Pawtucket, Rhode Island
Tolman HS students demand firing of school cop in brutal assault on brothers
October 16, 2015 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Ivander and Tyler tell story of being brutalized by school guard, giving props to the protesters.
Wednesday, Oct. 14, Tolman High School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A school where over half of the students are Latino or Black and only about half of incoming freshman make it to their senior year. The halls were filled with students and teachers moving between classes when suddenly a school guard assaulted a 14-year-old student, brutally throwing him to the floor inside the school.
14-year-old Tyler was brought into the school office because he was upset and yelling that his backpack had been stolen. His older brother, 17-year-old Ivander, was with him. Because Ivander knew the school guard and thought he could reason with him, he stepped in the middle to try to calm the situation down and prevent Tyler from being arrested. Suddenly Ivander was under arrest, in handcuffs on the floor. The guard pepper-sprayed the two of them. As Tyler was standing there trying to get the pepper-spray out of his eyes, the guard put a chokehold around Tyler's neck and brutally threw him to the floor. The two brothers are now charged with resisting arrest—for being the victims of an unprovoked attack!
Thursday morning, Oct. 15: After the video of the assault went viral on social media, several hundred students and adults poured into the streets to demand the firing of the security guard and an end to police brutality. They challenged the police, yelled at them, and continued to protest even as people started to get arrested. Protesters were pepper-sprayed. Eight students and two adults were arrested. The students were right to protest, and the violent attack on them was outrageous.
Students have pledged they will not stop until the school guard is fired.
NOW is the time to be in the streets—without struggle there can be no change for the better.
Students at Tolman High in Pawtucket took to the streets to protest the brutality and arrests of Ivander and Tyler
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