A North Carolina woman is upset, and rightly so, after she learned her six-year-old child was placed in a “restraint chair” inside a broom closet at school.
According to Asha Crews, her mother went to Mariam Boyd Elementary to drop off lunch for Crews’ son Sincere when she found the child inside the dark, dingy closet.
“My mom said, ‘Y’all are going to get him out of the closet. He’s not a dog,’” Crews told WRAL.
The woman’s mother snapped a photo of Sincere as evidence before removing him from the situation.
Since Sincere has autism and is non-verbal, Crews was unable to tell how long her son had been in the closet, which had no air-conditioning and showed signs of mold.
“He had to be in there for a while because he was hot and sweaty,” she said.
Although the school’s principal did not refer to the chair as a “restraint chair,” Keith Sutton, Warren County Superintendent, said it was.
In the aftermath, the school suspended the teacher, who was a contractor for the school, and the teacher’s aide, but Crews said no one from the school reached out to apologize.
“I gave them a chance to fix the issue, and they did not,” she said. “Nobody reached out and apologized; nobody did anything. All they did was suspend the teacher and assistant. That’s not good enough for my child.”
In a statement to WRAL, Sutton said, “The allegations of misconduct are under review, and we will take appropriate action based on the outcome of that investigation.”
This is completely unacceptable! There is no reason this should have ever happened. In addition to the firing of the teacher, more training should take place.
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