A five-year-old boy was made to clean
toilets by a caregiver as punishment at a Child, Youth and
Family-funded after-school care programme in Rotorua.
Now his mother is seeking legal advice on the punishment -
dished out after the boy supposedly hit a girl in the face with a
ball.
Oriwa Pehi-Livapulu said her son Noble could have become sick
after the incident at the Chipmunks Centre last week.
He was only five and did not even clean the toilet at home, she
said.
"My mana has been taken away from me. Noble's spirit has been
trampled on.", she told The New Zealand Herald.
She has complained to CYF, which funded the programme.
Noble has denied hitting the girl on purpose and the incident was
an accident, she said.
Chipmunks centre owner Doug Lambert did not return calls
yesterday but has said Noble was made to squirt cleaning product
into a toilet before scrubbing it with a brush while being
supervised by the 40-year-old caregiver, who was new.
The caregiver had been told she must not use cleaning toilets as
a punishment.
CYF would not comment on whether making a child clean a toilet
was appropriate.
NZPA