A high school art teacher in San Diego is currently on administrative leave while officials investigate allegations that she refused to allow a 14-year-old female student to go to the restroom and instead made the student urinate in a bucket in the classroom.
The girl, who has filed a claim for Damages to Person or Property with the help of two attorneys, says the alleged incident took place during a Freshman Advisory class in February, according to KFMB-TV.
The claim, which is against the San Diego Unified School District and Patrick Henry High School, alleges that Wolf forbade the the student from going to the bathroom and directed and ordered her to urinate in a bucket during the class.
Wolf allegedly said this to the student in the presence of several the male classmates, adding that the girl could not leave the classroom regardless of the urgency of the situation and that she would have to urinate in a bucket.
Then, according to the claim, Wolf reportedly told the girl to empty the contents in an unused classroom sink.
Although the student tried to hide the event from others, the claim alleges that news of the incident spread throughout the San Carlos campus, which caused the student humiliation.
"As a result of said incident, (the student) has suffered emotional distress arising out of this humiliating and depraved punishment. She has been teased by classmates and remains extremely embarrassed," according to the March 8 claim filed by attorneys Brian Watkins and Paul Wong.
"We are working with the school district to figure out why this happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again," Watkins told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The investigation will guide the administration in deciding what, if any, punishment should be meted out, a district official told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday. In addition, the teachers' labor union has been notified of the complaint and investigation.
The claim lists damages in excess of $25,000 for psychological and medical treatment and also requests that the district pay the costs for the student to attend a private school for the remainder of her high school years.
Although the claim says that Patrick Henry apparently had a policy of not permitting students to use restroom facilities during class, District spokeswoman Linda Zintz told the San Diego Union-Tribune that was not a school policy.
However, she admitted school administrators had "made a recommendation to limit" bathroom breaks during student advisory periods because they only last 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, a man who answered the door at Gonja Wolf's home told KFMB that she has been a teacher for a long time, but said she can not make any comment since the incident is under investigation.