MARIETTA, Georgia — A special education teacher at Mt. Bethel Elementary has been charged with cruelty to children after she put an autistic student in a trash can and called him to Oscar the Grouch.
The teacher, Mary Katherine Pursley allegedly told the child if he was going to ‘act trashy’ like “Oscar the Grouch”, he belonged in a trash can.
After putting him upside down in the trash can, Pursley asked, “Are you going to stop yelling now?” The boy was crying, yelling, and screaming “stop.”
Another teacher saw the incident and notified Police.
At a school system hearing Monday near Atlanta, Mary Katherine Pursley said the second-grader was screaming and upset April 30, and she was trying to “shake out the grouchy.”
A panel of former educators at the hearing decided she would be dismissed from Cobb County Schools.
Separately, Pursley faces a felony charge of first-degree cruelty to children.
The Cobb County school system released a statement in reaction to the arrest:
The District is aware of a teacher charged by police with Cruelty to Child. It is a personnel matter under investigation and no comment can be given. Safety and security of Cobb students continues to be our number one priority. Our attention is on making every remaining day of school for our students safe, healthy, engaging, meaningful and focused on academic excellence.
