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  • OTOH

    Filed at 3:45 pm under by dcobranchi

    This teacher will get what she deserves (in a strikingly similar situation).

    First, police say, Norman Elementary School teacher Mary Lou Botello made a 5-year-old student drop to his knees in the cafeteria and beg for forgiveness after making a racial comment to a custodian.

    Then, according to an affidavit filed Tuesday, she grabbed the student by his shirt, dragged him up a hallway and threw him into the principal’s office, where he slid on the floor and landed against a wooden bookcase. At one point in the hall, witnesses said, the child’s shoe came off, causing him to trip as the teacher continued her fast pace.

    Police decided that the teacher crossed the line between discipline and a crime during the March 26 incident. They charged Botello, 51, with injury to a child, a state jail felony punishable by up to two years behind bars.

    One Response to “OTOH”


    Comment by
    darby
    April 21st, 2004
    at 5:34 pm

    The poor little guy is a 70 lb 5yo. I had several thoughts on reading that article.

    1. If he’s 70lbs, then he looks a LOT bigger than his age, so they aren’t treating as if he’s actually 5.
    2. Has this kid been mistreated before, possibly because he’s fat, unattractive, and/or bigger than the other kids (and so assumed to be a bully?). And how long has this teacher been on his case?
    3. And where is he hearing racial comments, to be able to repeat them to a custodian?

    This is probably not the first time this teacher has “snapped”. So, I’m glad for her students sakes that she’s out of the classroom.
    I feel bad for the little guy. It can’t be easy to be a 70lb 5yo in public school, and life isn’t likely to get much easier for him. What scares me about this case in particular, is that mistreated kids too often go on to mistreat others. They pay it down. Just wait ’till this kid is in fifth grade and 180lbs, with a chip on his shoulder.
    Yikes!