Kindergarten Student Claims Teacher Accosted Him In Bathroom

From: NBC 10.com, PA - Jun 4, 2004

PHILADELPHIA -- Parents are upset about what a teacher may have done to their children at one elementary school in Philadelphia.

Marilyn Freeman said a teacher followed her son into the boy's bathroom at Pollock Elementary School last October and began pulling up the kindergarten student's pants while he used the bathroom.

"He's been potty-trained since he was 2 and doesn't want anyone in the bathroom," Freeman said. "He doesn't need any help."

Freeman told the school principal what happened and they talked to the teacher -- Terry Pittman -- who had just been hired to tutor hearing-impaired students. The district said Pittman confessed but said he was trying to help the 6-year-old and promised it wouldn't happen again.

But according to Freeman, last month her son came home traumatized.

"While my son was urinating, the teacher walked in and gave him a hug," she said. "I flipped!"

The school district was contacted, and while it investigated, the teacher suddenly resigned last week. Parents like Michele Foy were outraged.

"The school district never notified any of the parents that any of this was going on," she said. "To this day, we haven't received any kind of letters or anything like that."

Freeman said she believes the Philadelphia School District is downplaying the link between the incidents with her son and the teacher's sudden departure.

"We weren't born yesterday," she said. "You can put two and two together and get the answer there."

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