Hold police accountable at WBHS!

This campaign is to help the mother of a child attacked by the police at a high school. Her daughter was violently attacked for being late to class. The police who should have investigated the officer are now charging her as a criminal, her only crime was being scared and now faces charges for obstruction and resisting arrest. Due to the virus her mother is not working and can not afford to get her the legal help she deserves. My hope is that this campaign will assist in the finical burden now placed on her family. Recently, a video was uploaded on Facebook by user Angela Perkins Fernandez. Her daughter attends West Bend East High School in West Bend, Wisconsin and was attacked by Officer Bruss of the West Bend Police Department. In February of 2020 her daughter was attacked. The mother filed a complaint immediately but was denied justice. The video is now being showed with the delay being fear and the police department’s threats. The findings of their investigation was that no excessive force was used. The family is now sharing the information with the public at the insistence of friends and legal counseling. Her 14 year old, 105 lb daughter was late to class due to a mixup of periods. While walking down the hall with headphones in looking at her phone she was attacked. Officer Bruss claims of the West Bend Police Department claimed she asked her were she was supposed to be, but because of the music the child did not hear her and was unable to respond. Then Officer Bruss responded by grabbing her arm forcefully and began squeezing it without cause or warning, even tho no criminal act had been committed. When the startled child was grabbed she pulled away, Officer Bruss then immediately slammed her against a locker, pushing her up and then began wrapping her hands around her neck and began choking her. Officer Bruss cited the child with Obstruction and Resisting Arrest 2 days later. The child was not arrested so how can anyone be charged with resisting an arrest that never happened? This excessive use of force was just to subdue this girl simply for being late to class. After the day of incident Officer Bruss only had a 1 day leave. After the insistence of the child’s mother that there be no contact, Officer Bruss continued to harass the child at school and gave her another ticket claiming that there was a error of the date of the initial citation. This conduct, especially in a high school, based off of such a small offense, is unacceptable. School resource officers are meant to keep students safe from real threats, not to threaten or intimidate them. The goals of this petition are to: -Encourage the use of de-escalation tactics and non-forceful means of subduing and questioning students. Train on these tactics, if necessary. -Hold the officer(s) in question accountable for the inappropriate use of force. A petition was started by a recent graduate from the high school and is linked below. -Release more videos of the incident from other angles from the multiple other CCTV's to show what occured, in order to be transparent with students and the community about the officer's conduct. Release an accurate statement or information about the incident. Student's sense of safety and security, along with trust of School Resource Officers, is going to be heavily diminished by this incident. If WBHS really prioritizes student safety, they need to hold the officer accountable for their inappropriate use of force and be transparent about the incident. It saddens me to see students being victimized at school by those that are supposed to be protecting them. Petition https://www.change.org/p/west-bend-school-district-hold-police-accountable-at-wbhs-51f1a6dc-b012-4728-86dc-facbb5c243c4?recruiter=962454928&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=tap_basic_share&recruited_by_id=535ae610-7988-11e9-9347-c1e7fc192df8&utm_content=fht-22840908-en-us%3Av2