A TEACHING assistant has been suspended – after mocking a crying four-year-old on Facebook.

Yasmine Judge posted a message on the social networking site saying she found it “funny” when little Faye McDonnell burst into tears after being punished.

Outraged parents have started a petition demanding she isn’t allowed to return to work at Lowerhouses CE Junior and Infant School.

Faye’s mum Louise McDonnell said: “I was fuming when I found out about this.”

Ms McDonald, 24, of New Laithe Road in Lowerhouses, explained what had happened to her daughter.

She said: “If the children do something wrong they have to go and sit under the thinking tree, which is a paper tree on the wall.

“They have to think about what they did wrong. It’s supposed to be a positive thing rather than just telling the child off.

“Ms Judge sent Faye to sit under the thinking tree. Faye says she didn’t do anything wrong but Ms Judge didn’t allow her to explain herself. She had to stand there for four minutes.”

Faye, who suffers from laryngitis, started crying.

Her mother said: “She has trouble breathing and when she gets upset she goes red and starts breathing heavily. She needs to be stood upright, not sitting under a thinking tree.”

Faye came home upset on February 10. Ms McDonnell said: “She’s a very confident little girl, very outspoken. She really enjoys school most of the time and she wouldn’t tell me why she didn’t want to go to school.

“I was so angry that the staff didn’t listen to her. School is supposed to be fun at that age.”

Ms McDonnell became even angrier when she learned that Ms Judge had mocked her daughter on Facebook.

She said: “The following day four or five other parents told me about the message on Facebook.

“Apparently she wrote about how funny it was when Faye was crying under the thinking tree.

“I wanted to know what had gone on but when I got to the school Miss Judge had already been sent home.”

Ms McDonnell spoke to head teacher Paul Scrimshaw. She said: “He told me he was sorry and that he didn’t approve of it.

“The school offered me an apology at first but I don’t think an apology is good enough.

“No amount of apologising can make it right. I don’t want to think of my child at school crying her eyes out.”

Ms Judge, 20, is still suspended and the message has been deleted from Facebook.

But Ms McDonnell has gathered 60 signatures for a petition demanding that she isn’t allowed to return to the school.

She said: “Mr Scrimshaw has told me that if she does come back to work it will be with the older children. But Faye would still see her in the playground and on school trips.

“If Miss Judge goes back I will pull Faye out of the school. I don’t want my daughter being unhappy.”

The Examiner contacted the school yesterday for a comment but was told to speak to Kirklees Council.

A council spokesman said: “A disciplinary process involving a teaching assistant is ongoing and we are unable to comment about this individual case.

“However, the school and the council are working closely together to resolve the issue.”