OCHELATA, Okla. -- A woman in Caney Valley is advocating for a special needs student's rights because she believes he is being targeted by his teacher.
Angie Pearl said her third grade son who goes to Caney Valley Elementary told her something "bad" happened at school one day in August.
"He told me that one of his friends peed his pants in front of the class," Pearl said. "And I said how many times did he ask to go to the bathroom and my son told me two to three times."
Pearl said she let it go until a couple of weeks later. Her son came home from school again saying something bad happened after a teacher told the class to clean their desks.
"[The teacher] said, 'Class, do you know what happens when you don't have your desk clean in my class?'" Pearl said. "Everyone said 'no' and she proceeded to flip his desk with all of his belongings onto the floor and turn around and walk away and make him clean it up."
Pearl found out it was the same special needs student in both cases. She thinks the teacher is bullying the student.
Even though it is not her child, she is going to battle for the third grader, because she has a special needs son.
"I spent a lot of time when my son was that age fighting for him to get a fair education," Pearl said.
Pearl contacted the child's parents who said they have spoken up before because their son was being bullied in school. They told Pearl that he cries in the mornings before school and does not want to go.
She has also spoke with Superintendent Rick Peter, the principal of Caney Valley Elementary and tried to speak at the school board meeting on Monday night.
Pearl said she and other parents were given the runaround when they tried to address the board.
The concerned parent also reached out to DHS and the Oklahoma Board of Education.
Pearl said the teacher has singled children out in the past.
Superintendent Peter disagreed.
"That's not my understanding," Superintendent Peter said. "That may be her opinion and while certainly we respect her opinion, I don't know that is the case."
The Superintendent said they take bullying very seriously and use several different programs to teach the students about it.
He said the principal of the school is investigating what happened in this case.
Pearl has a meeting set up Wednesday morning with the school's principal, counselor and the teacher in question.
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