Lexington School District Two says a substitute teacher accused of being drunk in school was not a district employee. 
 
 The Irmo woman was arrested and accused of being drunk at Brookland-Cayce High School Friday, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. 
 
 Judith Elizabeth Richards-Gartee, 52, was arrested Friday after an administrator at the school called a resource officer about her being intoxicated. 
 
 On Monday, the school district issued this statement: 
 
 On Friday, March 10, 2017, it was reported to the Administration of Brookland-Cayce School that a substitute teacher was behaving erratically and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. This substitute is not an employee of the District, but works for Kelly Services. Kelly contracts with the District to provide substitute teachers. 
 
 The Administration responded immediately, removing the substitute from the classroom and sending her to the School Resource Officer. The District has been advised that law enforcement has filed criminal charges against the Kelly employee. 
 
 Richards-Gartee was later found in possession of an open container of alcohol. She was charged with disorderly conduct and released to the care of paramedics who took her to the hospital. 
 
 The sheriff's department says it will not be releasing any more information regarding this incident. 
 
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 One of the videos taken as a school resource officer slammed a student sitting at her desk at a South Carolina high school also shows her punching the deputy during the confrontation, authorities said Tuesday. 
 
 That video, described by Sheriff Leon Lott as the "third video," will play a part in the internal affairs investigation into whether Senior Deputy Ben Fields violated policy in Monday's incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia. 
 
 Related: Video Shows Cop Body-Slamming High School Girl in S.C. Classroom 
 
 There are at least three videos that have surfaced of the incident — which shows the girl flailing at the officer as he is already in the middle of flipping her chair over — and their distribution online has caused an uproar on social media. 
 
 It’s not clear whether the sheriff was referring to those videos, or if there’s still another angle on the incident. 
 
 By Monday night, Fields was suspended without pay and was asked not to return to any of the school campuses within the Richland School District Two. 
 
 The Justice Department and the FBI announced Tuesday they would open their own investigations into whether the girl's civil rights were violated. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division is also conducting a separate probe. 
 
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 Lott told reporters Tuesday that his department's internal investigation should be completed within the next 24 hours, when he will announce Fields' fate with the agency. 
 
 "I wanted to throw up," Lott said after first viewing footage of the incident. "This makes you sick to your stomach when you see that initial video. But that's just a snapshot." 
 
 Lott also said he doesn't believe race was a factor in what happened — and noted that Fields has been dating an African-American woman for "quite some time." 
 
 Yet Fields — whom students allegedly referred to as "Officer Slam" — has also been the subject of previous excessive force and racial bias allegations. 
 
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 Lott said they're looking at the videos taken by students inside the class and conducting interviews with the witnesses to determine whether the officer should have escalated the situation with physical force. 
 
 A teacher had complained that the student, who has not been identified, was being unruly during class and refused to leave even after an administrator was called in. 
 
 "The student was wrong in what she did — she disrupted class, she was disturbing the others students from getting an education. But does her actions meet the level of what this officer did?" Lott asked. "That’s what we’re going to decide." 
 
 Lott added that she had been texting and using her phone instead of doing her school work on a Chromebook during the algebra class. 
 
 Fields in the videos shared on social media stands in front of the student, and orders her to stand up or be forcibly removed. She refuses to leave. Fields is then seen body-slamming the student to the ground while she's still in her seat, and then dragging her and her desk across the floor. 
 
 Related: South Carolina School Officer's Actions 'Over The Line,' Experts Say 
 
 In the third video viewed by police, Lott said, it shows the girl hitting the officer in the head once he puts his hands on her: "There's no question about that." 
 
 The female student in the video as well as a second student — identified as Niya Kenny — was arrested for "contributing to the chaos," Lott added. 
 
 Kenny told NBC News on Tuesday that she saw the officer put his arm around her classmate's neck, which is when she tried to hit him. 
 
 "I don’t even think her fist made contact with him — she tried to," Kenny said. 
 
 Kenny, who admits that she was "using a few F-bombs" during the confrontation, said Fields is known in the school for being physical. 
 
 "We already know his reputation, and I felt something bad was going to go down," Kenny said when the deputy walked into the classroom, adding, "He’s known as Officer Slam." 
 
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 Sheriff Lott declined to comment about what actions Fields should have taken in the heat of the moment because the investigation is ongoing. Fields is also the defensive line and strength coach for Spring Valley's football team. 
 
 At an earlier news conference, school district officials Tuesday blasted Fields' actions, calling them "outrageous" and "reprehensible," and the video itself "shamefully shocking." 
 
 Schools Superintendent Debbie Hamm said the district is strengthening its training efforts with school resource officers to ensure such an incident doesn't happen again. 
 
 "As we have stated previously, the safety and dignity of our students is our highest priority," added School District Board Chairman James Manning. 
 
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 Reaction over the video has been swift, and members of the group the Richland Two Black Parents Association called the officers' actions "unacceptable," reported NBC affiliate WIS. The student in the video is a black female, while the officer is white. 
 
 "Parents are heartbroken as this is just another example of the intolerance that continues to be of issue in Richland School District Two particularly with families and children of color," the parents association said in a statement. "As we have stated in the past, we stand ready to work in collaboration to address these horrible acts of violence and inequities among our children." 
 
 Meanwhile, Fields is facing another allegation of bias. 
 
 Trial is set for January in the case of an expelled student who claims Fields targeted blacks and falsely accused him of being a gang member in 2013. 
 
 In another case, a federal jury sided with Fields after a black couple accused him of excessive force and battery during a noise complaint arrest in 2005. A third lawsuit, dismissed in 2009, involved a woman who accused him of battery and violating her rights during a 2006 arrest. ||||| The FBI and the U.S. Justice Department will investigate an altercation Monday between a school resource officer and a female student at Spring Valley High School that was caught on video and posted online. 
 
 “The Columbia FBI Field Office, the Civil Rights Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina have opened a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding the arrest of a student at Spring Valley High School,” a Department of Justice spokesperson wrote in an email. 
 
 Snippets of three videos shot by students in the classroom were played and replayed Tuesday on national television throughout the day to shocked reactions. 
 
 The incident has to be addressed with speed, Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said in explaining why he so quickly invited in federal investigators. 
 
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 Lott on Monday asked Dave Thomas, special agent in charge for the FBI for South Carolina, and William Nettles, the U.S. attorney for South Carolina with the Justice Department, to investigate. 
 
 “I hope the community will remain calm so that we can conduct a thorough and thoughtful investigation,” Nettles told The State newspaper Tuesday. “At the conclusion of that investigation, we’ll be happy to discuss our findings with the community.” 
 
 “The FBI will collect all available facts and evidence in order to determine whether a federal law was violated. As this is an ongoing investigation, per Department of Justice policy we are unable to comment further at this time.” 
 
 The video went viral Monday. It shows Senior Deputy Ben Fields approach the female student seated in a desk. The resource officer places his left hand on the female student’s left arm, before putting his right arm around her neck. 
 
 Fields then flips the desk over, with the student still seated, before spinning it around and forcibly removing the student, then sliding her across the floor and trying to restrain her at the front of the classroom. 
 
 Fields is white; the student is African-American. 
 
 That teen and another female student were arrested for disturbing the peace, Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Curtis Wilson said Tuesday. 
 
 Lott said Tuesday that Fields is on unpaid leave. 
 
 Richland 2 superintendent Debbie Hamm called the video “outrageous” and “heinous” during a Tuesday afternoon news conference. Richland 2 board chairman James Manning said the district does not want Fields in any Richland 2 school again. They would not discuss details of the incident. 
 
 Manning described what he saw in the videos circulated from the classroom as “shamefully shocking ... reprehensible, unforgivable and inconsistent with everything that this district stands for, what we work for and what we aspire to be.” 
 
 “There is absolutely no place in this district or any other district, for that matter, for what happened here,” Manning said. 
 
 EXAMINING WHAT HAPPENED 
 
 Lott said he “wanted to throw up” when he saw the video of his deputy. “But I have to look at the total picture. ... But, yes, I’m human. I’m a parent.” 
 
 Lott said his internal investigation will determine, likely within 24 hours, whether the officer followed procedure and whether he should continue working as a deputy. 
 
 The investigation being done by the FBI and the Justice Department is a criminal one, Lott said. 
 
 The girl was paying attention to her cell phone instead of participating in class, Lott said. She was asked to leave the classroom by a teacher and then an assistant principal before the deputy was called in, Lott said. 
 
 Lott said three students shot video. Each shows the incident a little differently, he said. The one that appeared on social media last shows the student hitting the officer with her fists before the desk is tipped over. 
 
 “She bears some responsibility in this,” Lott said of the student when asked about her role. “She disrupted class. But we’re not looking at what she did ... and we want students held accountable – not crucified.” 
 
 The student-shot videos are something that “helps us tremendously,” he said. But a video “is a snapshot, not a total picture.” 
 
 Fields has been with the Sheriff’s Department since 2004, the department said. He joined the school resource officer program in 2008, and in 2014 he received the Richland School District 2 Culture of Excellence Award. He is a school resource officer for nearby Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary School as well as Spring Valley. He also served as defensive line coordinator for the Spring Valley football team. 
 
 Fields is a son of Wayne Fields, president and chief executive of Columbia’s Oliver Gospel Mission, Lott said. Oliver Gospel has served some of Columbia’s homeless population for more than 100 years. 
 
 Fields has had three lawsuits filed against him as a deputy. In one, involving an excessive-force allegation before Fields worked in schools, a federal jury found in his favor. Another case was dismissed, the Associated Press reported. The third suit, which is ongoing, alleges Fields wrongly pushed for a Richland 2 student’s expulsion. 
 
 POSSIBLE CHANGES 
 
 When asked, Lott said he might make some changes in how school resource officers operate. “I have some concerns,” he said. “That’s something the school district is going to have to think about.” 
 
 The Richland Sheriff’s Department has 87 school resource officers, the largest number in the state, Lott said. There have been SROs, as the deputies are called, since Lott was first elected sheriff 19 years ago. 
 
 That predates the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School, which many see as the moment when SROs became almost mandatory in schools nationwide, especially high schools. 
 
 Drugs, gangs and, since Columbine, the fear of an angry teen with a gun has helped get school resource officers caught up in disciplinary as much as criminal behavior, youth advocates say. The fear of doing nothing is tremendous. The public expects action. 
 
 Officers’ hands are often tied by laws and policies that force them to act, said International Association of Chiefs of Police President Richard Beary during a public forum in January for the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. 
 
 For example, Lott said the state charge of “disturbing schools” can be and is widely applied when students should not be charged criminally. “I didn’t write that law,” he said. 
 
 Hamm said school leaders typically separate disciplinary issues from criminal issues when it comes to response protocol. “We do have separate protocols for disciplinary incidents and criminal behavior. School resource officers are typically involved in the latter,” Hamm said. “Something did not go right in this classroom.” 
 
 DID RACE PLAY A ROLE? 
 
 Asked if he thought race played a role in Fields’ actions, Lott said, “I would hope that race played no part in this. I wouldn’t care if she’s purple. ... I don’t care what she did. I’m looking at the deputy’s actions.” 
 
 Spring Valley’s second school resources officer, who is black, came into the classroom at the end of the incident, Lott said, and helped handcuff the student and walk her to the office. 
 
 The NAACP Legal Defense Fund on Tuesday called the video “shocking.” 
 
 There have been racial tensions between black parents and the Richland 2 administration, with the parents citing concerns about the discipline of black students. 
 
 The Black Parents Association formed a year ago and now has more than 5,000 members. It was active in last year’s elections, which saw a black majority elected to the seven-member Richland 2 board for the first time. 
 
 The area’s demographics have changed dramatically in the past 10 years. Richland 2 has evolved from a predominantly white suburban district to a district that is now majority-minority. Richland 2’s student population is 59 percent black and 26 percent white, according to the district’s most recent numbers. The district is the Columbia area’s largest, with more than 27,000 students. 
 
 “I’m comfortable with saying that race is a factor,” said Columbia’s Lonnie Randolph, the NAACP’s state director. “Race is indeed a factor. ... We do have a problem in South Carolina. We do have a problem in America.” 
 
 However, Helen Grant, the district’s recently hired chief diversity and multicultural inclusion officer, said she is not so certain that race was a factor in Monday’s incident. “I believe that is what makes it an incident of different races, not that it was a racially motivated incident,” Grant said. “I don’t know that to be the case. And we work here in Richland 2 to use race as strength. Diversity is our strength.” 
 
 According to the Center for Public Integrity, South Carolina’s rate of student “referrals to law enforcement” is below the national average. The state’s rate is 5 per 1,000, compared to about 6 per 1,000 nationally. But the state’s numbers for 2011-12 did show a pattern of disproportionate referrals of black students. 
 
 Black students make up almost 36 percent of the state’s public school students, but they were 50 percent of all students referred to law enforcement. 
 
 Spring Valley High School reported no arrests or referrals that year.
– A substitute teacher was found throwing up at South Carolina's Brookland-Cayce High School, but a stomach bug wasn't to blame. Judith Richards-Gartee has been charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly drinking boxed wine in her classroom. Administrators say they found the 52-year-old vomiting and incapable of standing when they came to her classroom at 9:45am Friday, reports the State. She was removed via wheelchair, and a Lexington County deputy who was on the clock as the school resource officer says he found the boxed wine in her purse. Students reported that she was consuming it in class. WIS reports that in a statement Lexington School District 2 made clear that Richards-Gartee was not its employee, but had been hired by the company the district contracts with. (These students in Arizona can probably relate.)