Teacher sets up desk in bathroom stall for autistic student

A mother asked her sons teacher for a "quiet place" to learn, the teacher set up a desk and chair in a toilet stall. Photo / Facebook

A Washington mother asked her son's school to give him a "quiet place" to work, only to find out that the autistic boy's desk had been put in a bathroom stall.

"I was stunned," the mother, Danielle Goodwin, told CNN affiliate KOMO. "I was so shocked, I just took the picture because I didn't believe what I was seeing."

The picture, which the 11-year-old's mother posted to Facebook, shows a desk placed over a toilet and a chair opposite in a toilet stall at Bellingham school.

A mother asked her sons teacher for a "quiet place" to learn, the teacher set up a desk and chair in a toilet stall. Photo / Facebook

"She also provided a camping mat and pillow for him to nap … on the bathroom floor," Goodwin wrote in the post.

"My son was humiliated, embarrassed and disgusted at this inhumane suggestion that he work in a bathroom," she added.

She also said that her son, Lucas, threw up from the anxiety caused by the situation he was put in.

The mother revealed that her son has special needs and works best in quiet spaces. When she asked her son's teacher if there would be an alternative to the classroom, such as the library, the teacher said no.

The bathroom was also a problem for Lucas as he has an autoimmune disorder.

"He can't be around germs," the mother told KOMO. "It smells and just the thought of my son working his school day away in a bathroom was disturbing to me."

Bellingham Public School superintendent Greg Baker defended the decision made by the teacher, stating that the bathroom is "not an active restroom", and that the school did not have the funding to supply Lucas with a quiet area to learn.

"We are all probably aware that state funding for schools is limited, particularly with regards to construction, and thus schools often have limited space to meet students' instructional and social-emotional needs," Baker's statement read.

"My preliminary assessment is this idea was well-intentioned, but in the end we did not move forward with it," he added.

The Goodwins are now in the process of filing a lawsuit, CNN reports.

"This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen a school district do," the Goodwins' attorney said. "There's a lot of different ways you can accommodate students with disabilities without humiliating them."