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Pasco SRO's body camera shows student's refusal to leave cafeteria before takedown

"Come here," says the school resource officer, mentioning she's on video. She refuses. "I don't want you to get in any trouble. ... Right now, you're creating a disruption."
Credit: Pasco County Sheriff's Office
Body cam footage from a Sunlake High School SRO shows the officer asking a student to leave the cafeteria. When she refuses and raises her arm, the officer takes her down to the floor.

WARNING: Some language in the body camera video might be offensive to some viewers.

LAND O' LAKES, Fla. -- Eight minutes of camera footage in the moments before a Sunlake High School student was thrown to the floor by a school resource officer shows a student refusing to comply with an order.

The unidentified female student was asked to leave the cafeteria and go back to class by school officials Tuesday afternoon. When she stayed, officer Rich Stackon was called.

"Hello, what's going on?" said Stackon, an officer with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office since 1994. She says, "I can talk to you right here."

The footage showing what happened before, during and after the incident, is much more than a 20-second clip circulating on social media, said Sheriff Chris Nocco, adding it's being released in the interest of transparency.

Stackon, who sounds friendly in his first few moments with the student, asks several times for the student to leave. Stackon is seen walking out of the cafeteria in an attempt to guide her out, Nocco says.

"Come here," says Stackon, mentioning she's on video. She refuses. "I don't want you to get in any trouble. ... Right now, you're creating a disruption."

At one point, Nocco says the student raises her arm toward the officer. The video appears to show at some point, the student made a grab for her backpack. Stackon grabs her arm and takes her down to the floor with a thud -- an "arm bar takedown," Nocco said -- much to the "oohs" of the other students in the cafeteria.

Nocco says Stackon did as he was trained to do and chose an option that was the least impactful of the many he could have used, including pepper spraying her. The goal is to "get her out as quickly as possible," Nocco said.

"The more you delay it, the more chaos you create," he said.

Watch: Full press conference with Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco

Stackon worked Wednesday in a different capacity and not at Sunlake High School, Nocco said. The sheriff said he's comfortable getting him back into the school at the appropriate time.

Although the family of the student told media she suffered various injuries from the takedown, Nocco at the time of the press conference Wednesday said he's not aware of any formal complaint. When his deputies went to check in last night, her parents reportedly said they weren't yet interested in speaking with authorities.

The student has been charged with resisting without violence and disruption of a school function.

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