School police officer Warren Favors punched a 15-year-old student after the teen called him “play-play cop” and threatened him in a hallway.

The incident was captured on video that shows Favors tackling the student from behind after the taunts.

“I’m tired of you threatening me [expletive],” Favors told the student, according to case summary records. “You gonna get enough of being disrespectful.”

The 2014 incident left the student with two bone fractures and ended Favors' police career. But it was not the first time Favors had run afoul as a cop. He had resigned in lieu of termination from the Albany Police Department in May 2003 for dishonesty, which he disputed, and Dougherty County School System Police hired him in January 2006.

The second chance he received was hardly a fluke.

Statewide, school system police departments employ officers who have been terminated or resigned under the cloud of an investigation at twice the rate of local police departments, according to an investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Actions News.

Roughly 12 percent of the 656 officers working in the state's 31 school police departments have been forced out of a previous job, versus about 6 percent of the officers who work in local police agencies, according to data obtained from the Georgia Peace Officer Standards and Training Council (POST), the state agency charged with certifying police.

About the Authors

Keep Reading

Michelle Roache, pictured with her two youngest children, 3-year-old Elijah and 4-year-old Gianna, recently graduated from Clayton State University. She received a child care scholarship through Quality Care for Children and the federal Child Care Access Means Parents in School grant, which made it possible for her to finish her degree. Now the grant is on the chopping block. (Courtesy of Michelle Roache)

Credit: Photo courtesy Michelle Roache

Featured

Mario Guevara, a metro Atlanta-based Spanish-language reporter, covers a protest against immigration enforcement on Feb. 1, 2025, on Buford Highway. (Miguel Martinez/AJC)

Credit: AP