Okla. Teacher Accused of Stopping Boy From Writing With Left Hand
Teacher apparently believes lefties and "wickedness" go hand in hand.
— -- An Oklahoma mother says her son’s teacher shamed the 4-year-old lefty into writing with his other hand.
Zayde Sands has always favored his left hand, but after coming home from Oakes Elementary in Okemah recently, he started using his right hand, mom Alisha Sands says.
“We were just working with his homework and I had noticed he was using his right hand instead of his left,” Sands said.
So Sands sent the teacher a note, she says, and the teacher responded with a message of her own: sending an article home in the boy’s folder, stating southpaws have often been considered “unlucky or inauspicious” and that some cultures associated lefties with “the idea of wickedness.”
“I thought I had read it wrong,” she said.
Sands complained to the school but, for now, the teacher hasn’t been disciplined.
Oklahoma’s Department of Education, which has not named the teacher, released a statement saying it is investigating the matter.
“It is deeply disturbing if the allegations are accurate,” the statement reads. “No young child should be made to feel shame because of the hand he or she favors."
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