A school has come under fire after a school lady was caught on camera forcing a young girl to eat food from the trash.
The shocking moment took place at Palm Elementary in Lorain, Ohio, where a Black fourth-grader was ordered to eat the waffle she had already thrown into a trash can.
As seen in disturbing CCTV footage, the student, who is presumably nine years old, was reprimanded by school lady Monika Sommers-Fridenstine who retrieved the contaminated waffle and told the girl to eat it.
According to the reports, the entire thing was witnessed by the school’s principal, Deborah Pustulka, who stood idle and failed to intervene.
The December recording was released just last week, prompting public outrage and calls for the school workers involved to be fired.
“We see in this video, she throws her lunch away like thousands of students do across the country do every day,” Jared Klebanow, the girl’s family’s attorney, said.
“For one reason or another, this monitor pulls the waffle from the garbage, holds it out like she doesn’t even want to look at it or see it, wipes it off with a napkin and hands it back to the student and forces her to eat it.”
The attorney, who has since filed a civil rights lawsuit in the family’s name, went on to question whether the bizarre punishment could have been racially motivated.
“Hundreds of Caucasian children have thrown away their lunches at Palm Elementary school and, upon information and belief, have never been required to eat food pulled from the garbage,” the suit reads.
Following public outrage and the federal lawsuit, both Sommers-Fridenstine and Pustulka have been fired.
Superintendent Jeff Graham has since condemned the pair’s actions and reassured the parents that “any infringement upon the dignity and respect of our students will not be tolerated.”
“Our students deserve staff members who are able to make good decisions in all situations — and any staff member who is unable to deliver on that promise is unwelcome in our schools,” he added.
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