What started as a suspension for breaking a Nashville high school’s dress code ended with a Black father on the ground in a chokehold and both he and his daughter in police custody Monday.
In a 12-second video of the incident Scoop Nashville obtained, a white school resource officer can be seen on the floor holding Waymon Arms, 40, in a chokehold while a Black policewoman can be seen trying to put the man in handcuffs.
The incident started when Arms and his 16-year-old daughter visited Stratford High School the next school day following the girl’s Friday suspension, according to Yahoo Lifestyle.
It is unclear what the dress code violation was or why the student was suspended. The school district’s handbook notes that dress code violations do not result in out-of-school suspension or expulsion. But when she showed up at the campus with her father, they were both asked to leave multiple times, Nashville police told Yahoo.
They instead headed toward classrooms and argued with school officials, police said.
“It was at this point that School Resource Officers George Patonis and Akira McSwain attempted to intervene,” the Metro Nashville police department said in a statement to Yahoo Lifestyle.
Officer Patonis tried to arrest the father, police said.
“Arms resisted arrest for about four minutes during which he went to the ground and placed both of his arms under his body, presumably to avoid being handcuffed,” police said in the statement.
The teenager is also accused of kicking McSwain and administrative personnel before both she and her father were taken into custody, Yahoo reported.
Arms didn’t report any injuries to an intake nurse at the Metro jail, police told Yahoo.
He was released on a $1,500 bond and charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.
Arms’ daughter was charged in Juvenile Court with two counts of assault against school administrators, two counts of assault against police, disorderly conduct and trespassing, Yahoo reported.
