On a Friday morning last September, a Tolleson Union High School student walked out the back doors of the school’s main student services building and into the outside courtyard. He’d just had a heated argument with his ex-girlfriend and was experiencing tunnel vision, he later said.
Upon exiting, he took a few steps to avoid the figure on the other side of the double doors: one of the school resource officers on duty, Tolleson police officer Eric Hendrix. Hendrix was escorting the ex-girlfriend to the office. He told the ex-boyfriend to stop to talk. But the student didn’t stop.
Hendrix then physically attacked the student in an "unwarranted" and "excessive" way, according to a third-party investigative report released this week by Tolleson Union High School District. The officer's actions ultimately cost him his position at the school. The report, crafted by attorney Deanna Rader of Rader Mayrose LLP, offered new details on the incident, which was the subject of news coverage earlier this year.
The report also illuminates why that day spelled the end of Tolleson police officers being welcome as school resource officers in the school district.
According to security camera footage collected of the incident, Hendrix put his hand on the student’s chest. The young man, who has not been publicly identified, tried to swipe the officer’s arm away. Hendrix put his hands higher on the student’s chest and neck and pushed him several feet toward the courtyard’s outside wall. Then, with the student against the wall, Hendrix punched him in the face and kneed him in the gut, according to a police report.
Hendrix punched the student in the face again, kneed him in the stomach and wrapped his arms around his armpit and shoulder. More officers ran to join the scene and took the student to the ground, where he was handcuffed as Hendrix’s arm pressed down on his head. Before the fracas was over, Hendrix would put the student in a headlock and knee him again. And soon he would see the student convicted for resisting arrest.
After the altercation, school district superintendent Jeremy Calles wanted Hendrix off his campus. But after a use-of-force investigation, the Tolleson Police Department found that Hendrix’s actions were justified and insisted that he stay on campus by not providing a replacement school resource officer.
Calles told Phoenix New Times he believed the city’s investigation was deliberately lax. He asked the department to replace Hendrix and hired Rader to conduct an investigation into Hendrix’s behavior. In early February, after Hendrix brought a different student to the ground to arrest him on campus, the school's principal told him he was no longer welcome on campus and was removed from his position, according to court documents. Notably, Rader's investigation did not find Hendrix acted inappropriately during that incident.
Four days later, Hendrix spoke in front of the Tolleson City Council, claiming that he was in a “hostile work environment” at Tolleson Union and experienced “continuous harassment from the school district and the superintendent pressuring me to leave the high school.” Calles doesn’t dispute that he wanted Hendrix gone, calling that “absolutely true.”
“I would talk with Hendrix and get along with Hendrix just fine, up until he punched a student,” Calles told New Times. “After he punched a student? Yes. I don’t want you on my campus anymore.”
A schoolyard fight spills into city politics
When Hendrix gave his version of events to the city council, Mayor Juan Rodriguez told the officer: “I think you were in the right.” Members of the Tolleson City Council agreed, saying that Hendrix had a great reputation with students and staff at the school.
In late May, Rader completed her investigation of Hendrix’s actions and came to a different conclusion. Hendrix’s actions were “excessive” in the September incident, she wrote, and “caused an unnecessary escalation and violent altercation with a student.”
Rader’s report, which was approved by the school district’s governing board on Tuesday, pinned blame for the scuffle on the officer. It concluded that without him initiating physical contact, it is “unlikely that the altercation would have occurred.”
In a statement to New Times, Tolleson police Lt. Lee Garrett said Rader’s investigation was not shared with the Tolleson Police Department by the school district. They had not seen the report until New Times provided it to them.
“At this time,” Garrett wrote, “the Tolleson Police Department cannot provide a comment on the validity of the investigation or the credentials and/or experience of those conducting the investigation.”
The September incident at Tolleson Union and its fallout have strained the relationship between the city of Tolleson, its police department and the school district. After June 30, Tolleson police officers will no longer serve as school resource officers in district schools. Instead, the district will begin using officers from other jurisdictions, including Phoenix, Avondale and Glendale, in their schools, Calles said. District governing board meetings have also been moved to Glendale.
“We still believe there is value in having an officer,” Calles said. But he added that the city of Tolleson doesn’t “seem like they are there for our children.”
