Boy Forced To Wear Skirt As Punishment

Teacher Allegedly Confesses To Putting Dress On Student

POSTED: 4:57 pm EST February 27, 2004

UPDATED: 10:52 pm EST February 28, 2004

A Central Florida preschool faces allegations of punishing children in an unusual and potentially traumatic way after a teacher's reported confession of putting a boy in a girl's dress, according to a Local 6 News report.

The family of a 5-year-old boy who was reportedly put in a yellow dress because he was talking too much said Friday that they plan to file a lawsuit against the Merriday Montessori School.

"It was a form of punishment, because he would not listen, they put him in a dress," the boy's grandmother Brenda Bradley said. "A yellow dress, and had my other grandson and the rest of the class laughing at him."

The details Bradley told Local 6 News about were confirmed in a 43-page Department of Children & Families report obtained by Local 6 News. In the report, the teacher admitted that she put a dress on the boy because, she stated, he was "being unruly."

Local 6 News obtained a copy of the taped interview between the DCF case worker and the 5-year-old child describing the incident:

Child: "When I was watching TV, I was talking too much and Miss Valerie put the dress on me."

DCF worker: "What color was the dress?"

Child: "Yellow."

DCF worker: "With flowers?"

Child: "Um hum. -- they laughed at me with the dress."

DCF worker: "Who?"

Child: "Everyone."

The child's mother, Tiffany Fairlamb, told Local 6 News that the teacher said her son would not listen so she had to put him in a dress, according to the report.

Local 6 News has learned that the case may not have been an isolated incident, according to reporter Wendy Saltzman.

Saltzman said that another child told his mother that a different boy at the school had been punished in the exact same way.

"I think this is a practice that happened more than once, by more than one teacher to more than one student," Fairlamb said.

Local 6 News reported that Merriday Motessori School stonewalled repeated requests for an interview and refused to acknowledge the unsettling allegations.

Local 6 News reported that DCF closed their case without any action, because, they said there was a low level of risk since the family has already removed their two kids from the school.

However, Local 6 News will investigate whether DCF did their job in Friday night's 11 p.m. show and speak to another parent.