A St. James Parish teacher of the year is no longer employed by the public school system after the mother of an autistic second grader accused her of using a private online forum to post a video of the child crying at his desk, school officials said.
The mother, Brittny Hayes, 34, of Paulina, said she obtained the teacher's private Snapchat video, in which the teacher also appeared, making what Hayes called "sarcastic, smirking faces" while the Carrie Underwood country ballad "Jesus, Take the Wheel" played in the background.
"I mean, to me, it looks like she is mocking him. Like, she is putting him, in a very vulnerable state, on social media and she's sitting here acting like he is an inconvenience and she just doesn't want to deal with him," Hayes alleged. "That's what I took from it. It's a mockery of my child's disability."
Hayes provided a copy of the Snapchat video to The Advocate in which her child and the teacher appear.
On Tuesday, St. James Parish school officials said they were conducting a "deep and thorough investigation" into allegations of an "on campus incident" involving the possible "unauthorized dissemination of in-class student activities."
The teacher, whom the school system didn't name but the mother identified as Paulina Elementary math teacher Jenny Poche, had initially been placed on administrative leave, pending the investigation.
But, on Wednesday night, the school system released a statement that the teacher was no longer with the school system. The statement neither described the terms of the teacher's departure nor identified the teacher herself.
Poche did not return a voicemail for comment left on her cellphone on Wednesday and Thursday and a message left with a family member on Wednesday.
Snapchat is a private social media application that, as one of its primary features, automatically deletes posts after 24 hours unless someone in a user's private group saves the post.
Hayes, who is not part of the teacher's Snapchat group, said she was able to get the video before it was deleted.
She provided a copy of the video to the school system and spoke about it with her son's principal at Paulina Elementary last week and later a school system official.
Hayes said after bringing the video to the principal's attention, the principal and later a school system administrator proposed moving her son from the teacher's class.
But Hayes said she told the administrator that a midyear switch could be disruptive for her 7-year-old son due his autism.
She said she was later told that the teacher wouldn't be teaching his class.