DEARBORN HEIGHTS, MI (WXYZ/CNN) - A family in Michigan is outraged after, they say, their five-year-old had his mouth taped shut by teachers so he couldn’t eat lunch.
It was preschooler Abdul Dannoui's lunch hour when he says abuse at the hands of two teachers left him hungry, humiliated and barely breathing.
"She put the scotch tape on my mouth," Dannoui said.
He said he didn’t eat all day.
The student says back on March 26 at Highview Elementary School, not one but two teachers had a laugh at his expense, then tried to cover it up.
"They said don't tell your mom or dad, or no one," he said.
But Abdul did tell his mother, how as many as 10 times recently during snack time and lunch, he was the target of bullying and had his food thrown in the garbage.
"I'm emotionally heartbroken. Disappointed,” said Hoda Dannoui, Abdul’s mother. “That's his second home. That's how they treat a child with asthma? I am not afraid, I am going to fight for my kid."
The family’s attorney, Nabih Ayad, said the teachers saw what they were doing as a kind of prank, but nobody in the Dannoui family is laughing.
"We feel that it was just a joke amongst these teachers, a laugh for them,” Ayad said. “It's outrageous. It's absurd that you think you send your kid to a place or school, where he would be safe."
Ayad said the family has filed a police report and is pursuing legal action against the school district that's failed to properly address the situation.
Ayad added that despite overwhelming accounts of what happened, one of those teachers is still in the classroom.
"One of the teachers was discharged. However they kept the other teacher in there,” Ayad said. “And the other teacher told him, ‘Don't tell your mom or dad,’ and even gave him a bracelet to entice him not to say it to his mom or dad or to tell anyone."
The Dearborn Heights School District has not responded to requests for a comment.
Meanwhile, Abdul's parents say they are moving him to a new school.
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