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On Jan. 13, Sierra Carter received a surprising phone call from her
daughter's elementary school teacher. The fifth grader had drawn an
"inappropriate" picture in class.

The drawing � a pink pig with a necktie in the shape of what could be
interpreted as male genitalia � was brought to the teacher's attention by
a classmate who'd informed them that Carter's daughter drew "boy parts on
a pig."

The 11-year-old, according to her mom, told her teacher that she drew a
"bow tie," not "boy parts."

"The teacher told her, 'I'm going to have to give it to the principal and
ask him how he wants to handle it,'" which she did, Carter tells Yahoo
Life. "They didn't even talk to my daughter, didn't try to investigate it
at all. Nothing. The principal just said to write her up."

That was on a Friday. On the following Tuesday, Carter met with the
school's vice principal, a social worker and her daughter to discuss the
drawing. "That was when I saw it for the first time and I was beside
myself," she explains. "This is very much a bow tie."

Attached to the drawing, Carter alleges, was a stapled piece of paper
describing the various ways her daughter had reacted to the teacher when
pressed about the drawing. Carter says she was told that the photo and its
attached paper were going in her daughter's student file, at the request
of the school's principal.

"I said, 'I would like to discuss this with him as well,'" she recalls
saying in the meeting. "So somebody went and got him and he came in. I
pointed to [the drawing] right away and I said to him, 'I'm not quite sure
what's wrong with this. This is a bow tie.' And he argued with me. He
goes, 'Well, bow ties have a bow.' I'm like, 'Well, she's 11, and when she
was drawing a bow tie, to her, this is her interpretation of that.' I was
like, 'This is very clearly a bow tie.'"

"I feel like every adult along the way should have shot this down," she
says. "They should have looked at it, and they should have at least asked
her, 'What is this? What did you draw?' And then if she said, 'It's a
bowtie,' shut it down. You can't just sit there and assume or ostracize a
child for something like that. Because one boy thinks it's something,
that's the word you're gonna take?"

When she got home that night, Carter took to TikTok to vent about the
situation in a video that�s since garnered over 600K views with nearly 14K
comments, many of which are from concerned parents raising a debate about
whether the school's actions were befitting the alleged offense.

"The social worker could have stopped this issue in seconds, shameful! The
adults have their heads in the gutter," one comment read.

"Teacher here... bow tie, but woulda had to show my fellow teachers
because it�s cute and funny," another read. "Nothing more."

"Glad you stood up for your daughter. That�s 100% a bow tie and she is so
innocent. Sad this happened," a supporter wrote, with another adding: "I
am a teacher. Definitely a bow tie. It is in the wrong place to be the
other."

Carter says she requested that the school give her the drawing, which they
obliged, before explaining that they "needed to make a copy" of it to
place in her daughter's file.

�I should have just grabbed it," she says now. "I told the principal, 'I
honestly feel like she is owed an apology at this point for the entire
thing. And he was like, 'Well, who do you expect to apologize to her?' It
was just awful."

The next week, after the heated meeting, Carter says the vice principal
sat in her daughter's classroom the entire day.

"I don't know what that was about or what the true reason was," she
admits, but it was enough for her to make the decision to transfer her two
daughters � 11 and 8 � to another school district citing concerns of
emotional stress for them.

The district's superintendent, John Denney confirmed with Yahoo Life there
is nothing in Carter's daughter's file pertaining to the photo. In a
separate statement, the school district acknowledged the matter by saying
"it is unfortunate that a one-sided narrative has been created on social
media that paints our staff in a negative light. As with every situation,
there are two sides to this story."

"In this case, a student appropriately brought concerns to the attention
of our staff," the statement continued. "In response, our staff handled
the situation with compassion and discretion. Staff contacted the
student�s parents to discuss the situation. No student was singled out or
ostracized. Every effort was made to protect the privacy and dignity of
all students. Nothing has been placed in any student�s school records
related to this matter."

Carter says she and her husband were "never notified" of the photo being
removed from the student file. �Last we knew, the principal made a copy of
it and said it would remain in her file.�

As seen in an email, obtained by Yahoo Life, from Denney to Carter about
the situation, Denney clarifies it is a "common process" for teachers to
take notes about such incidents to "look back on if a similar thing occurs
later in the year," reiterating that her daughter's "official file has no
reference to or indication of the situation in question."

Still, Carter says the real issue is not about the drawing or the student
file, but rather, the mistreatment she feels her daughter experienced at
the hands of adults � and the responsibility for educators to "ask
questions" so kids don't feel "ostracized" or "targeted" or "embarrassed�
at school.

The mom of three, who lost her 7-year-old son Carter six years ago to
mitochondrial disease, says the passing of her eldest child inspired her
to publish a children's book last year, Meet Carter, and to be an advocate
for "kids who do things differently" so adults can "understand them and
find a mutual ground."

That, she admits, is what fuels her message to school educators now.

"Kids are trying to acclimate to school again [post COVID], and I think
teachers may be too quick to act on situations that shouldn't be taken
this way," she explains. "I just hope we can stop, take a breath, try to
look at each situation for what it is and talk to the students, you know,
get their side of the story. Find out all the facts before you jump on a
disciplinary thing like this. This never had to happen."

<https://news.yahoo.com/mom-school-drawing-bow-tie-education-district-
012328421.html>