BYRAM, Miss. (AP) – A Mississippi educator who was fired for reading a children’s book called “I Need a New Butt!” to the second graders he says he is going to court to try to get his job back.
Toby Price told the Clarion Ledger received a 12-page order Monday showing the Hinds County School Board had voted 2-1 in late April to uphold the superintendent’s decision to fire him in March. He was assistant principal at Gary Road Elementary School in Byram, a suburb of Jackson.
Price was initially suspended with pay, but was later fired after reading the book on Zoom. The book, by Dawn McMillan, chronicles a boy’s journey to find a new rear. It is illustrated with vignettes showing the character considering an armored stock, a rocket stock, and a robot stock.
While Price was engaging, Superintendent Delesicia Martin called the book “inappropriate” because it showed “private areas of the body”.
Price, an educator for two decades, described the book as “silly,” saying, “Kids get the joke as they read it.”
Teachers have come under increased scrutiny across the country. – particularly in Republican-led states – as advocates push book challenges and bans in an attempt to restrict how certain subjects are taught to students, particularly around racism, sexuality and gender.
Following his appeal hearing, the school board met on April 28 and heard from Price, his attorneys and school district officials. Board members then went into closed session and, with two of the five members abstaining, voted to uphold his dismissal.
“He fails to see the problems associated with a school administrator who desensitizes both adult and child nudity by exposing it to the children in his care,” the board wrote. “At the very least, he conditions kids to believe that all kinds of actions are nothing to worry about, they’re just fun. However, these activities are dangerous for children.”
The board said “I need a new butt!” showed inappropriate activity, such as painting by an adult on a child’s exposed bottom, an activity that would require a report to the state Department of Human Services for child abuse or neglect, the board wrote.
Price’s attorney listed other books in the school library that have similar themes or illustrations, including “Captain Underpants.”
Price published a short poem on Twitter referring to the superintendent’s decision, saying: “Price’s work in education lasted almost twenty years / All it took was one dumb book to finish his degree. / Giving that kind of power to one person / Will only make education and teaching worse.”
Then, he posted an update: “Two voted yes. One voted no. Two didn’t say anything. So Price had to go.”
.