Teacher Allegedly Used Detergent to Discipline Autistic Student

Moncille Thomas

A South Carolina teacher has been arrested and charged with a felony count of unlawful neglect of a child, after allegedly hitting a nonverbal autistic student with a dustpan and putting dish detergent in the child's mouth, reports WBTV News of Myrtle Beach, SC.

 A witness at Myrtle Beach Intermediate School told police on Thursday that teacher Moncille Thomas, 57, put dish detergent on her fingers, then put her fingers inside the mouth of a nonverbal autistic student, to discipline him for spitting. The police report says that the teacher then struck the child twice in the chest with a dustpan.

A spokesperson for Horry County Schools told WBTV that Thomas is a special education teacher who has been teaching for 28 years and was employed by Horry County Schools in 2004. The school district has placed the teacher on administrative leave, with pay, pending an investigation.

In the interest of privacy, the student's name and age have not been released, but Myrtle Beach Intermediate School teaches fourth and fifth grades.

Under South Carolina law, unlawful neglect of a child is a Class E felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Thomas' bond was set at $20,000 at a hearing.

WBTV reports that audiotape of the hearing includes these words from the boy's father:

"I watched a lot of harshness she was doing. Whatever the bond is, I hope it's the highest you can give."

According to the National Institutes of Health, dish detergent and dish soap are poisonous. Ingesting dish detergent can cause swelling of the throat, burns to the esophagus, breathing difficulty, and rapid changes in blood pressure and blood acid levels, among other problems. Of course, much depends on the detergent's ingredients, the amount consumed, and other factors, like how much time lapses between ingestion and treatment. But detergent is nothing to mess with: earlier this month, a baby died in Florida after accidentally eating a laundry detergent packet.