The Children's Aid Society is investigating after a substitute teacher at a French Catholic school in Simcoe, Ont. allegedly made a grade 3 student eat food out of a garbage can.
Renee Luise Oettershagen was teaching at L'école élémentaire catholique Sainte-Marie when an eight-year-old student threw out a banana because it was "rotten," her mother Jordan Stewart told QMI Agency.
UPDATE: The accused teacher has been relieved of her duties as of Thursday evening, confirmed the school board, Conseil scolaire de district catholique Centre-Sud in a press release. The board says the teacher's action did not meet their standards of professionalism.
The teacher allegedly pulled the banana out of the trash, peeled it, took a piece for herself and made the student eat the rest, MyFM reported.
Stewart drove to the school when she learned about the incident on Feb. 27, but she told CHCH News that officials didn't take her concerns seriously.
"In walks the teacher, who said, 'I was only trying to teach her good food lessons and good food values, and not to waste food,'" she told the network.
This reportedly isn't the first time that Oettershagen has made their daughter eat food that was thrown in the garbage. She allegedly made Stewart's daughter eat school-provided sandwiches that she threw in the trash because she doesn't like lettuce on numerous occasions.
Stewart contacted the Children's Aid Society and was allegedly told that eating garbage had become normal for her daughter.
Both the school and the District Catholique Centre-Sud of Toronto declined to comment, though Principal Gamache Brown confirmed that Oettershagen is still employed there, QMI reported.
Oettershagen is also facing a hearing into allegations of "professional misconduct" and incompetence from when she worked for the Halton District School Board.
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