On May 18, a video was leaked to the internet which shows a police officer assaulting a student at Cass Technical High School in downtown Detroit. By the next morning, the video had been viewed more than 3,000 times.

A reporting team from the International Youth and Students for Social Equality at Wayne State University interviewed students at Cass Tech about police brutality, and asked them about the ongoing struggle of Detroit public school teachers against wage cuts and intolerable teaching and learning conditions.