GROSSE POINTE WOODS, Mich. (WXYZ) — A music teacher at Mason Elementary School in Grosse Pointe Woods is on paid leave and under investigation for allegedly asking a kindergarten boy to rub lotion on his back.
The incident was first reported by a 5-year-old girl in the class to her parents.
The father of the boy, Dr. Chris Seitz, met with the Deputy Superintendent this morning and was told the music teacher would remain in class during the investigation.
The dad is Dr. Chris Seitz and says why he needed our help to get the schools to do the right thing... https://t.co/DZpNViZYnY pic.twitter.com/KTZErrsISq
— Jim Kiertzner WXYZ (@kiertzner7) December 6, 2019
How do you discuss this incident with your 5 year old son? The son says, he just wanted to help the teacher... https://t.co/3kLA1GzzPz pic.twitter.com/3yQIR3eF5T
— Jim Kiertzner WXYZ (@kiertzner7) December 6, 2019
Within an hour, the district flip-flopped after we met that dad outside of the administration building and he told us, “the teacher at least during the course of the investigation should be removed. Unfortunately, that was not the case, so that teacher is there today. We’ve removed our son.”
The alleged incident happened on Tuesday. The kindergarten students went from their daily classroom to the music room with that accused teacher.
The parents of the girl who came home and told them also kept her out of school.
Dr. Seitz continued to shake his head in disbelief talking with us, “You now have two students who don’t feel comfortable being in class with a teacher, I just don’t see how it’s not the policy to remove that teacher."
Get this, Superintendent, Dr. Gary Niehaus overruled his Deputy and put the music teacher on paid leave.
Dr. Seitz says when they asked their 5-year-old son how the teacher asked him to rub lotion on his back, he said he just wanted to help, “He loves people. He was just trying to help. And we expressed someone shouldn’t ask you to do that, he actually said to us, ‘but I didn’t want to get into trouble.’ That to me is such a red flag.”
Dr. Seitz says this has a potential sexual assault component to it.
The Superintendent is now moving the investigation outside of the district saying, “That’s why we asked Child Protective Services to come in and help us make that determination and find out what the real intent was.”
The Superintendent says the music teacher has several years on the job and no prior incidents. He would not say how the teacher has answered to the allegations so far.
Dr. Seitz says he’s filing a police report and he’s glad he contacted 7 Action News to get the word out to all parents.
