Mentor HS parent: Teen son victim of 'police brutality'

MENTOR, Ohio -- Cell phone video has emerged appearing to show a Mentor police officer shoving and throwing a high school student to the ground.

Alicia Craft is outraged.

She said her 16-year-old son has bruises and scratches on his arm after what she calls "police brutality." According to Alicia, her son was taken down by two officers, pushed three times and then grabbed by the throat. The teen's face was then allegedly slammed on the ground.

Another Mentor High parent, Jeffrey Norwood, uploaded the video to Facebook after his child sent him the video.

It appears to show the tenth grader from Mentor High School being pushed and tackled by a school resource officer.

Craft said she thought her son was in the wrong, until she saw the video.

She said her 16-year-old son was coming out of school, with a vapor pen.

A Mentor police officer allegedly told him to hand it over. When he would not, she said that's when the officer pushed the teen.

Craft said her son never put his hands on the officer and was trying to back away.

"I was very very disrupted from that. I was just tore up from it," Craft told WKYC Channel 3's Hilary Golston by phone. "Just looking at the video of how they just treated my son and dogged him like they did."

Channel 3 received the following statement from Mentor Public Schools Tuesday evening:

Mentor Public Schools is investigating an incident that occurred between one of our Mentor High School students and a Mentor Police officer, who is assigned as our School Resource Officer, on school grounds on Tuesday, April 14. The officer involved will not be working at Mentor High School while the investigation is ongoing. While we cannot discuss individual cases involving our students publicly, safety and security remain our district's top priority.

Mentor Police said they're investigating. Lt. Dan Molnar told Golston anytime officers put hands on someone during an arrest, the incident is investigated. He said he could not comment more because the investigation is open and the alleged victim is a minor. But he could confirm a Mentor High student was arrested on campus today.

The police report was not completed in time for this report.

Lt. Molnar said a school resource officer and an off duty officer are typically on campus during school time.

Craft said her son was never charged with anything, but he received a 10-day suspension from the school. The school addressed that claim Wednesday saying no suspension was issued.

She says she does not want her child returning to Mentor High after the incident.

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