Spring Valley High School

Story

Spring Valley High School is located in unincorporated Northeast Columbia, South Carolina, United States, and is operated by Richland County School District Two. Opened in the fall of 1970, it was for a long time the sole high school operating in Richland School District Two, replacing Dentsville High School.HistoryThe school had an unusual design. The main building was divided into octagonal 'pods', each containing eight chevron-shaped classrooms. This design was borne out of the open classroom concept that was popular during the late 1960s and early 1970s. In the school's early days, classrooms within each pod had no walls, allowing students to participate in any one of several classes occurring at one time. This did not prove successful, and walls were later added to separate the classroom pods by the early 1980s.In 2008, a new three story building replaced the pods as the new school building, integrating the original gymnasium and fine arts buildings as the only remaining pieces of the original campus.On October 26, 2015, a Richland County sheriff's deputy who was serving as Spring Valley's school resource officer was called to a classroom to remove a female student from her classroom. The female student was arrested on a charge called "disturbing schools" for refusing to give up her cell phone and leave the room. She was then pulled from the desk by the officer, thrown to the floor and handcuffed. Another female student in the classroom was also charged with disturbing schools after she allegedly yelled and cursed at the officer. The officer was fired after an internal review found that his actions ran counter to sheriff's department policy. The FBI and the US Department of Justice are investigating to determine if the deputy violated the student's civil rights. In response to the incident, South Carolina lawmakers, led by Rep. Mia McLeod, have proposed limitations to the state statute that defines when students can be arrested for disrupting schools. School district administrators also promised to conduct additional staff training about when to involve school resource officers in future incidents.