COLUMBIA, S. C. - Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has asked the FBI in South Carolina to investigate the confrontation between a school resource officer and a female high school student in Columbia.

Sheriff's Lt. Curtis Wilson said in a statement Tuesday that Lott has followed up the request with a letter to the U.S. Attorney for South Carolina, Bill Nettles, asking for the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI to investigate.

A group called the Richland Two Black Parents Association also called for a federal investigation of the confrontation. The group said video has "revealed what many African American parents have experienced in this district for a very long time."

Wilson says the deputy is white and the student is black.

The video shows the deputy pulling the female student from her desk and dragging her across the classroom at Spring Valley High School on Monday after she refused to leave. The officer has been suspended.