A 10-year-old boy in North Carolina was punished last week for referring to his female teacher as "ma'am." The incident left his parents both concerned and confused, they told WTVD-TV.

Teretha Wilson noticed her son, Tamarion, seemed upset after leaving the bus Aug. 21 from his school in the town of Tarboro, she told the station. "I asked him what happened. He said he got in trouble for saying 'yes ma'am'," Wilson told WTVD's Michael Perchick.

Tarboro, a town of about nearly 10,900, according to Census population estimates in July 2017, is about 62 miles east of Raleigh, North Carolina.

Tamarion showed her a piece of paper with the word "ma'am" written dozens of times by hand, four times on every line, Wilson said. The boy said his teacher made him write it because he continued to call her "ma'am" after she asked him not to, the mother told WTVD.

Wilson and Tamarion's father, McArthur Bryant, told WTVD that they raised their children to refer to adults as "ma'am" and "sir" out of respect, and that Tamarion was hospitalized last month for a seizure-related incident involving memory loss, perhaps contributing to a misunderstanding at school.

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The teacher at North East Carolina Preparatory School wasn't aware of Tamarion's condition, the parents told the station, but Wilson still expressed disappointment: "It wasn't right. It wasn't professional. As a teacher, it wasn't appropriate."



A parent was asked to sign the paper as part of the punishment, his parents told the TV station.

Wilson met the next day with the school's principal and the teacher, WTVD reported, returning the signed punishment sheet along with a definition, handwritten by Tamarion, of the word "ma'am": "a term of respect of polite address used for a woman."

Wilson requested that Tamarion be moved to a different class, which the principal approved, the station said.



School director William J. Etheridge declined to identify the teacher involved in the matter to USA TODAY "on the advice of our attorney," but did acknowledge the incident in a statement: "It has been handled appropriately by the K-7 principal."

The K-7 principal is Vernita Williams, according to the school's staff directory.

An image of the handwritten sheet was shared to Twitter on Thursday. See WTVD's full report for more.

Follow Josh Hafner on Twitter: @joshhafner