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A school picture day scare cost a photographer her job and raised discussions of “good vs evil” when a child was allegedly asked, “Can I eat your soul?”

The culture war and government-run education system may have desensitized many to the ever-blurring lines of what should or should not be acceptable. However, one boy at Chittum Elementary School in Chesapeake, Virginia maintained the conviction to speak out when confronted by an alleged bad actor.

Speaking with WTKR, mother Rachel Fjeld recounted her son’s experience on picture day when the photographer made a series of alarming statements to him.

“Can I steal your identity?” and “Can I eat your soul?” were said to have been asked by the photographer.

“Her next question was, ‘Well, then what can I eat?’” explained Fjeld, who said her son was crying while he recalled the alleged encounter. “He told me, he said, ‘Mommy I didn’t know what to say so I said the first thing that came to mind was, ‘You can have noodles, you can eat noodles,’ and her response was, ‘Well, demons don’t eat noodles.’”

“You can say all the things you want to say about good vs evil, God vs the devil, or demons or whatever but at the end of the day what was said was not funny and it wasn’t okay. It was a child in an uncomfortable situation,” the mom told the outlet.

“I know people are trying to say, ‘Oh she’s just joking. It was just funny.’ But it’s not funny. That’s not funny. And what that doesn’t do is put any child at ease, it just scares them,” she added.

According to WTKR, Chittum’s principal Bridget Outlaw emailed parents about the “inappropriate comments” and detailed how school officials “immediately addressed the issue, and this individual was escorted off of school property” and “Parents of students who reported the concern were notified.”

“We want to commend our students for quickly reporting the incident,” stated the principal. “We are thankful that our message of ‘see something, say something’ was effectively used in this situation.”

Outlaw earned praise from Fjeld who expressed, “It went to the principal who is amazing, I will say. The school handled it — we so appreciate it. They were very quick they immediately escorted her off the premises, they called us.”

In a statement to WTKR, Shutterfly-owned Lifetouch said the individual was no longer employed with them, “At Lifetouch, our number one priority is the safety of every student we photograph. We have numerous policies and procedures in place to ensure that safety, including training and background checks on all of our photographers. We take any allegation about a photographer very seriously and are conducting a thorough internal investigation. In the meantime, the employee in question has been removed from all photography duties.”

Kevin Haggerty
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