More Kindergarten Cruelty: Missouri Girl Made to Sit in Class in Her Own Feces

By NICK CHILES

In today’s installment of kindergarten outrage, a kindergartner in Missouri was forced to sit in her feces at her desk for more than 15 minutes because her teacher wouldn’t allow her to go to the bathroom while the class was practicing for standardized tests they wouldn’t be taking for three more years. This story comes on the heels of a national uproar caused by a kindergartner in Georgia being handcuffed by police, taken to the station and charged with assault because she had a temper tantrum at school.

It must be National Kindergarten Cruelty Week at our nation’s schools.

The mother of the girl in Wasburne, Missouri (with the unfortunate name of Lisa Skidmore) said her daughter had the result of her loose bowels running down her legs as she sat in her chair. The girl had to sit in the stuff for more than a half hour before her mom could get her at the school—though the teacher did give her a garbage bag to wrap around herself.

“You don’t even treat a dog that way,” Skidmore said during an interview on a local Missouri television station.

It’s astounding how many of these teacher and school cruelty stories we recount on this site. There was the school administrator who forced a middle schooler to strip down to his underwear in front of classmates, the police officer who sprayed Mace in the air to clear the hallways—resulting in three students being brought to the hospital. The tales abound.

In this case, a teacher making unreasonable demands on a child just a few years out of training pants illustrate how rigid and illogical school rules have become. It’s bad enough that schools have practically eliminated recess—crucial breaks that not only give kids a much-needed time to de-stress but also improve their school performance—now a kindergartner is expected to hold it until the teacher says it’s okay for her to go? That is just not the way the 6-year-old body works. If they give even a couple minutes of advance warning before diarrhea disaster strikes, consider yourself lucky. Put yourself in the body of that little girl and imagine sitting for more than 15 minutes at your desk, immersed in your own filth, your stunned classmates staring, reacting, smelling the awful evidence.

Even though their 6-year-old was required to sit in her feces for more than a half hour, the girl’s parents say they aren’t pressing charges. Okay, but I hope they keep pressing their case: School staff must keep the humanity of our little ones close to heart at all times. I don’t think it’s too much to ask.

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1. Kindergartner Handcuffed and Brought to Police Station for Having a Tantrum? Ridiculous!
2. Police Officers in School? A Recipe for Student Failure
3. A Middle Schooler Strip Searched in Front of Classmates? This Needs to Stop
4. Police Officer Sprays Arkansas Students With Pepper Spray to Clear the Halls