According to her family’s lawyer, the teenager was beaten unconscious.
A Florida teenager who was seen in a viral video this week and beaten by a school resource officer was ‘traumatized’ by the incident, her family said.
Taylor Bracey, 16, a student at Liberty High School in Kissimmee, suffers from memory loss, headaches, blurred vision and lack of sleep, her mother told reporters at a news conference on Saturday.
“She’s depressed, I’m depressed. We’re all traumatized by what happened,” Jamesha Bracey said outside the sheriff’s office in Osceola County. Deputy Ethan Fournier, the school resource officer involved in the incident, is employed. “I think if it was a white girl, would it have happened to the white child?”
According to civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who represents the family, Taylor was beaten unconscious during the incident and suffered a concussion.
“He is supposed to be trained,” he said. ‘It is predictable that children will get into quarrels at school. You are not supposed to knock them unconscious. You are supposed to be the person who knows how to aggravate the situation. It’s just amazing. ‘
“It’s the maturation of black children – that our children are seen as adults,” he added. “No, no, it was a child.”
The incident took place Tuesday in the school’s hallway when Fournier tried to break a fight between Taylor and another student, according to the Sherce’s Office in Osceola County.
“The student does not comply with legal instructions,” Sheriff Marcos Lopez said at a news conference on Wednesday.
On the day of the incident, Jamesha Bracey said her daughter told her that some girls wanted to jump after school. ‘
After Taylor’s head audibly hit the concrete floor, the video of the incident shows Fournier handcuffing her while students watch.
According to Crump, Fournier did not provide assistance. Taylor received medical help at the scene, Lopez said.
The sheriff’s office handed over a criminal investigation from the deputy to the Florida law enforcement department “to ensure it is completely independent of our agency,” Lopez said. “We want to make sure this is a complete, thorough investigation without my involvement in this matter.”
Fournier was placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. He has no history of misconduct other than minor property damage, Lopez said.
Fournier was also the girls’ flag football coach at Liberty High and will not be coaching, pending the outcome of the investigation, the Osceola school district confirmed to ABC News.
“It’s been a tough week for Liberty High students and staff,” Osceola School District spokeswoman Dana Schafer said in a statement to ABC News. “The entire staff and administration of Liberty High School are still committed to ensuring that we have a safe and positive learning environment for all students.”
The school district is cooperating with the investigation, she said.
School aid officers are not employees of the school district, but rather through their law enforcement agency.
Community leaders who joined Taylor’s family on Saturday called for a law to be repealed in Florida that requires at least one school resource officer at every school in the state.
They also demanded that Fournier be fired and not work elsewhere as a school resource officer in the future, and that the investigation be led by a community task force, and not under law enforcement.
Taylor’s parents are considering sending their daughter back to school, Crump said.
“It would be a family decision, but think about it – are you going to send your daughter back to school with a school official who had to protect her but beat her body and knocked her unconscious?” he said. “How confident do you as a parent feel about sending your child back to that environment?”
ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin contributed to this report.