Who is Karla Lasiter? Racist White Arkansas teacher makes Black child unclog toilet full of feces with bare hands
In a shocking incident, a five-year-old Black kindergarten student in Arkansas was made to unclog a toilet full of feces with his bare hands by his teacher for using "too much toilet paper". The elementary school teacher, Karla Lasiter, has since been placed on administrative leave after the incident was reported by the victim's grandmother on social media.
The incident occurred in Crystal Hill Elementary School, which is located in North Little Rock and comes under the Pulaski County Special School District.
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Who is Karla Lasiter?
Karla Perkins Lasiter, who is still listed on the school’s website as a kindergarten teacher in the Learning Services department, earned more than $57,000 a year in 2018-19 according to the school district documentation.
She was even quoted in a September 2020 article by KATV about how students were adjusting to wearing masks during the Covid pandemic. “I’m so used to just getting down on the floor, calling groups of kids down and mixing the kids up,” Lasiter said to the television station. “They know there is a pandemic, and we’ve talked about [how] if they don’t feel good, it’s important to stay home." The article said that “teachers like Lasiter… want parents to know they’re doing their best to keep their little ones safe.” Heavy reported that she helped incorporate, with her husband Jake Lasiter, a for-profit organization in 2004, the charter of which was forfeited.
The 51-year-old doesn’t have much of a social media presence though. However, she has been featured in various social media posts over the years. Her Pinterest page boasts of boards like 'Classroom Fun Ideas', 'Rules at School' and 'African American History Month'.
'This was done to degrade a young black male'
The boy’s grandmother, Tami Murry, wrote a lengthy post on Facebook about the incident. "Ashton's(my grаndson) teаcher mаde him put his hаnd in the commode аnd cleаn out his feces аnd tissue becаuse he stopped up the commode," she said in the post. "He is а young blаck mаle аnd this wаs done to degrаde him, belittle him, аnd it will cаuse him to hаve аnxiety, he keeps telling everyone whаt hаppened!" Adding that she called up multiple authorities including the school аnd PCSSD school boаrd, Murry said that she doesn't wаnt this teаcher to ever do this to аnother blаck mаle student аgаin.
The Pulaski County Special School District on Tuesday, March 9, are investigating the incident. However, Lasiter has tried to right the wrongs. “[Lasiter] got on the phone with me and she said she didn’t have an explanation, she just knew she was wrong,” Murry said. “But she stated to the principal that she was trying to teach how not to stop up the toilet... She needs to be terminated because you don’t treat kids like this. He is a kid.”
Fox 26 reported that after the boy's incident became public, the mother of another kindergartener from the same school also revealed what her daughter faced in a similar incident but with a different teacher. The woman, who remained anonymous, stated that the teacher accused her daughter of using too much toilet paper and was asked to pull it out with her bare hands. "This is a common occurrence at this school it seems. I told them, 'I pay my taxes so you can have janitors at the school, not kids unclogging toilets,'" the woman told the outlet.