Incident at Texas School Underscores Concerns About Police Officers on Campuses

‘An ugly day’

Jeremiah was charged as a juvenile with blockault and resisting arrest. The blockault charge was later reduced to making a threat, court records show. He was put on probation, which was extended after he was caught smoking marijuana and repeatedly broke his evening curfew. At one point, he had to wear an ankle monitor, he said, which he hid under his pant leg around his clblockmates.

He stopped going to school last fall. Now 18, Jeremiah says he no longer hangs out with the boys in the gang. He spends his free time playing games on his phone and listening to songs by Lil Poppa and NBA YoungBoy, who rap about betrayal and feeling misunderstood.

He recently got a job washing dishes — a step toward getting his life together. He wants an apartment and to be able to support himself. More education may be in his future, but he does not plan to return to Judson High.

Since the episode with Officer Laue, he said, he has a visceral reaction to seeing police officers on the street. “I just go into shock,” he said.

His takeaway from what happened? Officers “show no mercy.”

Officer Laue said that he had been reprimanded for yelling at Jeremiah and ordered to take an anger management course. A district spokeswoman declined requests for an interview and did not respond to written questions about the encounter.

In an email, the spokeswoman said that the district “takes all matters involving student safety and student concerns seriously” and is “committed to continuously reviewing its practices.”

The only record in Officer Laue’s personnel file that the school district released was his resignation letter. He left a year and a half after the incident.

He told The Times and The Express-News that he did not like policing and that he is now an emergency medical technician. “It’s more of a feel-good profession,” he said. “I don’t have to be mean to people.”

The officer added that he had “nothing against” Jeremiah and hoped he was doing well.

After the arrest, he recalled, he watched surveillance footage of the interaction between the teenager and Ms. De Alba. Based on what he could see in that video, it appeared Jeremiah “might have brushed past her,” Officer Laue said.

“I wouldn’t have called that an blockault,” he said.

Had he seen the footage before confronting Jeremiah, he said, he would have turned him over to a school administrator and declined to press criminal charges.

Looking back, he added, the whole situation could have unfolded a lot differently. “I wish we didn’t have an ugly day,” he said.

Asher Lehrer-Small contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett and Kirsten Noyes contributed research. Produced by Rumsey Taylor.