Teen Arrested At Sam Houston Middle School In Amarillo, Texas – APD & AISD Respond

A story has been flying all over social media about a student getting arrested at Sam Houston middle School yesterday (October 29th). A few Kiss FM listeners reached out to us with a photo and the below story.

This is the Facebook story that was sent to us by the listener and has been shared:

"Today at the Sam Houston middle school football game ,Jacob Was wearing a rosary and refused to take it off due to his religion, slammed by corporeal Wilson (TASCOSA COP) , the assistant principal Mrs. Pureoff said "this isn't a Mexican school this is a white school ,no one should be wearing anything related to another race other than American" Jakes in custody and they didn't even give his mom a report off what happened. You can clearly see Wilson enjoying the power behind his badge after he and three other Amarillo police man handled 105lb. Jacob . Slammed him onto curbs and as you can see in this picture smiled while he used excessive force on Jacob even after he is already cuffed . Very wrong if you ask me .. don't you think something should be done?"

After reading this story we reached out to both AISD and APD to get some answers.

Here's the information given to us by the Amarillo Police Department:
Police Statement:

A witness stated: “I’m amazed that you have to put up with this behavior." to the officer.

School officials & the Amarillo Police Officer asked the teen to remove the rosary, hide it, or leave school property. Rosary beads have been concluded by national authorities and media to have gang affiliation roots.

The youth then began to use abusive language. The officer who was talking to him at the time (who happens to be Catholic) asked the teen “what are these beads for”, knowing that the beads are used for prayers. The youth replied: “What do you mean”. This showed the officer that they were not being worn for religious purposes.

School officials repeatedly asked and told him to leave the property. The officer warned that he would have to arrest him if he did not leave the property. The teen refused to leave property. After multiple warnings, the officer went to cuff the young man. At this point he began flailing, struggling, and they went to the ground.

The abusive language continued and the teen even spouted racist remarks against African American officer. The teen kept trying to break free and run. He was finally cuffed and the officer held him down until a field unit could arrive and transport him for booking.

The youth was booked on a criminal trespass charge & resisting arrest.

“Last night at one of our schools, a student was identified as being in violation of the dress code for wearing an item in a manner which is considered to be gang related by local and national law enforcement. A school administrator and liaison officer asked the student to either comply with the dress code rules or leave school property. The student repeatedly refused to comply with either option. At that time, the student was arrested for trespassing.”

Here are the Dress and Grooming GUIDELINES for Sam Houston Middle School
1. Hair is to be neat, clean, well groomed, and styled so that vision is not obstructed. Beards and mustaches shall be kept clean and neatly trimmed.
2. School clothing is to be in good taste, clean, neat, and styled for school activities.
3. Clothing shall not advertise, condone, depict, or promote the use of alcohol, tobacco, drugs, suicide, death, violence, and/or vulgar or obscene language.
4. Some type of sandal or shoe must be worn at all times.
5. Wearing either identified gang apparel or wearing clothing in a gang-style, as identified by law enforcement agencies, is prohibited.
6. Dresses, skirts, shorts, and pants shall be of a length that is not distracting. These items, when worn as the outer garment, shall extend at least to the tip of the fingers when the arms are held straight at the side. The top of any slits and/or holes in outer garments shall comply with the required dress code length. Waistbands of all dresses, skirts, shorts, and pants shall be secured at the waistline.
7. All shirts shall be of a length that is not distracting. All shirts when worn as the outer garment shall be:
a. Of a length what will stay tucked while walking and/or sitting
b. Of a length that covers the shoulder from the base of the neck to the tip of the shoulder.
c. Designed so that the neckline does not reveal cleavage.
d. Designed to cover all undergarments, including the sleeve line and neckline.
e. When worn with leggings; shirt/tunic must come to end of fingertips.
8. Experience indicates that the following types of wearing apparel can be reasonably forecast to disrupt, interfere with, disturb, or detract from the learning environment and are therefore not to be worn to school: