MONROE, Wash. — Lily Minor was in her home-ec class at Monroe's Park Place Middle School when she says a substitute teacher, apparently frustrated with how she was washing a dish, flew off the handle.
"I had a dish in my hand. The sub came over and grabbed the dish, threw it in the sink and pushed me into the counter with her two hands," said the 13-year-old. "It hurt. She pushed me pretty hard, to the point it left a small bruise on my side."
Lily said another teacher was in the room at the time but didn't see the incident.
When that teacher noticed she was upset, she never asked what was wrong, according to Lily, and told her to take a walk in the hallway.
"If you see a student visibly upset about something we should probably find out why if you're gonna be a role model with adult supervision," said Lily's dad, Andrew.
Lily told her father she was too embarrassed to tell anyone about what happened, but her friends who saw it reported the incident the next day.
That was nearly six weeks ago.
There has been no action by the Monroe School District, according to the family.
"I know if I go into work and put my hands on someone, it's not going to take 5 weeks to get something figured out. In today's world, it's not acceptable," said Andrew.
He said he hopes the lesson his daughter learns from all this is that it's important to take a stand.
"I want her to stand up for herself, and everybody else. I want her to do what's right. Sometimes that isn't easy."
"It's not okay for anyone to put their hands on you but for a teacher to put their hands on you, that's just not okay in the first place," added Lily.
The Monroe School District released the following statement to KING 5 News in response to the allegations:
The Monroe School District received this complaint and it has been investigated. We take all allegations of this nature very seriously and all standard procedures have been followed. The investigation took longer than usual due to the inclement weather we experienced that closed our buildings for six days in February. The district contacted the family on February 1st and followed up on February 19 to update them on the progress of the investigation. We just concluded the investigation this afternoon and will be contacting the family to schedule a follow-up meeting with the school administration and the family. Due to employee and student privacy rights, we cannot comment on the results of the investigation.