A warrant has been issued for a Cleveland school security officer accused of causing serious injuries to a student during an incident at Nathan Hale Middle School. Lamere McQueen faces a felonious assault charge stemming from the encounter, which investigators say occurred in September.
According to the FOX 8 I-Team, court records show a warrant for McQueen on the felonious assault charge, with investigators saying the case centers on what happened at the Cleveland middle school last month. A court filing laying out the allegations states that McQueen was escorting a student to the main office at the time.
That same filing alleges that once the student resisted, McQueen grabbed him, lifted him off his feet and slammed him to the ground, according to the report. The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has said McQueen has been placed on administrative leave while the investigation continues.
What Ohio Law Says About the Charge
Felonious assault in Ohio is generally treated as a serious offense. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 2903.11, a violation of the statute is classified as a second-degree felony unless a specific exception applies.
A Familiar Pattern From Akron
The Nathan Hale case echoes a 2024 incident roughly 40 miles south in Akron, where a school resource officer was placed on administrative duty after video showed him punching a 16-year-old student in the head at Firestone Community Learning Center, according to NBC News. The officer's own report said he struck the student three times with a closed fist after roughly 25 seconds of struggling to control him, the outlet reported.
In that case, the student had initially been charged with resisting arrest, obstructing official business and criminal trespassing, but prosecutors agreed to dismiss those charges without prejudice while a use-of-force investigation played out. Akron Public Schools Superintendent Michael Robinson called the officer's conduct unacceptable and pushed for his permanent removal from all school duties, per the same report.
Staffing Pressures Across Cleveland Schools
The charge against McQueen also lands amid longstanding concerns about security staffing inside CMSD. Prior reporting from Signal Cleveland found the district employed 108 security officers, eight of them part-time, even though its 2022-23 budget funded 183 positions, leaving 75 vacancies unfilled. The district's starting pay for security officers was $17.19 an hour for full-time workers and $15.39 an hour for part-time workers, figures that trailed Cleveland Heights-University Heights' $22.73 hourly starting rate while running slightly ahead of Garfield Heights' $17.03 rate, per Signal Cleveland's reporting.
That same account noted CMSD had just seven mobile police officers responsible for covering the entire school district, and that all security officers were required to complete a five-day Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy course within nine months of being hired. Those staffing and training figures reflect prior reporting rather than newly confirmed 2026 numbers.
