COLUMBIA, S.C.

A white deputy who violently slammed a black female high school student to the floor and dragged her during a classroom arrest was fired Wednesday.

Officer Ben Fields, 34, a senior deputy with the Richland County, S.C., Sheriff’s Department is also the focus of a federal civil rights probe.

In response to the chilling incident that happened Monday, the FBI and Justice Department have launched the probe to determine if federal laws were broken and if he should be charged with assault for his actions during the incident at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C.

Cellphone videos taken by students in the classroom quickly went viral on the Internet. They show Mr. Fields, a former school resource officer, flipping the 16-year-old girl backward to the ground in her chair, and tossing her across the classroom.

One video shows the girl striking at the officer as he attempts to remove her from the chair.

The student, who was not identified, according to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who called the footage disturbing.

The South Carolina NAACP has called for Mr. Fields to be criminally charged.

Sheriff Lott announced Mr. Fields’ firing at a noon news conference Wednesday. He had suspended the officer Tuesday, pending the results of an internal investigation.

The sheriff said he based his firing decision on Mr. Fields’ actions after he put his hands on the student to remove her from the chair. “The maneuver he used was not based on training (we do) nor was it acceptable,” he said.

Sheriff Lott said the officer crossed the line when “he picked the student up and threw her across the room.”

School officials said the officer was asked to remove the student from the classroom after she refused to put her cellphone away at her teacher’s request. Officials said she also ignored demands by the white teacher and an African-American administrator to leave the room.

The savage throwdown and dragging intensified the focus on the growing number of highly publicized incidents in which white law enforcement authorities use excessive force against African-Americans and other people of color.

Another student in the classroom, Niya Kenny, 18, was taken into custody after the incident on a charge of disturbing schools after she came to the defense of her classmate.

She said during a television interview Tuesday evening that the officer has a reputation at the school for treating students harshly. “Before (the officer) came to the class, I was actually telling (other students), ‘Take out your cameras because I feel like this is going to go downhill,’” she said.

School Superintendent Debbie Hamm and members of the school board decried Mr. Fields’ actions at a news conference Tuesday. A hashtag #AssaultAtSpringValleyHigh trended nationwide within hours of the student’s arrest, which also garnered attention Tuesday from Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

“There is no excuse for violence inside a school,” Mrs. Clinton tweeted.

Officer Fields joined the Sheriff’s Department in 2004 and its school resource officer program in 2008, according to an agency newsletter. Last November, an elementary school where he is also assigned presented him with a “Culture of Excellence Award.”

He also was one of the coaches for the high school football team.

Court records show the officer has been named as a defendant in two federal lawsuits, most recently in 2013 in a case that claims he “unfairly and recklessly targets African-American students with allegations of gang membership and criminal gang activity.” A jury trial is set for Jan. 27 in Columbia.

In a 2007 case, a jury decided in favor of Officer Fields and another deputy accused by a Columbia couple of unreasonable and excessive force during an investigation of a noise complaint.