SAN FRANCISCO — A San Francisco Bay Area school district has fired a high school security officer who faces a felony charge after he repeatedly slapped a handcuffed, wheelchair-bound student suffering from cerebral palsy and dumped him onto the floor, authorities said.

The May 19 attack at Oakland High School was caught on surveillance footage that shows the officer wheeling the student down a hallway, leaning down toward him and then winding up and striking him three times before pushing him to the ground. The officer appears ready to strike the student another time before another officer grabs pushes him away.

The district identified the officer as Marchell Mitchell and said on Thursday he was fired immediately after the incident. Mitchell pleaded not guilty on May 22 to a charge of corporal injury to a child, said Stephanie Chan, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office.

Mitchell, was encouraging students lingering in a hallway to go to class on the morning of May 19 and began wheeling the victim when he either refused or was slow to move on, school Principal Matin Abdel-Qawi said in a letter to parents.

The student attempted to slap away Mitchell’s hands, prompting Mitchell to handcuff him, Abdel-Qawi said. Mitchell was continuing to wheel the student to class when the student spit on him and Mitchell attacked.

Francisco Martinez, 17, admitted spitting at the officer, but he said he had no other way to defend himself.

Copy the Story Link

Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.