A mother in Little Rock, Arkansas is calling for the firing of a teacher at Crystal Hill Elementary School after her son was forced to unclog his feces from a toilet with his bare hands, according to a KARK report.
The mother says she was horrified to learn the teacher – who is white – made her 5-year-old son, who is Black, perform this “degrading” act.
“It’s degrading for a child so I don’t feel like any child should have to go through this,” said Ashley Murry, mother of the 5-year-old. “They basically made him go in the toilet and get his feces and the dirty tissue out of the toilet.”
The child’s grandmother, Tami Murry, equally upset when she heard the news of what happened to her grandson.
“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.”
While the Pulaski County Special School District said they are investigating the incident, the teacher made a personal phone call to Ashley Murry. Rather than apologize for what she had done, Ashley says she offered an explanation as to why she did it and offer it up as a teaching experience of sorts.
“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,” Ashley told KARK.
But Tami Murry was having none of it. “I told her that’s not good enough for me,” Tami said.
The teacher was placed on administrative leave according to the report, but was not available for comment.
The mother-daughter duo want more to be done because they don’t want to see another child have to endure the same. They are asking for the teacher to be terminated.
As for the child at the center of this case, they have since pulled the child out of the school and are seeking therapy for him to deal with the situation.
