{"id":997,"date":"2020-02-14T10:18:36","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T15:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/?page_id=997"},"modified":"2025-05-12T11:15:24","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:15:24","slug":"wise-county-sheriffs-deputy-settles-federal-lawsuit-and-issues-written-apology-for-tackling-middle-schooler","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/our-press-releases\/wise-county-sheriffs-deputy-settles-federal-lawsuit-and-issues-written-apology-for-tackling-middle-schooler\/","title":{"rendered":"Wise County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Settles Federal Lawsuit and Issues Written Apology for Tackling Middle-Schooler"},"content":{"rendered":"

February 14, 2020 [Wise, VA] \u2014 This week, attorneys from Georgetown Law\u2019s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection<\/a> (ICAP) secured an $86,000 settlement from Wise County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Ryan Adkins, who unlawfully tackled a 14-year-old middle-school student in 2018. \u00a0The settlement followed a federal judge\u2019s ruling<\/a> that the student had \u201cmade a strong showing that [the deputy]\u2019s conduct constituted a constitutional violation as a matter of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

In April 2018, Adkins was working as a school resource officer at a Wise County middle school when he received a report that a nude photo of a student was being circulated among the school\u2019s student body.\u00a0 Adkins demanded that an 8th-grade student hand over his phone, but refused to explain his basis for wanting to search the boy\u2019s phone. \u00a0After leading the student into the school\u2019s hallway, Adkins grabbed him using both arms, tripped his legs, and slammed him to the ground.\u00a0 Adkins then placed all of his weight on the child for nearly twenty seconds.\u00a0 The boy was diagnosed with a concussion and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of Adkins tackling him. \u00a0The boy\u2019s cell phone contained no nude photos\u2014or any other evidence of criminal conduct\u2014as Adkins\u2019s own search of the phone confirmed.<\/p>\n

Adkins later acknowledged, in sworn testimony, that the student did not pose a threat to any person and was not behaving in an aggressive manner.\u00a0 Video footage from the school\u2019s security camera showed that the boy was acting in a calm and nonthreatening manner when Adkins tackled him to the ground.<\/p>\n

After the Wise County Sheriff\u2019s Office refused to take any action to discipline Adkins, the student filed a federal lawsuit in the Western District of Virginia, claiming<\/a> that Adkins violated his Fourth Amendment rights by using unjustified and excessive force.\u00a0 In his pretrial ruling issued last month, U.S. District Judge James P. Jones rejected Adkins\u2019s attempt to avoid a trial on the matter and rejected most of Adkins\u2019s arguments in defense.\u00a0 Instead, the court held that \u201ca middle school student posing no imminent risk of harm has a right to be free from excessive force,\u201d and that \u201cth[is] right was clearly established when Adkins used force against [the boy].\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the ruling, Adkins issued a formal, written apology<\/a> to the child and his family in which Adkins acknowledged that he \u201ccould have attempted to communicate\u201d with the boy before tackling him.\u00a0 Adkins also promised to undergo specialized training on the proper use of force in schools and vowed \u201cto make better decisions\u201d in the future \u201cso that no other families have to go through a situation like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after issuing the apology, Adkins agreed to pay the family $86,000 in order to settle the family\u2019s Fourth Amendment claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur family\u2019s lives have been upended by what the officer did to our son,\u201d the boy\u2019s parents said.\u00a0 \u201cThis needless violence against schoolchildren has to end. \u00a0It makes no sense that Wise County school resource officers aren\u2019t trained on the proper amount of force to use against kids.\u00a0 The Sheriff\u2019s Office has now heard that message loud and clear\u2014and it\u2019s a message that should be heeded widely.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICAP partnered on the suit with attorney Michael A. Bragg of Bragg Law PLC, located in Abingdon, Virginia.<\/p>\n

The Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) <\/strong>uses the power of the courts to defend American constitutional rights and values. \u00a0Based at Georgetown Law, ICAP draws on expert litigators, savvy litigation strategy, and the constitutional scholarship of Georgetown to vindicate individuals\u2019 rights and to protect America\u2019s constitutional way of life.\u00a0 ICAP is involved in a range of cases addressing the rights of minors at school, including this case and Stinson v. Maye<\/em><\/a>, a Title IX lawsuit in which ICAP represents an Alabama teenager assaulted by her classmates. \u00a0More information about ICAP can be found at https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 14, 2020 [Wise, VA] \u2014 This week, attorneys from Georgetown Law\u2019s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) secured an $86,000 settlement from Wise County Sheriff\u2019s Deputy Ryan Adkins, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":100,"featured_media":0,"parent":26,"menu_order":26,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-997","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/100"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/997\/revisions\/998"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/icap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}