Parents and attorneys are accusing a Broward Sheriff's Office deputy of using excessive force on a student at Blanche Ely High School in Pompano Beach.
At a news conference Monday, attorneys said 17-year-old Jordan Bennett was having a verbal argument with another student at the school back on Feb. 21 when an officer tackled Bennett and slammed his head to the cafeteria floor.
The teen was taken to a hospital, where he received stitches and was left with a scar on his forehead. Part of the incident was captured on cell phone video.
"Don't tell me that you could not take my client who engaged in a verbal altercation with another student without leaving a permanent scar on his forehead. I don't buy it, the people of Broward County don't buy it, and enough is enough," attorney Jasmine Rand said at a press conference Monday. "If you keep coming for our babies, we're going to keep for your badges, period."
Rand likened Bennett's incident to the April incident in which 15-year-old Delucca Rolle was thrown on the ground, punched and his head slammed onto the pavement by a BSO deputy in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant in Tamarac.
"What happened to Lucca and Jordan are not isolated incidents, but part of a pattern and practice of the systemic abuse of our children at the hands of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office," Rand said.
Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said there will be no internal affairs investigation for the deputy, who has been with BSO for over 20 years.
"I have been watching what happened to Lucca Rolle on television and I wanted people to know that it was not just an isolated incident. What happened to Lucca happened to my son Jordan," mom Debbie Bennett said in a statement.
