A Calgary mother is demanding answers as to why her daughter was sent home with a note from her school taped to her body.
According to Brittany Messum, her four-year-old daughter Ezrah arrived home from Penbrooke Meadows School in southeast Calgary on Tuesday afternoon with a letter taped to her chest, reminding parents of an upcoming parent-teacher conference.
“She comes home with a friggen (sic) note tape to her chest like she’s some kind of dummy or I’m some kind of idiot,” Messum wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.
Speaking to Global News on Wednesday, Messum said her daughter, who is in Kindergarten, was visibly upset and was confused about why the note was taped to her.
“When she opened her coat and I had seen the note, I was confused at first and then I was angry, not understanding why something had been taped to my daughter. Like, there are other forms of communication,” Messum said.
“She didn’t understand why it was taped to her chest.”
“Every single note that had been given to me had always been in her backpack or by email — or there’s a phone, you can always call.”
In the note, her daughter’s teachers had asked if Messam was going to make the parent-teacher appointment, which she said was already booked.
“The note being sent home was irrelevant in the first place, let alone taped to my daughter’s chest.”
Messum said Ezrah and a few other students in the class were singled out with the taped notes.
“She felt odd and different and it made her upset, so it made me upset as a mom,” she said. “To tape it to her chest, I felt like maybe they were trying to insult me, or say that my daughter wasn’t smart enough to give it to me.”
Messum said she met with staff on Wednesday morning but said one of the teachers couldn’t explain why it happened.
“She just went in circles… it’s almost like she didn’t know how to explain it or she was scared to explain it,” Messum said.
Messum said she has not spoken directly to the teacher who allegedly taped the note to her daughter’s chest.
In a meeting scheduled with the principal of the school Wednesday afternoon, Messum said nothing was resolved and she “didn’t get anywhere” as to why the incident happened in the first place.
“I was very frustrated… they danced around the subject,” Messum said.
According to Messum, school officials suggested her child be removed from that teacher’s classroom and into another, which Messum said she will be doing.
She also said officials reassured her it won’t happen again, but stopped short of apologizing or offering up a reason.
Messum said she has another meeting scheduled for tomorrow, and another the following week.
In a statement emailed to Global News, the Calgary Board of Education said: “This matter has been referred back to the school and the administration is working with the family to address their concerns.”
When Global News pressed for more answers, a spokesperson for the CBE said: “We have no other information to add.”