A white South Carolina woman caught on camera harassing a Black teen has pleaded guilty to assault and battery for striking the young man and telling him and his friends they “didn’t belong” at the neighborhood pool.
Stephanie Sebby-Strempel, 38, pleaded guilty Monday to the June assault and was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, the Associated Press reported. In viral video, Sebby-Strempel is seen shouting at the 15-year-old and telling him to leave the Summerville pool.
Stephanie Sebby-Strempel was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine for the June assault. (Rhe Capers / Facebook video screenshot)
The teenager told police he and his friends were on their way out when the former Rodan + Fields saleswoman started accosting them and threatened to call police if they didn’t leave.
“There are three numbers I can dial: 9-1-1. Get out,” Sebby-Strempel shouts in the video taken by the victim. Moments later, she’s seen swatting at the young man’s cellphone and hurling racial slurs before hitting him several times in the face and chest.
The viral incident earned her the nickname “Pool Patrol Paula.”
Sebby-Strempel later resisted arrest and was charged after shoving an officer into a wall and biting another so hard that she drew blood.
“Pool Patrol Paula” is among a laundry list of white women who’ve been publicly shamed after being filmed harassing Black people for completely innocuous reasons. Earlier this year, Alison Ettel, better known as#PermitPatty, was forced to quit her cannabis company after video of her calling police on an 8-year-old Black girl selling water without a permit went viral. Then in May, Oakland woman Jennifer Schulte was dubbed #BBQBecky after calling the cops on a group of Black friends barbecuing in a park.
