When a Florida father picked his 6-year-old daughter up at the bus stop on Tuesday, he was shocked to see his sobbing little girl was sent home in just a pair of panties and a t-shirt. He immediately called the school to demand answers as to how this could happen, only to learn the sickening reason the teacher made his daughter do it.

Raymond McCurdy’s unidentified daughter (left), Raymond McCurdy (right)

Raymond McCurdy said that earlier that day, his daughter had asked her Belle Terre Elementary teacher if she could use the restroom, but she was allegedly ignored. The upset father explained that the girl has a minor medical issue that makes it difficult to “hold it” when she needs to go to the bathroom. But when she raised her hand to ask if she could be excused, the teacher didn’t attend to her need until it was too late, and the child wet herself in her seat.

The girl was sent to the office to get cleaned up, where she was given a change of underwear and handed back her pants in bag. The school forced her to wear just the panties and the t-shirt for the remainder of the day and even ride the bus home in that way, as the ultimate insult to injury for this already embarrassed child.

By the time she got off the bus, she was in tears with her bag of soiled clothes in hand. Raymond said he lifted up her shirt and saw she didn’t have shorts on and was in someone else’s underwear. That’s when he quickly called the school’s assistant principal.

“We asked her why my daughter was sent home in just panties and a T-shirt, and she begins to tell me, ‘We thought she had a long enough shirt to be able to put her on the school bus and send her home,’” the frustrated father told WKMG News. “She’s been through enough in her life already and she’s only 6,” he added in reference to the medical struggle his child already deals with on a daily basis.

The school’s excuse for sending his daughter home in underwear, surrounded by other children, didn’t sit well with Raymond. He explained that Belle Terre Elementary has a dress code in which he has to ensure his child is always in compliance, yet the school can strip her down to practically nothing and that’s somehow acceptable. “They make me send her to school in clothes to their expectations, why couldn’t you send my kid home in clothes to your expectations?” he asked.

Now, his complaint has reached school district officials, who told the news station that they’re currently investigating the father’s claim. The problem begins in the classroom since kids are not allowed on-demand bathroom breaks, which is important for kindergartners, who are still learning bladder and bowel control.

About 15 percent of grade school-age children wet their pants at school, according to a report published in The Journal of Urology.

The report suggests that part of the problem is that teachers don’t give students on-demand bathroom breaks at an early age, asking children to hold the urge until a scheduled break, Web MD reported.

As students in kindergarten and first grade are still learning bladder and bowel control, restricted bathroom access shouldn’t begin in school until about the third grade, when students are 8 or 9, the report concluded.

Sources: WKMG News, WebMD

Photo credit: JohnPickenPhoto/Flickr, Jared and Corin/Flickr