Making students write a word or statement repeatedly as punishment is old school for some teachers. Usually, it's for a transgression such as cursing in class or not turning in homework on time.
But, have you ever heard of a teacher using the punishment on a child who called her "ma'am?"
We hadn't either until ABC 11 reported on the case of Tamarion Wilson, a North East Carolina Preparatory School fifth-grader who was required to write the word over and over and has the paper to prove it.
The 10-year-old's mother, Teretha Wilson, said she noticed something was wrong with her son after school.
"I asked him what happened. He said he got in trouble for saying, 'Yes ma'am,'" she said.
Her son then pulled out a piece of paper to show his mom where he had written the word "ma'am" over and over on both sides of notebook paper.
Coming up at 4:30 and 6 on @ABC11_WTVD: Parents of a Tarboro 5th grader are upset after their son got in trouble for calling a teacher "ma'am" against her wishes. In response, they say the teacher made him write the word repeatedly on a sheet of paper pic.twitter.com/KJghF8rPQb
— Michael Perchick (@MichaelPerchick) August 23, 2018
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That's … a lot.
Tamarion's father, McArthur Bryant, said he and his wife have long taught their son to refer to elders as "sir" and "ma'am."
Byrant added the incident made him feel a sense of guilt. "At the end of the day as a father, to feel kind of responsible for that … knowing that I have been raising him and doing the best that I can, it's not acceptable," he said.
Tamarion also told his parents his teacher said, "If she had something, she would have thrown it at him."
In a meeting with the teacher and the school's principal, the teacher admitted to saying she would have thrown something at the child but claimed it was a joke, the Huffington Post reports.
"It wasn't right. It wasn't professional. As a teacher, it wasn't appropriate. And I asked her why she thought it was OK to do that," Wilson said.
Tamarion had been instructed to return the paper featuring his punishment to the teacher with the signature of a parent. Wilson signed the sheet and added an additional page with the definition of the word "ma'am."
We stan a petty parent.
The school had little to say. In its official statement, it wrote, “This is a personnel matter which has been handled appropriately by the K-7 principal."
Wilson has requested her son be moved to a different classroom, and the principal has agreed.
Now, check these out:
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