What Happened to Tauris Sledge
In this article, Kayla Newman will review and critique bodycam footage from Tauris Sledge's arrest.
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The Arrest of Tauris Sledge
The Arrest of Tauris Sledge
By Kayla Newman
By Kayla Newman
*Disclaimer* Police Brutality
*Notice* Beep/Beeping will replace any curse words
Is a student resource officer needed in a verbal altercation between a teacher and a student? In Chattanooga Tennessee on Sep 20, 2022, this issue came under fire when Tauris Sledge-- an 18-year-old East Ridge High School student faced assault, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct charges. In no way are these charges justified. It is now time to pick apart and critique the hour-long body cam footage.
The footage started with the administrator and the student resource officer, Tyler McRae, heading to the gym where this incident happened. Once they entered, they immediately spoke to the coach, who, at this point, was already agitated. The coach explained that Sledge was not feeling well at the beginning of the period when the group was playing kickball against another class. During free time, Sledge came down from the bleachers to throw around a basketball. The coach went to confront the eighteen-year-old, which is when viewers learn that the coach said, “he comes at me in my face and he won’t talk to me, and he says ‘you’re a racist [bleep] and I’ll kick you [bleeping] [bleep].” Barely a minute in, the coach contradicted himself. He said, “he comes at me in my face,” and then, “he won’t talk to me,” right after. This makes absolutely no sense, and it sounds like the coach is attempting to paint Sledge as the aggressor during this ordeal.
The coach led the SRO to Sledge's location (with the school admin) before the coach walked off somewhere else. Sledge explained that, at the beginning of class, he was feeling sick. He went to sit in the bleachers instead of participating in the kickball game. When Sledge came off of the bleachers, the coach approached him “aggressively” and asked why he was not in the bleachers. Sledge reported that he just walked away and continued playing basketball, minding his own business.
Even though an SRO was never needed in this situation, McRae was doing a decent job. He listened to both sides of the story to figure out the root of the problem. Sadly, things did not last, as the whole situation started going downhill fast. The coach came over to where Sledge was and they started to argue about what happened. At this point, McRae was just watching as the two bickered and talked over each other. It is not clear what the admin was doing since the SRO blocked the view with his hands, but it looked like the admin was trying to calm Sledge down. In a perfect world, the SRO would have separated the two so they could calm down. The only time the arguing stopped was when the admin told Sledge to “let him talk.” Sledge listened respectfully as the coach reiterated his side of the events and then started to chastise Sledge. When Sledge started to retell his side of events, the coach did not share the same respect that Sledge gave him and started to talk over him. This, of course, caused the two to argue once more. He was becoming extremely irritated with the coach and began yelling that, if he was feeling sick, he would stay on the bleachers and that, when he felt better, he would come down. Sledge started walking away after the SRO told him to quiet down. Sledge was handling the situation very well compared to the adults. He only started getting agitated when the coach would not listen to him and then he had an appropriate response. It is common for individuals to become louder when they feel unheard.
Screenshot directly from bodycam footage
Sadly, events did not get any better and continued in a downward spiral. The SRO put his hand on Sledge’s shoulder to stop him from leaving and Sledge told him to get his hand off. When McRae did not listen, Sledge reiterated for McRae to stop touching him. McRae still does not listen, so Sledge says that McRae had five seconds to let him go. McRae, the brilliant man that he was, responded with “what the [bleep] are you going to do?” Words cannot truly describe how gobsmacking this situation is. Sledge has the first amendment right to tell the SRO to stop touching him. In fact, according to HG.org, a legal resource website, “you have a first amendment right to free speech and free expression. That means you can tell a cop exactly what's on your mind and provided you do it civilly and do not cause a public disturbance.” Sledge did not cause a disturbance. He did not create a hazardous condition for no reason. He was not being unreasonably loud to prevent others from what they were doing, as the gym was already decently loud from the start and he was not doing this to annoy people. It seemed like none of the students were bothered by Sledge raising his voice. With all that said, Sledge was in the right. He was using his first amendment right.
Sledge walked away toward the bleachers after a slight argument with McRae. McRae followed Sledge and ordered him to get his stuff. Sledge refused and told the SRO to leave him alone. When Sledge kept refusing, McRae stated, “you finna take a ride to jail dude, I ain’t [bleeping] with you.” McRae then explained that it was for “disorderly conduct.” In Tennessee, disorderly conduct is defined as causing a dangerous situation, being unreasonably loud to the point it prevents an individual from what they were doing and being loud in an attempt to annoy people. Sledge did none of this. Yes, he started yelling at one point, but it was not unreasonable-- this was in a gym. McRae kept repeating for Sledge to go with him, only for the eighteen-year-old to ignore him.
The Student Resource Officer informed Sledge that he was going to jail and to remove his backpack. When Sledge did not listen, McRae tried to forcefully remove the bag. Sledge attempted to shrug off McRae, only to end up with McRae grabbing his neck. According to the Tennessee Law Enforcement Reform Partnership, “a neck restrain/hold shall be considered deadly force.” Just wait, it gets worse. After McRae grabbed Sledge by the neck, he attempted to get out of his hold. This is a reasonable when someone is being held throat/neck. During all of this, the body cam got knocked off. One would think they would have body cams that would not get knocked off but, nope, they do not. Thankfully, a student recorded what happened next. In the student video, viewers can see McRae grabbing onto Sledge's locks and then slamming Sledge’s head into the bleachers' steps. After that, the video was cut off as students were forced to leave the gym. It was hard to see what happened after this, but the body cam shows the SRO pulling Sledge to the top of the bleachers, still by his hair, and then putting the eighteen-year-old in a chokehold. In the video, viewers can hear Sledge screaming, “I am not resisting,” multiple times.
Screenshot directly from bodycam footage
Screenshot directly from bodycam footage
McRae was finally given the bodycam back. The SRO kept trying to force Sledge’s bag off of him. In response, he kept trying to get out of the SRO’s grasp and told McRae to let him go. Finally, McRae listened and Sledge took a few steps back and called his dad. Sledge then told his dad everything that had happened up until that point. Sledge’s dad said that he was on the way and the call ends. Sledge was once again told to take his bag off. He again refused, saying that he would not take any action until he received legal representation. At this point, the SRO and administrator should have logically taken a step back and cooled off. That is what should have happened from the very beginning when Sledge tried to walk away. McRae just kept escalating the situation. He significantly escalated it when he pulled out his pepper spray and proceeded to use it on Sledge with no warning. Viewers might not realize anything happened until McRae told Sledge to take his bag off so they could get him "decontaminated." That is when it clicked. it would be amazing to know McRae’s thinking through all of this and why he never once deemed it worthy to de-escalate the situation. If this student resource officer did his job, this could have all been avoided.
Events only escalated further when the SRO threatened to use his whole canister of pepper spray on Sledge when he continued to resist taking off his bag. School is supposed to be a safe place-- not a place where the school cop gets called when a student gets into an argument with a teacher and end up pepper-sprayed. McRae continued trying to force the bag off of Sledge while he said he “can’t breathe.” Sledge was most definitely terrified and panicked at this time. He had just been thrown around, assaulted a multitude of times, and pepper-sprayed. Anyone would be scared out of their mind, too--especially when McRae sat on his back and used his baton as leverage to get Sledge’s bag off. All the while, Sledge kept stating that he “can’t breathe” and then McRae requested a nurse be called.
Screenshot directly from Bodycam footage
While the nurse was responding, McRae was still attempting to force Sledge’s bag off. What the fudge nugget was McRae’s obsession with Sledge’s bag? Yeah, I get he wanted to make an arrest but was that a priority at that moment? McRae needed to take a step back and reevaluate his life decisions and wait for the nurses to arrive and tend to Sledge before going any further. Instead, McRae forces Sledge to sit up and proceeds to use pain compliance. If you press a bit behind your shoulder closer to the base of the neck, it hurts. Now imagine pressing all your weight onto that point and it hurts a ton. This is what McRae started doing to Sledge until the nurses arrived. As the nurses explained what they needed to do, McRae was STILL trying to force his bag off. The bag was not the priority whatsoever-- getting his eyes flushed before permanent damage set in was more important. McRae finally stepped away and called to get a car ready and for more officers to arrive. McRae then talked to the admin that was present and tried to get their story straight by painting Sledge as the aggressor. McRae said, “as he was screaming and yelling and walking away. I was trying to get him to stop so I can talk to him and resolve this situation and then buck up at me, and at that point, telling me I got five seconds to take my hands off of him, and now you're making me feel like you're going to assault me.” Yes, Sledge did start yelling at one point and then stopped to walk away and calm down. Other than that, Sledge never “bucked” up to McRae, nor was it unwarranted when Sledge told McRae to let him go. Sledge spoke up to defend himself, saying that he felt threatened and that he told McRae to let him go. It looks like McRae was attempting to gaslight Sledge by saying that Sledge gave no warning before saying that he had five seconds to let him go. Viewers all know that this claim is false. In the footage, Sledge asked to be let go twice before he said that McRae had five seconds.
Backup arrived and McRae rushed over and spewed an exaggerated version of events that painted Sledge as the bad guy. Sledge’s father, Alexander Sledge, arrived around the same time as the other officers. McRae pulled Alexander Sledge outside, away from his son and reiterated a story that painted him as the oh-so-compassionate student resource officer that all the students just adore and relayed how Tauris Sledge just did not want to listen. Now, this is irksome. McRae said to Sledge’s father that he did not use his baton on Tauris Sledge. Not even ten minutes beforehand, McRae used his baton on Tauris Sledge as leverage.
Tauris Sledge finally got his eyes washed out with the help of his dad and another student resource officer. After this, he was taken to the juvenile detention centre and processed. Sledge is charged with disturbance of the peace, resisting arrest, and assault. All of these are idiotic charges. Sledge never laid his hands on anyone throughout this whole ordeal, nor did he disturb the peace. The only charge that can make sense in my pea size brain is resisting arrest. Sledge was refusing to listen to McRae when given a direct order.
Witnessing police brutality against a fellow student does not usually end very well. The day after Sledge’s arrest, students left school and gathered on the football field, and outside of the gym where Sledge was arrested. The walkout was peaceful and lasted an hour and a half, with students being led in various chants and speeches, as well. Sadly, Officer McRae was not placed on leave, but he requested not to be a Student Resource Officer anymore. This may not be the ending you were hoping for but, hopefully, the idiotic charges brought against Sledge will be dropped.
Sources:
Sources:
https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/how-much-can-you-legally-get-away-with-saying-to-a-cop-31522
https://www.local3news.com/local-news/deputy-requests-new-assignment-after-a-controversial-arrest-at-east-ridge-high-school/article_0c8f4b94-3b5a-11ed-86bf-df33051647d2.html
Video Links:
Video Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS5zgaIeqCM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APczhoUiELU&t=2960s
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