Recently, a video of a teacher being forcefully removed from a certain school surfaced, and has been making rounds on social media. The video shows a rapid response team, very aggressively lifting up the female teacher in order to ‘remove’ her from the school premises. According to reports, the teacher was suspended on May 18 2022 on allegations set by the school, however the teacher was found not guilty of said allegations by the Industrial Relations Court on July 5 2022.

Now this video has become a trending topic and most people are outraged at the escalation of the entire situation. A lot of people were outraged at the fact that she was being manhandled by a group of men. With the nature of the allegations, and her suspension, was the amount of excessive force that was used completely necessary? The school argues that she was not permitted to be found on the school premises due to her suspension, but, the teacher only came to bid farewell to her colleagues and students. Did she really pose as a violent threat or disturbance to the point of the school management calling in a rapid response team to roughly remove her the way they did? Just for clarity, according to a security firm, upon request or as response to an immediate threat, a rapid response team is dispatched immediately to survey the situation and secure the area. They mainly respond to threats and attacks. Rapid response is different from your regular security because they are trained and equipped to neutralise an immediate, violent threat as opposed to your regular security guard. I understand the school not wanting the teacher on school grounds, but I’m sure they could have found a much better way of removing her off the premises rather than treating her like a terrorist that had snuck their way in. To be fair, the use of excessive force is sometimes necessary and is permitted under specific circumstances like self-defence or the defence of an individual or group of people. However, it is specific circumstances. Questions also need to be asked to relay if excessive force is absolutely necessary. Does the suspect pose an immediate threat of danger to bystanders or officers? Would it have been sufficient (and was it possible) to tackle the person? What is the context of the situation? What is the suspect being accused of and being removed for? These are the important questions that we need to ask, but that the rapid response team should have also asked, instead of just blindly responding to a request by the school’s management team. I think for a long time we have heard of police brutality, and or other instances. But for me, this case hit a little too close to home, because it showed a lot of us that it really could happen to any one of us. Doesn’t matter your gender, race, or even situation. According to NOLO Legal, excessive force by police or security officers can be considered as a form of battery. They define battery as “a tort, which is a civil wrong committed by one person against another. It is the act of intentionally making offensive physical contact with another person without the other person’s consent. The “intent” merely means that the offender made the physical contact on purpose.” The school management team knew what they were doing, calling a rapid response team to physically and purposely remove a teacher that went to say goodbye to people that she loved and cared about.

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