RICHMOND, Kan. — A controversy appears to be brewing in a small Kansas school district. A mother claims the school nurse bathed her four-year-old daughter without her permission. The superintendent says there’s no way that would happen.
Theresa Long is proud of her daughter, Kira. She’s learning how to spell her name and already knows her ABC’s. They talk about school everyday when she gets home, but Tuesday was surprising.
“I was going through her backpack and she tells me the nurse gave her a bath,” Theresa Long, mother, said. “I asked her what she meant, ‘You mean, like, she washed you with a washcloth, a washrag? No, mommy, they gave me a bath.”
The thought mortified Long, so she called the school and had a meeting with the superintendent. She wasn’t satisfied and called FOX 4.
Superintendent James White was more than willing to talk Thursday afternoon, but he couldn’t talk directly about the incident involving Kira.
“I’m limited by privacy rights.” White explained.
But White did lay out the district policy for a child who has an accident or messes up their clothes.
“Normally, call the parent and then the parent would make a decision to come get the child or tell us if they wanted us to do something else with the child,” White said.
Long said that didn’t happen. She did talk to Kira’s teacher, but said there was no mention of a bath.
“She told me that Kira had drooled all down the front of her clothes and that she was going to put her in a change of clothes, I was okay with that,” Long said.
Long wants to make a push for a policy change. White said the policy as it stands is fair, but the district is more than willing to consider change.
Both the superintendent and Long stand by their stories. They’ll get a chance to share them in detail with the school board at its next meeting in a few weeks.
