Karla Lasiter Crystal Hill Elementary white teacher at Little Rock, Arkansas school placed on admin leave after forcing 5 year old black boy to clean clogged school toilet with hands. Child’s mother, Ashley Murry seeks to now have the educator fired.
A 5-year-old Arkansas ‘black boy’ was forced to clean a clogged toilet with his bare hands by a kindergarten teacher according to the child’s mother.
Ashley Murry said the teacher at Crystal Hill Elementary School in North Little Rock called her after the alleged March 5 incident that her son also relayed to her, KARK-TV reported.
‘She got on the phone with me and she said she didn’t have an explanation, she just knew she was wrong,’ Murry said. ‘But she stated to the principal that she was trying to teach [him] how not to stop up the toilet.’
Murry has since removed her son from the class and is now calling for the ‘white teacher’ — who has been put on administrative leave – to be fired.
Of note, while school officials declined to publicly reveal the teacher’s identity, social media identified the teacher as Karla Lasiter.
BREAKING: Elementary school teacher Karla Lasiter made a 5 YEAR-OLD BLACK student clean feces out of the toilet last Friday w/ his bare hands. She stated “she doesn’t know why she made him do it.” Crystal Hill Elementary, North Little Rock, AR has her on administrative leave. 😒 pic.twitter.com/NywlG9dtIP
— Juice (@DjWalt_) March 10, 2021
‘I want her fired’
Despite the teacher’s seeming attempt to apologize, Murry said that wasn’t enough and wanted the teacher to suffer consequences.
‘I feel like she needs to be trained, suspended, or terminated or something because that’s unacceptable,’ Murry told KATV. ‘I want my son to be in a safe environment, a good environment.’
‘He just came to me and said, ‘She made me get my boo boo out with my bare hands in the toilet.’ I’m like, ‘are you serious?’ He kept saying it and telling everybody, and I know when he’s lying,’ Murry told KARTV.
‘It’s degrading for a child, so I don’t feel like any child should have to go through this,’ Murry explained. ‘They basically made him go in the toilet and get his feces and the dirty tissue out of the toilet.’
Murry told KATV the teacher had her son clean out the commode because the student used too much toilet paper.
The Pulaski County Special School District said Thursday officials have begun the legal process to terminate the teacher. The unidentified educator will have a hearing prior to any final disciplinary action.
‘It is always our best intent to put the safety and well-being of our students as a top priority,’ district officials said in a statement. ‘The district will work to ensure that its mission of equity and excellence is upheld by all professional staff at all times.’
Systemic racism cited
The district’s superintendent, Charles McNulty, addressed the matter in a statement Wednesday, saying an investigation into the accusations was ongoing.
‘When we have these events that touch our humanity and affect us deeply, they reach us, so personally, their root is institutional and systemic,’ McNulty said. ‘Systemic racism, classism, sexism – they play in part of our daily lives, and sometimes these events overshadow who we are and who we need to be.’
Murry’s mother, meanwhile, said the explanation given to her daughter simply doesn’t hold water.
‘You want a child to out their hand in there physically and clean out the commode? No, no, no, so,’ Tami Murry told KARK-TV. ‘He’s not a janitor, he’s not a custodian, he’’s not maintenance. No, not at all.’
Posted Tami on Facebook in part: ‘This child is 5 years old in kindergarten!!! He is a young black male and this was done to degrade him, belittle him, and it will cause him to have anxiety, he keeps telling everyone what happened!!! I am not stopping until this is handled properly!!! We have to protect our black males but decent and in order!!!!! This woman had the nerve to say she didn’t know why she did it after admitting to it!!!!’
The Murrys say their fight is tied to preventing another child from experiencing the embarrassment and shame.
Petition to have kindergarten teacher fired and or lose license
‘I don’t ever want this to happen to another child again,’ Tami continued.
It continued to remain un-clear what prompted the teacher to force the ‘black child’ to un-clog the toilet.
Of note, Lasiter is still listed on the school’s website as a kindergarten teacher in the Learning Services department.
In 2018-2019, she was listed in school district documentation as earning more than $57,000 a year.
A change org petition demanding the firing and loss of license to teach for Karla Lassiter had garnered 1645 out of a 2500 goal to force a motion.
A GoFundMe page for legal fees for the boy, Justice4Ashton had by Friday evening raised $11,190 after an initial $5,000 goal.
