POMPANO BEACH, Fla. – A security guard hired to keep students safe now faces three misdemeanor charges after he was accused of using excessive force on a student last week.
Alie Joseph, 25, was arrested by the Broward Sheriff’s Office after the incident that was captured on video Thursday at the Youth Under Construction Youth Center in Pompano Beach.
“It was a total shock to me because they know that that’s not my protocol,” says Delvin King, the principal of the private, alternative school on North Powerline Road. “I don’t allow for employees to physically abuse my students because I treat each and every student at my school as my child.”
King says it started because the student wasn’t wearing a school uniform like he was supposed to.
“That student was placed in internal suspension, and from my investigation that student wouldn’t give security his cell phone,” King said.
When the student refused, dropping his phone on the floor, the security guard could be seen grabbing him by the arm and dragging him from the room, right into King’s office.
Things escalated quickly as Joseph manhandled the student, eventually, throwing him on the ground to trying and subdue him as King watched from his desk.
On Monday, Local 10 News asked King why he didn’t intervene.
“I didn’t want to jump in the middle and risk my safety because it was already high-tensions,” he said.
When BSO deputies showed up a little while later, it was Joseph who they took into custody.
Joseph, who King says worked for State Line Protection Services, was charged with two counts of battery causing bodily harm and one charge for carrying a weapon openly.
While students we spoke with say the classmate in the video can be a troublemaker and a class clown, they were surprised by what happened.
The victim’s family has withdrawn him and his siblings from the school.
The school has ended its contract with the security company and said this was the first and only issue Joseph has had when working there.
Local 10 News tried to reach out to Joseph for comment, but we have been unable to get in touch with him.