Teacher out after nasty note home

YAKIMA – A kindergarten teacher who sent a 5-year-old student home with a bag of feces tucked in his backpack is retiring at the end of the school year.

Teacher Sue Graham is currently on an unpaid leave of absence. She has worked for Yakima’s West Valley School District for 31 years.

Superintendent Peter Ansingh confirmed Tuesday that the West Valley school board this week accepted both Graham’s resignation and that of her husband, Ron Graham, a fifth-grade teacher. He will teach through the end of the academic year.

A school district official had warned Sue Graham in a May 2009 letter that similar behavior in the future would result in disciplinary action, including termination.

The boy’s father had said his son arrived home last April with the plastic bag of feces and a sticky note that read “This little turd was found on the floor in my room.”

The father acknowledged he had been called to the school a few times to help his son clean up after using the restroom. But he said his son had never had an accident in class.