The mother of an 11-year-old boy with autism is furious and speaking out after her son's middle school teacher moved his desk into the boys' bathroom. Danielle Goodwin of Bellingham, Washington, says she was livid when she found out and even more confused by the logic behind it. The teacher allegedly moved Lucas' desk outside of the classroom to give him a "quiet" place to learn.
To say the mom was floored when her son told her what happened would be an understatement.
Speaking with Komo News, Goodwin shared that although her son's autism and autoimmune disorder mean that he often needs quiet, she has no idea why his teacher resorted to such an extreme measure. The mom went to visit her son's "new desk" on September 16 at Whatcom Middle School, where she snapped the photo that's now going viral. It's clear that her son is absolutely disgusted by it. After all, Lucas's desk is over a toilet.
“Sad, stressed, embarrassed,” Lucas Goodwin said about the whole thing. “I was like how is this happening? How am I in the bathroom? Why?”
“I was stunned,” his mother said. “I was so shocked I just took the picture because I didn’t believe what I was seeing.”
Goodwin added that her son's teacher gave him a camping mat so he could nap on the floor.
When she asked her son's teacher if there was another (more sanitary) option for him, she was allegedly told no.
That was one response the mom wasn't about to take lying down, though.
“It’s not an appropriate place for anyone, but especially for Lucas with his PANDAS condition (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections)," she said, explaining that he can’t be around germs.
"That’s something that can really affect his body,” Goodwin said. “It smelled and just the thought of my son working his school day away in a bathroom was disturbing to me.”
The mom took her son home from school Monday and says that he understandably doesn't want to go back.
“'Oh yeah, we’ll just put him in the bathroom, perfect space.’ That’s not OK. You don’t do that,” the boy explained.
Meanwhile, the school is chalking up the incident to a lack of space.
"While we are limited in what we can share due to privacy laws regarding individual students, I think it is important to share as much as possible to ensure transparency and trust," wrote school Superintendent Greg Baker in a statement on the school district's website.
"We are all probably aware that state funding for schools is limited, particularly with regards to construction, and thus schools often have limited space to meet students’ instructional and social-emotional needs. We are always looking for creative ways to best use our facilities to meet students’ needs," he continued.
"This current situation is an example of staff trying to seek a solution to temporarily repurpose a room," he wrote. "To our knowledge, the room had been used as storage, not as an active restroom.
"It didn’t turn out to be an idea that was used; no students spent time in the repurposed space as part of their school day," he wrote. "Again, my preliminary assessment is this idea was well-intentioned, but in the end we did not move forward with it."
There's no word yet on whether Goodwin will pursue the matter any further, but here's hoping the school and the teacher at the center of it all have learned a valuable lesson.
