessive force on a student at Westridge Middle School.

The video shows deputy Harry Reid, taking a girl into custody at the Summerset apartments near the school by pulling the girl by the hair and then brandishing his baton at a crowd of nearby residents and students pleading for him to stop.

Reports have surfaced that the student was involved in a series of altercations between two groups of girls at the school over the past two weeks, on and off the school campus.

Sherriff Mina stated at a Friday press conference that it was clear that the officer acted excessively and that there was no need for him to touch the girl in question. Mina fired the deputy immediately and stated that the child was not arrested.

In September another Orlando-based school resource officer, Dennis Turner, made national headlines after arresting an eight-year-old student at her school. Turner had retired from the Orlando police force after 23 years in 2018 and had a record of excessive force including tasering a man five times who wasn’t even resisting.

School resource officers, or SROs, are sworn law enforcement officers that are armed and in uniform and placed in schools full-time. Schools are required by the State of Florida to have armed SROs working for them. Orange County Public Schools partners with nine local agencies to provide services for every one of their schools.

Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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