A 5-year-old Michigan boy says that his preschool teacher taped his mouth shut and threw his lunch away, all the while laughing about it, Yahoo News is reporting . The alleged crime was seen by a witness, who called the police.
Back in March, Abdul Dannaoui was attending preschool at Great Start Readiness at Cherry Hill Baptist Church. The Crestwood School District, like many school districts and across the country, contracts with local private preschool centers in order to provide publicly-funded preschool education to kids such as Abdul.
What happened that day remains unclear. According to WXYZ-TV (Detroit), Abdul, who has asthma, was denied his lunch , for reasons that remain unclear. What’s more, says Abdul, a teacher taped his mouth shut.
“She put the scotch tape on my mouth.”
Abdul says that the teacher threw away his lunch, and similarly denied him food at snack time.
“They said don’t tell your mom or dad, or no one.”
Abdul’s mom, Hoda Dannaoui, says that the repeated denials of food left her sickly child gasping for breath.
“I’m emotionally heartbroken. Disappointed. That’s his second home. That’s how they treat a child with asthma.”
A witness observed the incident and reported it to school officials.
Michigan boy, 5, says substitute teacher aide taped his mouth shut, tossed lunch: Abdul Dannaoui… https://t.co/WcZvBZiqPN https://t.co/LeDZjXpyIR
— Channel News (@Channel__News) April 24, 2018
School officials then notified “ appropriate authorities ,” according to USA Today .
That’s not enough for Hoda, however. She says that she was never notified about the incident, only finding out about it when Abdul told her.
According to a statement from Crestwood School District, the teacher in question, a part-time substitute teacher, has been let go.
“We will say that this is not the normal standard of care that we provide to students. We always work to ensure that all children are safe and secure in a quality setting.”
Hoda, meanwhile, is concerned that a second teacher was involved in the incidents and also needs to be let go; the school district says there is no proof.
“We feel that it was just a joke among these teachers — a laugh for them.”
Abdul’s family intends to file a police report against the teacher involved in this alleged assault. They are also considering filing a civil lawsuit against the school district. The Dearborn Heights Police Department, for its part, confirms that they are “investigating” the incident.
Abdul’s family, meanwhile, plans on removing him from the Crestwood School District entirely.
Parents send their children to preschool and regular school believing that their kids will be well cared for by competent and compassionate professionals. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. In March, as reported by the Inquisitr , a preschool administrator in New Jersey was jailed for allegedly threatening two preschoolers with a knife.
