The mother of a five-year-old kindergartener wants a teacher at his Arkansas elementary school fired after the minor alleged he was forced to clean the toilet with his bare hands because he had reportedly choked it with too much toilet paper after having a go.
In an interview with WHAM on Tuesday, Ashley Murry said she got to know about the incident over the weekend after her son informed her about what had happened. She said her son opening up to her clearly meant the incident made him feel uncomfortable.
“It’s degrading for a child so I don’t feel like any child should have to go through this,” Ashley told KARK. “They basically made him go in the toilet and get his feces and the dirty tissue out of the toilet.”
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The minor, who is a student at the Crystal Hill Elementary School, has since been transferred to another class after a complaint was made. “You want a child to put their hand in there physically and clean out the commode- no no no no no. He’s not a janitor, he’s not a custodian, he’s not maintenance, no, not at all,” the boy’s grandmother, Tami Murry, also said.
Ashley said the accused teacher could not convincingly justify her reason behind forcing her son to clean the toilet during a phone conversation between the two.
“She got on the phone with me and she said she didn’t have an explanation, she just knew she was wrong. But she stated to the principal that she was trying to teach how not to stop up the toilet,” she said. “I told her that’s not good enough for me.”
Ashley and Tami told KARK they want the teacher fired. “She needs to be terminated because you don’t treat kids like this. He is a kid,” Ashley said, with Tami adding: “I don’t ever want this to happen to another child again.”
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Tami alleged the teacher’s actions were an attempt to degrade and belittle the minor, WHAM reported. “I don’t know if it’s racism or pure dislike for him, but something isn’t right,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Pulaski County Special School District announced the teacher has been put on administrative leave as investigations into the incident continue. “Employees across the district work hard every day to create an environment where students feel safe and protected,” the statement said.
