Deputy Ben Fields "Isn't Racist" to Sheriff Lott: Spring Valley High School Student Agrees

Deputy Ben Fields isn't a racist if you ask Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott and some students at Spring Valley High School. Earlier this week the Sheriff stated that Fields has been in a relationship with an African-American woman for some time now, and says the viral video of the assault of an African-American teenaged girl is being looked into. But just because he is dating an African-American woman, some have questioned if his reactions had anything to do with race.

OFFICER BEN FIELDS the cop in question #SpringValleyHigh  #SpringValleyHighAssault #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Iwdbe1geKc

— liza sabater (@blogdiva) October 26, 2015

Sheriff Lott claimed that Deputy Fields' actions had nothing to do with race. He claims that the young girl refused to listen to her teacher, and an administrator.

"Deputy Ben Fields has been dating an African-American woman for quite some time." The Sheriff also said, "if that had any bearing on the arrest, it would have been in a positive way, not a negative one."

He added, "Even though she refused to abide by the directions of the teacher, the school administrator and also the verbal command of our deputy – I'm looking at what our deputy did," Lott claimed after video showed Officer Fields pulling the young girl from her desk.

Sheriff Lott isn't the only person who feels like the Fields isn't a racist, there were some Spring Valley High School students who took up for the officer. Spring Valley High School student, Reginald Seabrooks said the the girl wouldn't put her phone away when asked by the teacher, and an administrator.

"The officer in this is a cool dude, he is not Racist!!!. Girl was asked her to put the phone away, but told teacher no and Administrator was called and asked her to come to his office. She told him no, he then called the resource officer. When he got there he asked her nicely to get up. Over and over he did nothing wrong. They asked her to get up but she wanted to show off. To some it looks bad but she wanted to prove that she was bad."

Seabrooks was one of the students who recorded the officer pulling the teen out of her desk. Since Monday's viral video incident, the Fields has been fired. Sheriff Lott claims that the part where Officer Fields threw the student across the classroom was the wrong way to handle the situation.

"He picked a student up, and he threw the student across the room; that is not a proper technique," Sheriff Lott stated in Wednesday's news conference. "Deputy Ben Fields did wrong this past Monday, so we're taking responsibility for that," he finished.

MStars News wants to know, do you think race played a part of this out of control incident in the classroom? Do you think Officer Fields form of arrest was too violent? Do you believe he should have been fired?