A school resource officer assigned to West Point High School has been reassigned to administrative duties after cell phone video captured him striking a student during a chaotic lunch period that began with a cafeteria food fight. The Tolleson Union High School District says the officer will not be on campus while the incident is investigated, and Avondale police have asked a neighboring department to handle the review.
The video, first reported by ABC15 Arizona, shows the officer approaching the student from behind before taking him to the ground and holding him there. According to the station's reporting, the officer had been helping clear students from the cafeteria after a food fight broke out, and the student appeared to make a move at the officer before the officer appeared to strike him. What exactly happened in the moments before the confrontation remains undetermined.
Avondale police said in a statement that multiple fights were reported on campus during the lunch period, and that cell phone video of the physical altercation was circulating on social media. Per the same statement, the department has not released the officer's identity. The officer has since been reassigned to administrative duties pending the outcome of the investigation, and the department requested an independent review by the Peoria Police Department rather than investigating itself.
Superintendent Says Confrontation Should Not Have Escalated
Tolleson Union High School District Superintendent Jeremy Calles told the station he saw inappropriate conduct on both sides of the encounter, but said the confrontation should not have escalated the way it did. Calles said the officer had served at the school for quite some time. He added that incidents involving staff or others hitting students will not be tolerated on district campuses, and that the student involved may face disciplinary action pending the investigation's findings.
Calles was careful to separate this incident from his broader stance on campus policing, saying the episode does not mean the district is losing faith in the school resource officer program or in the Avondale Police Department. He said he still believes in the SRO program overall. The district says it is working with Avondale police to bring another officer to West Point High School and is gathering available information, though officials say they remain limited in what they can disclose because the matter involves a student and remains an active investigation.
A District Already Burned Once Before
Calles' cautious tone comes from experience. In June 2026, a 16-year-old student filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court against the City of Tolleson, the Tolleson Police Department, and the district itself, alleging an SRO used excessive force during a September 2024 campus incident, according to Phoenix New Times. That case followed an independent investigation Calles commissioned, which the outlet reported found the officer's force in that earlier altercation was unwarranted and excessive, leading the district to ban the officer from campus. Tolleson officers later stopped serving as SROs, and the district used officers from other jurisdictions.
That history explains why administrators appear to have little patience for physical confrontations between officers and students this time around. A student at another district campus is suing the Tolleson Union High School District, Tolleson police, and the city over alleged excessive force.
Outside Investigators, Interviews, and Camera Footage
Stephen Dieu, executive director of the Arizona School Resource Officers Association, told ABC15 that altercations between students and staff or law enforcement are very rare on Arizona campuses. He said investigators should focus on whether department policies and procedures were followed during the encounter. Peoria police will lead the investigation, examining cell phone footage, surveillance camera footage, and body-worn camera footage, while also interviewing witnesses.
The decision to bring in Peoria police rather than have Avondale investigate its own officer follows a regional protocol common among West Valley municipal departments, which allow neighboring agencies to conduct independent reviews of critical use-of-force incidents involving another department's officer, according to the Surprise Independent. Any sworn officer found to have used sustained excessive force also faces potential scrutiny from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which holds authority to suspend or revoke a law enforcement certification following a sustained internal affairs finding.
West Point's Recent Security History
West Point High School, at 11620 W. Encanto Blvd. in Avondale, opened in July 2019 as the seventh high school in the Tolleson Union High School District, built at a cost of $108 million to ease district-wide overcrowding. Avondale police staff the campus.
The campus made headlines just months ago when Hoodline reported that an Avondale teen was arrested after an unloaded handgun was found in a student's backpack in February, following an anonymous tip to staff.
For now, the district says it will take appropriate action once Peoria police complete their investigation, but has offered no timeline for when findings will be released. The story remains developing as investigators continue reviewing footage and interviewing witnesses from the lunch period incident.
