Posted on 06/17/2012 8:29:18 AM PDT by rawhide
FORT WORTH, Texas – The parents of a third-grade boy have sued two Texas school employees, alleging that they forced their son to strip and shower in front of them because he "smelled badly, was dirty and had bad hygiene."
The eight-year-old was singled out last November and taken to the nurse's office at Peaster Elementary School where he was forced to remove his clothes, the suit alleges, the Courthouse News Service reported.
The two school officials then "began violently washing his body with a washcloth, scrubbing him over a large portion of his body, stuck cotton balls in his ears, all while ridiculing and harassing him about being 'dirty,'" the complaint claims.
The child's parents, Amber and Michael Tilley, said they lodged a police report over the incident but no charges were laid.
On Thursday, the Tilleys filed their lawsuit against Peaster Independent School District and Peaster Elementary School employees Julie West and Debbie Van Rite in federal court in Fort Worth.
"It's terrible, and we don't want anything like that to happen to any other children," Amber Tilley told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth.
According to the lawsuit, the incident left the boy "visibly and severely distraught," and he had to see a therapist after.
"He just kept on and on, wanting to take baths," Amber Tilley said. "You know, he just felt so disgusting."
She added that her son did not have a problem with body odour or cleanliness.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Back in the 70s there was a INDOT worker who bought new work clothes and wore them until absolutely filthy,then tossed them in the trash.
then there was the old batchelor farmer down the road who put soap powder in his clothing pockets and hung the clothes out when it looked like rain!
Bathing can become an issue with people with some illnesses especially if compounded with mental issues.
MOST people feel better and refreshed after a good bath ,but some depressed persons just don’t want to bother bathing,and it is a question if their poor hygiene then leads to them feeling even worse .
A local woman employee of the county HEALTH department here is charged with allowing her own sick,overweight sister to sit in a flithy chair for days,possibly weeks, before calling for help!The physically sick sister died.
It would be best if the school officials contracted the kid’s parents and told them he needed to bathe rather than taking it upon themselves. However, we don’t know if the school tried this and failed. I would not be surprised if the parents had “hygiene” issues too.
I work in a rural health clinic. There are a lot of people on welfare who can certainly afford cigarettes and booze but will not buy (or use) soap. Add a little stale cat pi$$ to the mix and it will make you gag. I have informed these types that the next time they come to the clinic I want them to shower and wash their clothes first because their “fragrance” is offensive to the clinic staff and the other patients. Some of them are OK with that and others get real uppity. Pigs.
I remember a family canoeing trip. One of our sons wouldn’t bath in the river. He had gotten to the age where that was a problem. So we ambushed him, tipped him out of the canoe and I had the soap ready. I had forgotten that. On a hiking trip, perhaps afraid we would do that again, he stripped down and skinny dipped in a mountain stream, dancing around. Sadly, no camera.
Bingo. Of all the posts you have the correct response. The student
has the right to personal privacy, period. Assuming the story is
complete the school employees should have contacted the parents
and told them to come and pick-up their kid. If that failed then
social services should have been contacted. The child’s condition
might be indicative of some other serious issues taking place in
the home.
There was a kid in my sister’s high school who stunk to high heaven. They took to leaving sticks of deodorant on his desk before he got to class, as a not-so-subtle hint. Sometimes a little ridicule can go a long way.
Every now and again we get an inmate who believes they have a constitutional right not to shower.Is it constitutional right not to shower, or constitutional right not to get forcibly raped... and they think staying dirty might protect them [because the system won't]?
Just asking.
At my last Air Force Station in southern Italy, all E-4s and below had to pull KP for five days at a crack, usually when the flight was on mids. While I showered after every KP shift, I (and a lot of other guys) wore the same set of fatigues every day. On day five, I could whistle and my fatigues would come walking over to me
Having lived in FT Worth for 15 years I have meet many ignorant redneck white trash who think nothing of letting their brood run around half naked filthy half starved
I had a hospitalman in the Navy who liked to show up to work 12hr shifts on the wards at Naval Hospital Jacksonville, FL, without taking a bath. After several complaints from patients, my CPO and I had a heart to heart talk with the guy. He agreed to bathe, and went on to do so, every day thereafter...
...Until he went to Fleet Marine Force (FMF) training with a Marine rifle company. Many nights they spent in barracks, so there was no excuse to not bathe. However, I guess he decided to revert to form.
The Marines were none too pleased, and proceeded to essentially keel haul his ass with soap and water.
When he returned to NH Jacksonville, he bathed EVERY day ....
This reminds me of a canoe trip I took in the Quebec wilderness a number of years ago. We’d all been paddling and portaging for about four days without time to bathe and all smelled and felt horrible. There were 11 of us, 6 men and 5 women. We finally got into camp early one evening and ALL OF US WANTED AND NEEDED TO BATHE. Unfortunately, we had only so much time and one beach. Modesty suddenly vanished. We all went in buck naked and bathed together.
There are also children who have accidents and have no other options. If he’s having accidents in his pants on the bus or not wiping his bottom, he may be stinky even if he was clean when leaving home.
If he’s in third grade, there isn’t the same level of forgiveness as a kindergartener, but one has to wonder WHY he’s stinking so much.
...Or, more likely, the teachers involved may have been bullying skanks.
I worked for Coopers & Lybrand in the early 70s. (One of the largest international CPA/consulting firms.) We shared offices with between two and four people. We had a guy we actually called “Stinky” with whom no one wanted to share office space.
Even after being counseled, he just wouldn’t bath. He really did reek! Never could understand how a well educated white kid could not understand about hygiene!?
You’d think that a guy, after discovering women, would try to put together then most desirable package. Maybe we should have “found” him a girlfriend?!
I have a teacher friend in the local area who advises kids don’t have to shower after gym/PE classes anymore due to modesty concerns.
He says that for some that have gym/PE early in the day, the classroom can become a ripe experience for all and, of course, nothing can be said for fear of offending the smelly kid.
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