Arkansas teacher on leave for allegedly forcing 5-year-old to pull feces out of toilet 'with his bare hands'

An Arkansas teacher has been placed on administrative leave over allegations that she forced a kindergartner to pull feces and toilet paper out of a clogged toilet with his hand.

What are the details?

Ashley Murry's 5-year-old son came home from Crystal Hill Elementary School in Little Rock earlier this week and told her what happened, leaving her "horrified."

"It's degrading for a child so I don't feel like any child should have to go through this," Murry told KARK-TV, who reported that the child dug out the contents of the toilet "with his bare hands."

The mother added, "They basically made him go in the toilet and get his feces and the dirty tissue out of the toilet."

Murry alerted her mother, Tami Murry, of the incident, and the grandmother took to social media and calling local media outlets to report the ordeal.

"You want a child to put their hand in there physically and clean out the commode? No no no no no," Tami Murry told the station. "He's not a janitor, he's not a custodian, he's not maintenance, no, not at all."

In a Facebook post, Tami Murry said her grandson "is a young black male and this was done to degrade him, belittle him, and it will cause him to have anxiety." She added, "I don't know if it's racism or pure dislike for him, but something isn't right!!!!!"

Ashley Murry said that the teacher called her personally over the matter.

"She got on the phone with me and she said she didn't have an explanation, she just knew she was wrong," Ashley Murry recalled. "But she stated to the principal that she was trying to teach how not to stop up the toilet."

"I told her that's not good enough for me," the mother said, telling KARK that the teacher "needs to be terminated because you don't treat kids like this. He is a kid."

Officials at the Pulaski County Special School District said they were actively investigating the claim and that the teacher has been place on administrative leave in the meantime.

Anything else?

KATV-TV reported that this isn't the first such allegation that has been lodged against a teacher at Crystal Creek Elementary.

According to the outlet:

The mother of another Crystal Hill Elementary School kindergartener said the same thing happened to her daughter under a different teacher in the fall. The girl used too much toilet paper and was asked to pull it out with her bare hands, according to her mother. She contacted the school district who told her there would be an investigation.

"This is a common occurrence at this school it seems," the mother told the outlet. "I told them, 'I pay my taxes so you can have janitors at the school, not kids unclogging toilets.'"