The Galveston County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a deputy’s actions after a video surfaced on Facebook of a fight Tuesday in the halls of La Marque High School, Sheriff Henry Trochesset said.
In the video, two girls are seen fighting in a hallway. Suddenly, a deputy appears from off-camera and tackles the two girls to the ground, ending the fight. “We’re looking into what we’re seeing in the video and trying to determine if there’s any course of action that could have been taken differently,” Trochesset said.
Sharon Rivera, aunt and guardian of a 15-year-old girl involved in the fight, said her niece had a badly bruised elbow associated with the officer’s actions. She took her niece to John Sealy Hospital’s emergency room Tuesday night where she had X-rays taken, she said.
Rivera has not filed a complaint or report with the sheriff’s office or the school district, she said. “He tackled my kid like a football player,” she said. “If they would have trained him properly it could have been handled better.”
Her niece is out on a three-day suspension and could face an additional three- day, in-school suspension and a fine, she said.
Trochesset said officers assigned to schools attend a campus-based training course. However, he does not know whether the officer had attended the training because the contract with the La Marque Independent School District is new, he said.
“We’ve just had the contract for about a month and I’m not sure if all the officers have gone to training yet,” he said.
The office will investigate the event and determine whether the officer could have broken up the fight differently, he said. The deputy’s name has not been released.
La Marque Interim Superintendent Willis Mackey met with staff from the sheriff’s office Wednesday morning, Troschesset said.
The superintendent could not be reached for comment.
La Marque Independent School District board of managers earlier this year hired the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office for security. The sheriff’s office has a sergeant and three deputies working in La Marque schools, Trochesset said.
