JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local 6-year-old student was separated from the rest of his class by a curtain.
“I don’t know what would make them think that’s okay,” said his mother, Calise Knight.
Knight told Action News Jax she was shocked when she got a picture from her husband on Monday of their son sitting in the corner of the classroom with a black drape next to him.
“My husband went to the school to pay for a field trip. He walked passed my oldest son’s class and was looking for him. He walked in and realized, like, ‘Oh. My son is behind a curtain.’”
Knight’s 6-year-old son goes to The Potter’s House Christian Academy. She said her son had been having trouble focusing in class.
Knight had just met with her son’s teacher and the principal on Friday to try and come up strategies to help her son. But she said the curtain was not one of them.
“That was never a strategy. Moving his desk was one thing, but putting a curtain up to block him from the other students, that was never a strategy,” Knight said.
She said her son was behind the curtain in class both on Friday and on Monday, and she never got a call from the school about it.
“They said they’ve never done that for any other child,” Knight said.
"I don’t know what would make them think that’s okay."
— Dani Bozzini (@DaniANjax) February 26, 2020
Tonight, I spoke with the mother of the 6-year-old student you see here sitting in the corner behind this black curtain.
Hear the school's explanation for this only on @ActionNewsJax tonight at 10 & 11. pic.twitter.com/xIK6dWGQK0
The principal sent Action News Jax this statement about the incident:
“Using a drape within the classroom has never been used as a form of classroom discipline and this was not a discipline issue for us. The employee thought this would help the student re-focus after the student indicated that he could not complete his assignment or work because other students were looking at him. Once administration was notified of this, corrective actions were taken. Again, this was not and has never been used as a form of student discipline or strategy in the classroom.”
Knight said she just wants to make sure it doesn’t happen again to her son or anyone else’s.
“You can’t make that mistake again on anyone else’s child.”
Action News Jax spoke with a local psychologist who said the school’s actions were inappropriate. She said no 6-year-old should be isolated for more than six minutes.
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