Zayde is 4 years old and is just learning to read and write in pre-kindergarten at Oakes Elementary in Okemah, OK. One day his mom noticed that Zayde was writing with his right hand.
“I just asked ‘Is there anything his teachers ever asked about his hands?’ And he raises this one and says this one’s bad,” Sands said.
It was peculiar because, like Alisha, Zayde is left-handed. “From picking things up to throwing things, to batting, to writing, to just coloring you’d do at home with him, he’s always, always used his left hand,” Alisha Sands said.
Alisha wrote the teacher a letter asking why Zayde was forced to write with his non-dominant hand. The teacher sent back a hostile letter.
The letter contained an article referring to people who write with their left hands as "evil," "unlucky," and "sinister." A passage even said this, "for example, the devil is often portrayed as left-handed.”
“It breaks my heart for him because someone actually believes that, believes my child is evil because he’s left-handed, it’s crazy,” Alisha said.
Schools around the country have been in the hot seat for what many parents believe are cruel practices; a gym teacher is under fire for forcing students to do bear crawls on hot turf.
She took the letter to the superintendent but the teacher hasn't been reprimanded in any way, it seems.
“There was no suspension of any kind. There was basically nothing done to this teacher,” Alisha says. “She told them she thought I needed literature on it.”
Do you think left-handed people are "sinister" or is this an outdated practice best left in the past? Let us know in the comments!
Please SHARE if you know someone who is left-handed that isn't evil!
[photo credit: Alisha Sands/Facebook]
