A first-grade teacher at a Houston-area charter school is out of a job and facing criminal charges for fondling one of her students. If it were possible to get more disgusting than that, investigators say the teacher claims she's innocent because she's prejudiced.
Officials said the incident involving Irene Stokes, 61, allegedly happened on March 22 inside a classroom at Northwest Preparatory Academy, which is located in the 600 block of Charles Street.
"It’s just nasty, you 61, you grown, you have no business touching on nobody's child," said the victim's mother.
“The victim said that she was in the classroom alone with the teacher and that the teacher touched her on the outside of her clothes, on what she called her ‘private part,’ her vaginal area,” said Humble Police Department Detective J. Blanchard.
The 6-year-old girl said when she told her teacher to stop, Irene Stokes, 61, told her to get out of the classroom, according to court records. The girl told investigators that Stokes made her stand out in the hallway outside of the class and then refused to allow her to eat lunch or take a test.
That afternoon, the girl burst out crying to her mother about what happened. The mother immediately called the school, which placed Stokes on leave and fired her after conducting its own investigation. When Humble police were called in, Stokes dropped a bombshell.
“She (said she) doesn’t like to even touch the black children on their hand, she shies away when they try to hug her -- she admitted to being prejudice,” Blanchard said.
“It’s an all basically dominate black school, so why were you there anyway,” asked the victim’s mother. "I’m hurt, angry to the fullest. I feel like you send your kids to school to learn.”
Stokes is due in court on May 21. She could get up to 20 years in prison if convicted. But even if she's acquitted, she just did a pretty good job of showing that she has no business in a classroom.
School officials are putting the entire staff through training. But apparently it's long overdue. Back in March, three teachers were arrested for bending a girl's arm so far backward she had to go to the hospital. Humble police have been called to the school over 20 times this year alone.