Derby police: Actions against high school student justified | The Wichita Eagle

An investigation by Derby police says officers were justified and reasonable in actions against a student during a disturbance at the high school this past April.

The student's decision to talk to news reporters about the April 27 incident prompted Chief Robert Lee to order an internal investigation. The findings were released today.

Jonathan Villarreal, 17, said he was walking to the bus with some friends after school, when school resource officers confronted him about his "sagging" pants, pulled him to the ground, used a Taser on him and broke his arm. Villarreal denied he was resisting the officers.

Lee said in a statement today that Villarreal had been yelling racial slurs at a group of students.

The internal investigation showed "the student’s multiple uses of 'the n-word' voiced loudly toward a racially diverse gathering of nearby students and, according to one witness, directed at the students, and his physical attempts to obstruct the SROs in performance of their duties escalated the situation to a law enforcement matter," the report said.

Lee said neither the student nor his family filed a complaint over the incident or asked for the investigation.

"Injuries sustained by the student were unintended and a direct result of his decision to resist theSRO’s efforts to restrain him using techniques taught by the Kansas Law Enforcement TrainingCenter," the report concluded. "The level of force used was reasonable and necessary to overcome the resistance offered by the student."

Derby police asked the Sedgwick County District Attorney to review the case for possible criminal charges in juvenile court. So far, no charges have been filed against Villarreal.

City Manager Kathy Sexton requested the police department implement four changes in the SRO program in Derby schools.

They include:

Providing body cameras to officers to record incidents.

Increasing the number of periodic meetings with school administrators to enhance communication between the district and police department.

Developing a regular rotation of officers between the schools and rotating officers in and out of the SRO program.

More clearly defining the duties of SROs in the annual agreement with the school district.

Calls to Sunflower Community Action, which organized the press conference for Villarreal in April, were not returned today. The group, however, has advocated body cameras for Wichita area police, saying it will cut down on civil rights abuses by law enforcement agencies.

Read the news release:

Derby Police Internal Investigation