Mississippi Assistant Principal Toby Price of Gary Road Elementary School was fired from his position after reading a book titled “I Need A New Butt!” to a class of second-graders last week.
Price said that he was instructed last week to prepare a Zoom meeting with a class of second-graders by the principal of Gary Road Elementary, according to WLBT. When the principal did not immediately show up to the meeting, he was directed to read a book to the students, Price said, according to the outlet.
#ICYMI: Assistant principal of @GREHCSD let go just last week after reading a book, titled, “I Need a New Butt!” (Pending a public hearing)
“Free speech is a chronic problem in our schools,” Joel Dillard says, who represents the @hcsdschools educator.#DawnMcMillan pic.twitter.com/WZ12aTkRRM
— Thao Ta (@ThaoTaTV) March 9, 2022
“I grabbed one of my favorite books that I had nearby, I read it to them. It’s a funny, silly book,” Price said, referring to Dawn McMillan’s “I Need a New Butt!,” according to WLBT.
Price added that he had read the same book previously in other school districts without complaint, WLBT reported. Price stated that other “widely accepted” books contain “much more suggestive material,” according to the outlet. (RELATED: Parents Concerned Over Sexually Graphic Books Found In Kansas Middle School Class Library)
The termination letter from the Hinds County School District superintendent said that, by choosing the book, Price displayed a “lack of professionalism and impaired judgement,” WLBT reported. Price is going to attempt to overturn his termination at an appeal hearing set for March 21, according to NBC News.
“If I had to do it all over again, I’d still share the silly, funny books with the kids, because they need them,” Price said, according to NBC News.
“The world’s a serious, harsh, dark place, and everybody needs a little bit of silly and a little bit of laughs every now and then,” he said.