Mom says teacher hit 5-year-old daughter in the eye with a ruler
The mother of a 5-year-old in Memphis, Tenn., says that her daughter was hit by a kindergarten teacher back in January. The mom noticed after arriving to pick the student up from school and finding the little girl with a bruise around her eye.
Ciara Morgan, 23, is both angered and confused over the way that Shelby County Schools has handled the incident, telling Yahoo Lifestyle that administrators at Cummings Elementary School had lied to her about what happened to her daughter, Hailey Turner.
According to Morgan, it was Hailey’s aunt who was initially called by the school and notified that the kindergartner was “having an allergic reaction.” When Morgan arrived at the school to pick her daughter up, however, Hailey told her mom that that wasn’t the case.
“Hailey said her teacher had hit her with a ruler and told her not to tell anyone,” Morgan said. “She said that her teacher said she will bring her a ‘LOL Doll’ if she doesn’t tell anyone what happened.”
Hailey explained to her mother that the incident was sparked when she told on another student for being on a computer after the teacher, Tierra Lewis, told students to stop using them.
“She said the teacher reached into her desk, pulled out a ruler, walked over to her and told her ‘no tattletaling’ and popped her,” Morgan told FOX 13 Memphis.
However, Morgan clarified that the school hasn’t verified any of these claims. In fact, she hadn’t heard anything about Lewis’s status with the school since the day of the incident, until her daughter returned home from school on Thursday to say that her teacher was back after being temporarily removed.
“Since the incident, the only thing the school has done was remove the teacher. Two weeks later they brought her back and removed my daughter from her class,” Morgan said. “I was upset! No one contacted me about my daughter being removed from the class or contacted me about them bringing that teacher back to the school.”
Representatives from Shelby County Schools have yet to respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment. However, the district confirmed to FOX 13 Memphis on Monday that it “can confirm this employee was removed from the school and received disciplinary consequences in accordance with board policy.”
Meanwhile, Morgan enrolled her daughter in a different school.
“My daughter has been withdrawn from that school,” Morgan said, “and I want everyone who was involved in this incident to be held accountable for their actions.”
The Tennessee Department of Education is responsible for investigating the allegations, according to FOX 13 Memphis.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
• Teacher’s powerful slavery lesson for Black History Month goes viral
• Police defend actions during cafeteria fight
• Investigation launched after football coach and student filmed exchanging blows
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