BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB/Gray News) – A school administrator is facing a felony charge for allegedly forcing a 6-year-old student to clean up her own feces after the child had an accident caused by a dairy allergy.
The alleged incident happened at Rollins Place Elementary School near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in January.
Kristy Scott Gilpin turned herself into the East Baton Rouge Parish jail Monday morning.
She was booked on a felony charge of cruelty to juveniles.
Officials said the felony arrest warrant was issued after investigators reviewed surveillance video at the school.
Gilpin’s bond was set at $25,000, and she was released just before noon Monday.
Gilpin’s lawyer, John McClendon, said his client maintains her innocence and the child’s mother has “grossly misrepresented” what happened that day.
The child’s mother, Jamisha Augustine, previously told WAFB that her daughter has a dairy allergy, but despite this, she drank milk for breakfast at Rollins Place Elementary School and became sick almost immediately.
The mom said after drinking the milk, her daughter used the bathroom multiple times, but eventually, her teacher stopped letting her go.
“She asked her teacher to go to the restroom, but she said no because she went too many times,” Augustine said.
The 6-year-old ended up defecating on herself and then was forced to clean up the mess.
“So, upon her going to the office after having an accident, the principal told her she was too big to be having accidents on herself,” Augustine said.
The principal allegedly told Augustine that the child needed a form of discipline for the accident.
“I said, ‘What was the point of making her clean that up? Do y’all have janitors?’ She said they do have janitors, but she needed a form of discipline,” Augustine said. “I’m saying, how can you punish her for having an accident?”
Ben Necaise, the superintendent of Zachary Community Schools, said at the time of the incident that he did not condone the behavior of the teacher and principal.
“You learn from mistakes,” Necaise said. “You take ownership, accept them, and try to do what’s right by the child and parent. In hindsight, they realized that was not an appropriate step. We do have safety precautions that we have to abide by, and again, a child should never be put in that situation to have to deal with that.”
Calls from WAFB to the superintendent were not returned Monday morning about Gilpin’s employment status.
Augustine called the situation “irresponsible, hazardous, disgraceful, and really pathetic.”
The school system called her and offered a formal apology, but she believes actions speak louder than words.
“You [should] send a janitor in with the proper equipment,” Augustine said. “But a 6-year-old kid, you are going to make them clean up poop without gloves. It’s disgraceful and should not have gone on in our school. It should not have happened.”
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