HINDS COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – The Hinds County School District held one final hearing on Thursday, April 28, for the assistant principal who was fired after reading a book deemed inappropriate by the superintendent.
Gary Road Elementary School assistant principal Toby Price lost his job last month after reading the book titled I need a New Butt to a class of second graders.
Today an attorney representing Hinds County Superintendent Dr. Delesicia Martin and an attorney representing Price had an opportunity to make one final plea to the school board. The Superintendent’s attorney argued that Price has read a book like this before.
“This is not the first time that he has read a book about butts,” said the school district’s attorney, Elizabeth Maron. “As a matter of fact, he testified that during their school shutdown in spring of 2020, he read the 2nd book in this series called I Broke my Butt. This is an inappropriate situation and Dr. Martin had the guts to stand up and recognize it,” said Maron.
But Price’s attorney argues he was never told books like I Need a New Butt were not allowed.
“Mr. Price was not instructed not to read this book. there had been no prior training or information given to him that suggests this would be inappropriate,” said Price’s attorney Joel Dillard.
Price also got to tell his side of the story to board members one last time, and did it in the form of a poem.
During his time unemployed, Price started writing children’s books.
Price says if the decision is in his favor, he will go back to his job at Gary Road Elementary next school year. But if not, he plans to take legal action against the Hinds County School District.
“You have an overwhelming consensus from experts that this book is appropriate to read and that’s really what this is. It’s not does the superintendent want this book to be read, it’s is this a violation of professional standards? And in court I feel like that will be clear,” said Dillard.
A final decision from the district could be announced as early as Friday, April 29.