Teacher Who Told Students That Being Left-Handed Is Evil Must Be Stopped Before She Says the Earth Is Flat

There are a lot of things that human beings used to believe that we now think of as being kind of quaint and quirky. For example, people used to think that little demons caused colds, that the Earth was flat, and that being left-handed was evil. Those are all funny little factlets in a historical context, but believing in that sort of thing should really preclude a person from being in a position of educating children in 2015. Still, there is allegedly at least one teacher out there telling small children in Oklahoma that God hates lefties, and that’s terrible.

According to KFOR, 4-year-old Zayde Sands attends Oakes Elementary in Okemah, Oklahoma, where he is learning to read and write for the first time. Like his mother, Zayde apparently is dominant with his left hand, but last week his mother noticed him writing with his right hand instead and thought that was a little odd. She asked him why he switched, and he reportedly held up his left hand and said, “This one’s bad.”

Alisha Sands says she sent the teacher a note asking why she was allegedly telling Zayde that left hands were bad and that he should work to become right-handed. In response, Sands says the teacher sent her an article about how left-handedness was ”unlucky,” ”evil,” and ”sinister.” It also said the devil was depicted as left-handed, as though that were a good enough reason to tell a kid to try to use his other hand.

”It breaks my heart for him because someone actually believes that, believes my child is evil because he’s left handed, it’s crazy,” Sands said. She’s right that someone believing that is weird, but the crazy part is that the woman in question is an educator of children. What is she going to do next, start punishing all the redheads?

Sands says she went to the school superintendent with the article, but the superintendent–whom one assumes would be as gobsmacked by the absurdity of this as the rest of us–reportedly has not done anything to take care of the situation. Admittedly, this situation just popped up last week, and dealing with a pre-K teacher who thinks being left-handed is a sign of the devil is probably the sort of thing that takes some time to handle.

Sands alleges that the teacher stands behind her opinions and told the school that Sands “needed literature” on how left-handedness is evil. The principal told KFQR that she was aware of the situation and an investigation was underway.

Sands says Zayde will most likely switch classes, but it is absurd that he was ever put in this position to begin with. Who in 2015 really thinks left-handedness is evil? And how did that person make it all the way to the point of educating children before people realized she thought left-handedness was “sinister”? Someone failed this poor teacher when she was a child, and hopefully someone will intervene before she causes some more children to follow her crackpot “devil’s hand” theories. Because this makes for a good story–and could be an excellent college application essay for Zayde in about 13 years–but it has no place in real life.

(Photo: iStockPhoto/Getty Images/SE73)