CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Charlotte mom is calling for a teacher's firing after she says the teacher mistreated her 5-year-old daughter.
Shivon McDaniel says she first became suspicious in late November when she went to pick her daughter up early from school at Rama Road Elementary. She noticed her daughter was napping on the cold, bare floor without a mat or blanket when all of the other kids had one.
“For two days I asked about her blanket when she came home and for two days I spoke to the teacher, but was assured that she would receive one. She was just lying on the floor taking a nap,” said McDaniel.
McDaniel says shortly after reporting it to school administrators, the teacher's behavior toward her daughter escalated. She says days later, her daughter came home alleging that the assistant teacher locked her out of the classroom.
“She took two keys and she locked her out of the door and told her that she wasn't welcome in her class, that a stranger was going to get her, and that I didn't want her anymore,” said McDaniel, holding back tears.
McDaniel said she doesn't know how long her daughter was left outside the classroom, or what transpired in the moments she was found or let back in. But she says she does know it affected her. McDaniel says her daughter is in an exceptional learning class, which is specifically for students with autism or learning disabilities. She says because of the incident her daughter now has to have therapy.
“We have to reassure her every day. She doesn't want to go to school, she doesn't want to go to daycare,” lamented McDaniel.
Looking for answers, McDaniel says she first reached out to the school's principal but instead received a phone call from an assistant principal, who she says wasn't helpful.
“So, I decided to go into the office myself and speak with Mrs. Denny,” said McDaniel.
She claims the administrators set an appointment time with the principal, but when McDaniel showed up for it, administrators told her there was a miscommunication and she was there on the wrong date, and again denied her request to meet with the principal.
Without any answers from school administrators, McDaniel says she reached out to a lawyer who advised her to ask permission to view the school's surveillance cameras. She says again her request was denied by the school.
Not feeling her daughter's safety was being taken seriously, McDaniel pulled her daughter from the school and transferred her to another elementary school. She's speaking out now, fearful for other students still in the class.
“They're supposed to at least care enough not to hurt them, and they did. I just can't turn my back on the other babies in that classroom, it's not fair,” says McDaniel.
McDaniel says her daughter also alleges that the assistant teacher in the classroom pinches and hits the students that don't do what she wants.
“She's in the wrong profession if you're teaching children with exceptionalities and you can't handle them. That means you need to do something different,” she says.
In a statement, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools told NBC Charlotte that “CMS staff has attempted to meet with the parent on more than one occasion about their concerns. CMS did not refuse to speak to the parent nor did they refuse to take a telephone call.”
CMS says in order to further investigate a formal complaint would need to be filed.
McDaniel says she filed one Friday.