Former Spring Valley High School Student Sues RCSD, Richland County School District 2

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One of the students that was arrested for speaking up against the Richland County Deputy Ben fields is suing both the sheriff’s department and the school district after the viral video from Oct. 26, 2015. Now, the 19-year-old says one of best years of her life became memorable for all the wrong reasons.

“It was unbelievable. That was unbelievable. Like, I couldn’t believe it was happening all day. And I’m like, ‘is this real? Is this really going on? Am I really about to go to jail for you know, just standing up for this girl?’” Niya Kenny said, a former Spring Valley High School Student. 

“Oh my God. What happened? Arrested? For what?” Doris Ballard said after she learned her daughter was being arrested. 

Deputy Ben fields is shown wrestling with a minor and throwing her to the ground to arrest her. According to the lawsuit, that’s when Niya Kenny stood up to protest the action but was also arrested herself. The lawsuit says Kenny was “cuffed, paraded through three different offices, and then housed at Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center for nearly 8 hours.” 

“Of course it was embarrassing, but of course, it was more unbelievable than anything,” Kenny said of the experience. Kenny is suing both the Richland County Sheriff’s Department and Richland County School District 2 for false arrest, defamation, and negligence.  The lawsuit states Kenny was wrongly expelled from Spring Valley High her senior year, forcing her to miss both prom and graduation with her friends.  

“We dealt with it. Whatever came along with it. With the criminal process, with her being charged with this, and having this charge carry her for almost an entire year. We dealt with it, just like any other family would do. Again, whatever came our way, we bonded together and rolled with the punches,” Ballard said. 

Kenny says it was just a natural reaction she had to watching the scene unfold in front of her.

“I didn’t understand how this wasn’t anyone else’s reaction. How their reaction was to get behind their hands and put their heads down. And there was even one girl in the class that was telling me to be quiet, and I was like, ‘are you serious right now?’ How are you telling me to be quiet right now when this was going on in your face as well,” Kenny said. 

Both Richland County School district 2 and Richland County Sheriff’s department declined to comment because it is an open lawsuit.