NEW ORLEANS — A teacher shown on a video roughly handling a toddler at the Little Red Cottage in Metairie has been fired, according to an email that the school sent to parents Thursday.
The video, which has been circulating on social media, shows an adult smacking a toddler on the backside with a cell phone and then dragging the child by their leg and then their arm. It ends with the adult on their phone and the child crying.
“We are deeply saddened by the recent events at the Little Red Cottage,” said the email from the school. “The conduct shown in the video is inconsistent with school policy, and that teacher will not be returning to the school.”
The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office told NOLA.com that it was investigating the video through its Special Victims Section.
The school sent out a statement and some Questions and Answers to parents.
In the Q&A section, the school said the video and incident occurred weeks before the school learned about them on June 20 in the Rainbow Room in the Cottage.
The school said that two other teachers and a person who had applied to be a teacher at the school were in the room. The applicant is apparently the source of the video. The school said it also has surveillance cameras and those showed the entire event.
The school did not say whether the other two teachers had been disciplined but did say that neither of them, nor the applicant had notified the school of the incident caught on camera.
Lauren Pilie's two-year-old attends the Little Red Schoolhouse. She says her child has had a good experience but the videos are concerning.
“I was terrified [when I first saw it],” Pilie said. “My child also struggles to nap. I was seeing my child in that video. It wasn’t my baby but it easily could have been I was scared and I’m scared now.”
The school also said that the taking of videos and photographs of the children and posting on social media is against school policy.
”We are refreshing our staff this week on the mandatory reporter policies and discipline policies,” said the school.
“It didn’t seem to be hidden by the teacher and there were other people in the room, so I was concerned it wasn’t something that seemed out of the norm. So I reached out to them I also want to know what steps are being taken to make sure this is not happening to any other child,” Pilie said.
There was no immediate word from the sheriff’s office on any police action on the teacher in the video.
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