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Sickos in schools are doing everything to Black children but nurturing and educating them.

Overflowing bins in a park of Ciudad Universitaria, Madrid

Source: Carlos Ciudad Photos / Getty

What kind of educator looks at a little Black girl and decides she deserves to eat out of the garbage if she doesn’t finish every bite of her food? Fortunately, it’s the unemployed kind after this week. In Lorain County just outside of Cleveland, FOX8 reports that the school district fired Palm Elementary School Principal Debra Pustulka and staff member Monika Sommers-Fridenstine for forcing a 9-year-old to eat food from a garbage can. This week the district also released surveillance footage of the disgusting incident of child abuse after conducting an investigation for several weeks.

Sommers-Fridenstine is visible standing in a light blue shirt next to a yellow trashcan, where the student empties out her cafeteria tray. Principal Pustulka, seen standing near the garbage can in a black blazer, allegedly instigated the whole incident. The family claims Pustulka refused the girl’s request to eat the other meal option available that day and insisted that the child finish her unwanted waffles, even after they were already in the garbage can.

“We see in the video, this monitor, the named defendant, go ahead and grab the waffle out of the garbage and she appears to instruct the student to go get a paper towel, go back to her seat,” said Jared Klebanow, an attorney for the victim’s family.

“She places the waffle at the table and then for a matter of minutes is talking with her, instructing her, as we know from the victim’s standpoint, that she needs to eat this waffle that was in the garbage and the monitor goes as far as to sit right next to her, as is alleged in the complaint, and intimidate her into doing so.”

According to the lawsuit filed against the Lorain Board of Education Sommers-Fridenstine, the child was sick when she got home that day and went to the hospital with a fever. The suit alleges that Sommers-Fridenstine violated the 9-year-old’s rights and endangered her safety. The school district is accused of failure “to train against inappropriate and abusive misconduct.” Lorain City Schools Superintendent and CEO Dr. Jeff Graham reached out to the family to personally apologize on behalf of the district.

“Any infringement upon the dignity and respect of our students will not be tolerated,” Graham said in a statement he announced Sommers-Fridenstine and Pustulka were fired. “Our students deserve staff members who are able to make good decisions in all situations — and any staff member who is unable to deliver on that promise is unwelcome in our schools.”

A swift termination is a great start, but where are the criminal charges for treating this child like an animal? Do they force other students to get sick from eating garbage or just this one Black girl who has security footage to confirm her story? The student’s mother stated that in addition to making the child physically sick, this abuse also traumatized her. The girl lost interest in school and now has mental health challenges that require additional care. These people want to pull slavery and Jim Crow out of school books because those same tactics are still in their playbooks.

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