Child sent home with feces to change schools

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The West Valley kindergartner whose teacher allegedly sent him home with a plastic bag containing human feces won’t be returning to that teacher’s classroom.

Instead, the boy’s father said Thursday, the child will be finishing the year with a different teacher at another school in the West Valley School District. Details are still being worked out with district officials, who met with the boy’s parents Wednesday night.

“I was very encouraged by their response,” said the father, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Jason. “They profusely apologized.”

On Thursday, West Valley School District  Superintendent Peter Ansingh said district officials investigated the April 17 incident involving longtime teacher Sue Graham and have taken “appropriate action” in the matter. He declined to elaborate but said Graham still has a job.

The teacher allegedly packed a bag of fecal matter into the boy’s backpack along with a sticky note that read: “This little turd was found on the floor in my room.”

“There’s no way the district condones what happened,” Ansingh said. “We feel badly for the family.”

The boy’s parents met Wednesday night with the superintendent, Apple Valley Elementary School principal Karen Craig and the district’s special services director, Hans Michielsen. The boy’s father said his son spends part of the school day in a special needs class and part of the day in Graham’s kindergarten class.

The father said he and his wife asked about the teacher and whether she had an explanation. “What has she said? What made her do this? ... And they said they can’t speak for her and her actions.”

Graham, 58, didn’t return calls to Apple Valley school or her home seeking comment Thursday.

“She has chosen not to speak, so the union has chosen not to,” said West Valley Education Association President Amy Osborn, who teaches history at the high school.

The father acknowledged he’s been called to Apple Valley three times during the school year to help his son clean up after himself after using the restroom, but said his son had never had an accident in class.

Last Friday, he said the teacher called him and said her classroom smelled, then asked if his son may have had an accident. He said he told her it may have been his son, and that there were extra clothes in they boy’s backpack.

“It has to be noted that we have worked with (her) every step along the way,” the father said of Graham. “We are just as frustrated, and I haven’t sent any special packages with a surprise in it to her. She just handled the situation wrong. It’s humiliating what she did, to my son and our family.”

News stories about the April 17 incident, meanwhile, continue to spread on the Internet, garnering comments that ranged from disgust and outrage, to support for the boy and his family as well as the teacher.

Some Web users and bloggers called the backpack note and package “cruel,” “sub-human” and “disgusting.” One wrote, “Give this teacher an award for not being politically correct ... ”

Ann Cairns, whose daughter is in a different Apple Valley kindergarten class, told the Herald-Republic on Thursday that people often are too quick to blame teachers when issues come up: “I think there also needs to be parent responsibility, too, not just the school.”

The boy’s father said he contacted local media this week after he called and

e-mailed school and district officials but got no response. School officials have referred all questions about the incident to Ansingh, who didn’t address the initial lack of response.

Ever since KIMA-TV and its sister station in Seattle, ABC-affiliate KOMO, broadcast the story Tuesday night, the phone “has been going crazy,” he said.

“We’ve had a lot of support, and we’ve had a lot of negative reactions,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me. If people want to hear the story, I’m going to tell them.”

• Yakima Herald-Republic reporter Phil Ferolito contributed to this report.