Talk About Having a Bad Day

Some days just stink. We've all had them, but perhaps note quite as bad as a 5-year-old boy did in Yakima, Wash., or perhaps his bus driver who just couldn't figure out where that smell was coming from.

According to news reports, the student had an accident --yes that kind of accident -- in his classroom. The teacher called the boy's father to alert him of the situation, to which Dad replied that his son had a change of clothes in his backpack. Sounds like a typical day in the life of a Kindergartner? Think again.

When the school bus dropped the boy at home that afternoon, his parents noticed he was wearing the same clothes and was completely clean. Then they opened his backpack. Inside, according to the parents, the teacher bagged up a piece of feces wrapped in a paper towel. A note accompanied it: "This little turd was on the floor in my classroom." But with the boy's clean appearance, the parents believe Mr. Hanky might belong to someone else.

While the school reps said they were investigating the incident, it makes you wonder what qualifications this teacher has that he or she would do such a thing to their 5-year-old student. Sensitivity training for teachers -- and bus drivers -- is vital in today's school environment, but this instance shows sheer stupidity. School transportation personnel are used to cleaning up excrement on the bus, so perhaps there's an opportunity here for departments to take stock of their own albeit mundane SOPs. Certainly messy situations are fun, but we're in the business of child education. You'd think other teachers, students and certainly the bus driver might smell a trail of something nasty emanating from that boy's backpack. And obviously the schools themselves need to revisit the basics.

Mama said there'd be days like this, but especially for this little tyke (and his parents) this one really reeks of a complete breakdown in adult supervision, leadership and common sense by those employed to care for our children.