A Texas police officer is being investigated after video showed him throwing a 12-year-old girl to the ground.
Cellphone video of the incident, which occurred on March 29 at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio, appears to show the officer trying to restrain the student before body slamming her onto the hard ground.
A loud thump can be heard as the she hits the ground. The officer then pulls her up and handcuffs her, before leading her away.
"She landed on her face!" a bystander calls out.
The girl, Janissa Valdez, was left swollen and bruised. She told local TV station KSAT the incident happened after she and another student met to discuss some comments the other student had reportedly made about her. She denies they were about to start a fight.
According to Janissa, a crowd of children gathered and that's when the police officer, identified as Joshua Kehm, approached.
"I was walking toward [the other girl], telling her, 'Let's go somewhere else,' because there was a lot of people," Janissa said. "That's when other people came over and the officer thought we were going to fight."
Janissa's mother Gloria Valdez told the San Antonio Express-News her daughter had been in fights before, and had been the victim of bullying at school.
She said Janissa was suspended from school for two days after the March 29 incident.
Mr Kehm has been put on administrative leave.
The San Antonio Independent School District is investigating the incident, which it said was "very disturbing".
"From what we understand, the incident began with two students being verbally aggressive with each other outside of school during dismissal," spokeswoman Leslie Price told BuzzFeed News.
"We are working to gather all of the details around this incident to ensure that we take the appropriate action."
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