A security guard beats and drags a teenage girl during a game. I want you to put this picture up full mass here. I'm gonna give you the background. Atlanta Black Star did a great job reporting this, the details. A security guard at Chicago's Thornridge High School has now been fired [00:00:20] after his physical altercation with a 15-year-old student. A girl, he and the school allege, spat in his face during a school basketball game, okay, that's the allegation. The teen and her mother, however, tell a completely different story. [00:00:39] And instead of the guard being fired, they want the security guard to be arrested. So the 15-year-old, Toshiya Statam, was hospitalized on Friday, December 1st, after the security guard grabbed her from the bleachers. [00:00:58] Let's put up the picture, dragged her down metal seating and started beating her in front of everybody, okay? So there's no ambiguity about what happened. It clearly was an adult male or an adult security [00:01:17] guard fighting, beating a teenage student. The freshman says the guard asked her to take off her hoodie. She further alleges that the two exchanged words, she was asked to leave the game. [00:01:32] I said, what do I have to leave the game for, question mark, she asked him, according to her interview with Fox 32. That's when they all came up to the top of the bleacher. He was in my face screaming, and we were going back and forth. While in the hospital, doctors sent her to get several [00:01:52] CT scans to check if she suffered any serious neurological injuries. Nothing was found, but the young girl did experience trauma, showing reporters that the guard ripped three braids [00:02:10] from her scalp, leaving a bald patch. So the mother, let's put up the mother, her name is Tosha Statam, wants the security guard arrested, telling Fox 32, quote, what made you think it was acceptable to put your hands and [00:02:28] feet on my child not one time, but several times? Adding, she has already filed a police report with the Dalton Police Department and pushed for charges to be filed against the guard. Thornton Township High School District 205 released a statement that read, in part, quote, during the incident, [00:02:45] a student who was attending a basketball game allegedly spat in the face of a security guard when he attempted to escort her from the gymnasium. In response to this unacceptable behavior, the security guard reacted inappropriately, deviating from his training. The safety and well-being of students is our utmost priority, and [00:03:02] any actions that compromise their welfare will not be tolerated, the statement read. According to the district, Prudential Security, the vendor who supplied the school with the guard, quote, has taken swift action by dismissing the security guard from his position effective immediately. [00:03:19] We deeply regret any distress or harm caused to those affected by this unfortunate event. Despite the firing of the guard, the school and district still held Toshiya accountable for the alleged role in the alterations, suspending her for ten days. [00:03:35] The district did not provide video of the alleged spitting on the guard, nor did any student come forward with any footage that shows the act in question. All of the footage that was seen shows him pummeling the teen, [00:03:52] interrupting the game, and the crowd frantically dispersing. Let's put them up full mass. You got Dr. Nathaniel Cunningham Jr. on the left is the superintendent of Thornton Township High School and District 205. And then Dr. Justin Moore on the right is the principal of the actual high school. [00:04:10] And let me say this very, very clearly, I'm a former high school teacher. There is absolutely no circumstance for an adult to engage that way with a child, none, none. You are the professional for a reason, you are the adult for a reason. [00:04:28] If it's retaliation, even if it's a police officer, we say, no, you don't retaliate against somebody. You do not handle children that way, ever, regardless of what you think may have happened. Now, there was no issue of self-defense, there was no issue of we need to control an individual. [00:04:45] This was a beating, according to everybody who provided statement, commentary, and also video. It was simply a person who got mad and decided to beat up a 15-year-old girl, okay, pure and simple. Why has the security officer not been arrested? [00:05:00] I guarantee you, if that security officer was at, I don't know, Buckhead High, that security guard would've been arrested on the spot if he did that to a 15-year-old white child. But this is the dehumanizing dynamic, everybody's acting as if we need to ask questions, we need to do an investigation. [00:05:19] No, a grown adult beat up a 15-year-old child in front of over 100 people and did not get arrested, you understand? All right, we're gonna stay on top of it. Ricky, thoughts? >> Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's really bad, 15 years old, and again, [00:05:38] here's another young lady have to have that trauma for the rest of her life. And then the thing about it is a part of you wanna say the security guard should have called the police. But hell, that would have probably turned out worse [00:05:54] if the wrong- >> Yeah, yeah. >> Police officer come. So it's like, how do you handle a situation like that? Hey, come on out, call your mother, or what's your mother number, and give me your phone a second. But nothing justifies him grabbing her, taking her down the steps. [00:06:12] Maybe follow her to the car and see who pick her up and try to figure out. Or get another school official to come in contact with the parents or whatever to let them know that there was some behavioral issues. And then what is the issue with wearing a hoodie to a game? [00:06:29] >> Speaker 1: Exactly, that part, a hoodie? >> Speaker 4: And what's wrong with it? Even if the game was on the inside or whatever, people wear their hoodie. I wear my hoodie, I wear my hoodie on the plane because the AC vent is right there. Everybody wear their hoodie, all athletes, black and white. [00:06:46] What is the deal with the hoodies? >> Speaker 1: Yeah, you're absolutely correct, the whole cause and effect of this is ridiculous, a hoodie?