The principal of Brookside Elementary School, in North Carolina turned in his resignation yesterday after suspending a 9-year-old boy for 2 days for calling a teacher ‘cute’.
Jerry Bostic, who is White, suspended Emanyea Lockett, who is black, for two days after the boy told a classmate he thought a another White teacher was ‘cute’. A substitute teacher overheard the conversation and told Mr. Bostic who suspended Emanyea for sexual harassment.
Speaking to local WSOC news, Emanyea said: “I was talking to my friend and I said Miss Taylor was cute. That’s all I said.”
Bostic turned in his resignation after 44 years with the school system.
“To me it’s a really sad final note to a career that I have found very satisfying and enjoy working with kids,” he said. “I really don’t believe I was treated fairly.”
Emanyea’s mother, Chiquita Lockett, told a local news reporter she thought the punishment was too severe. “It’s not like he went up to the woman and tried to grab her in a sexual way,” Mrs Lockett said.
Mr. Bostic’s picture has already been scrubbed from the school’s official website.