CHILDERSBURG, Ala. (WIAT) — “I don’t have a problem with paddling, I signed the consent form, it just needs to fit the crime,” said Troy Stephenson, a parent of the student who was paddled for allegedly writing the name ‘Trump’ on his classroom chalkboard.

His son’s teacher had given class assignments to the students to pay close attention to the presidential election, but that teacher was not happy when his son wrote the president’s elect’s name on the chalkboard given the tense political climate.

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“I mean I don’t think he really did anything wrong, I mean there is nothing wrong with discussing what happened,” Stephenson said.

He received a call from the school’s principal, “I told him I said Mr. Bynum I don’t think you should be punishing him for that, it sounds a lot like restricting his freedom of speech and he said no that’s not what it is, the teacher had made a rule.”

An alleged rule not to discuss the results of the election. Stephenson’s son had the choice of in school suspension or to be paddled, he chose the latter and was sent home with a referral.

We reached out to Talladega County Schools and received this response from Griff Hill: “No student would ever be disciplined based on their political beliefs. there would never be a situation in our school system where the students would be disciplined because of their support of a political candidate.”

“Have like I said a good discussion, you can have both sides of the argument, everybody is entitled to their opinion and kind of let the children see what we go through as adults discussing the same things, because they’re going to have to deal with this eventually,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson also said he wishes his son had not wrote ‘Trump’ on the board, but also felt if it were the other way around, there would be no issue. His son faces no further disciplinary action.