The teenage girl who was slammed to the ground by a school resource officer at a Florida high school on Jan. 26 is suffering memory loss, according to her mother.
Jamesha Bracey, said her daughter 16-year-old Taylor Bracey is suffering from memory problems after the Liberty High School student was slammed to the ground by an Osceola sheriff’s deputy in a viral video that emerged last week.
“She’s having problems sleeping and she’s having a problem remembering,” Bracey said on Jan. 29. On the day of the disturbing encounter, paramedics were called to the scene, and Sheriff Marco López said “the juvenile is doing fine” at a news conference the day following the incident.
The teenager was knocked unconscious when her head hit the concrete after Deputy Ethan Fournier slammed her to the floor. Authorities say Fournier was trying to stop Bracey from fighting another student. The deputy, a 10-year veteran of the force, is on paid leave pending an investigation.
Last week, López announced that the investigation would be turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for “complete transparency.”
Benjamin Crump tweeted Thursday that he and Orlando attorney Natalie Jackson are representing the Bracey family.
“I am just angry that a trained professional, adult man feels that he has the right to pick up and slam a young Black girl,” Crump told WESH 2 News. He also said there was never a fight between Bracey and the other student. The teen’s mother said her daughter and the other student engaged in a “verbal altercation” but that there was no physical contact.
Jamesha Bracey said her daughter is no longer the teenager she once was. She told WFTV the teen is suffering from blurry vision and headaches, adding that she is “just traumatized by the ordeal.” She said all her daughter remembered after being slammed to the ground was waking up in the principal’s office.
“He is supposed to use the minimum force necessary. They don’t do this to other people’s children. Why do they feel like it’s OK to do it to our children?” Crump said.
He added that Fournier should no longer be a school resource officer or be permitted to work with children, and called for the deputy to be fired and charged.
“We demand that this officer be terminated because this is unacceptable that you can do this to our children and not be held accountable,” Crump told CBS News last week. “And we also want him to be charged with aggravated assault and battery on a child because Taylor was a child, he was a grown man.”
