Thiel said the investigation for the incident should not take long.
“I do not know how long the investigation will take, but it doesn’t appear that it should take a long time,” he said.
Alicia Taylor said her 5-year-old daughter, Lybertie Crawford, came home off the school bus in tears on Thursday afternoon.
Taylor’s daughter said the principal at Urbana Elementary School pulled her to the side and told her “she is no longer allowed to wear her hair like this because it’s a distraction” and that she would have to “keep it up in a ponytail or braided up,” Taylor said.
After hearing this and calling the principal twice and leaving messages, Taylor said Thiel called her on Saturday and said he spoke with the principal and assistant principal who both said they did not speak with the student.
“I did speak with the principal and assistant principal who both said they did not speak with the student about changing her hair,” Thiel said. “When I initially spoke with them it did not sound to me like either the principal or assistant principal remembered talking with the student at all on the day in question.”
Taylor added that she has had other problems within in the district with her seven-year-old son also being bullied.
“He’s been told he don’t fit in at that school because of his skin color and needs to go back where he came from,” Taylor said.
Taylor said she has talked to Thiel before about another incident where her son came home with a red eye after he said he was punched on the bus, in which Taylor said the district told her they looked at the tape and the kids looked to be playing around.
Thiel said the children’s aunt had posted on Facebook previously about this incident as well as about “her niece and nephew being bullied and the nephew getting poked in the eye on the bus.”
“The school resource officer was involved, reviewed video tape from the bus, spoke with students, and I believe resolved the issue with parents/guardians,” Thiel said.
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