Norwich ― The Board of Education on Tuesday upheld the demotion, transfer and two-day suspension of a school custodian for allegedly making a “crude and vile” comment about a young elementary school student who heard the remark.

Custodian Cyrus Blake of Plainfield and the Municipal Employees Union Independent, Local 511 filed an administrative grievance Nov. 21 challenging the disciplinary action imposed by Superintendent Kristen Stringfellow after the Nov. 2 incident. She denied the grievance, and the union appealed to the Board of Education.

The board discussed the grievance in executive session Tuesday before voting 7-0 to deny the union’s appeal “on the grounds that the Administration had just cause for imposing discipline.” The board also said the union contract authorized Stringfellow to transfer Blake “to another assignment.”

MEUI Staff Representative Tom White said the union will appeal to the state Department of Labor arbitration process. White called the discipline excessive for an eight-year school employee with an “impeccable record” who may have made one “slip-up.” White said he was surprised at the board’s vote Tuesday night and is confident the state arbitrator will reverse the local ruling.

Blake is seeking to remove the suspension and demotion from his record and be reinstated as head custodian.

Through a state Freedom of Information Act request, The Day obtained documents pertaining to the incident and the grievance, with the student’s name, age and gender redacted. School officials would say only that the child is in an early grade level.

According to the superintendent’s narrative, based on staff witnesses and the child’s mother’s account, the child had been struggling that day at school and locked himself or herself in a bathroom stall at the Samuel Huntington School.

Two female school staff went to the bathroom and contacted head custodian Blake to unlock the door. The staff members reported that when Blake arrived, he allegedly said to them: “Is (the student) trying to go to the bathroom, or is (the student) just being a (d- - - head)?”

“Your comment made both female staff members uncomfortable and they both felt very upset for the child,” Stringfellow wrote in her Nov. 9 letter to Blake informing him of the disciplinary action.

Stringfellow included a statement from the child’s mother, who said the child told her what the custodian had said. The mother called the comment “a little extreme” and said the comment “really hurt” the child.

Blake provided a differing account of the incident. In her report, Stringfellow wrote that Blake told her that he was alone in the bathroom with the child and that the child kicked the door at him. Blake told the superintendent he spoke to the child “in a grandfatherly way,” saying “that will be enough of that,” and then raised his voice to tell the child to back away from the door.

Union representative White said Friday that Blake would not comment. White said Blake maintained the child kicked the door at him twice. White said Blake did not remember uttering the derogatory term, but may not recall it. White stressed that the comment was not directed at the child, but at the staff.

“In the heat of the moment, sometimes you say something you don’t remember,” White said. “He strictly does not remember stating the comment.”

Blake allegedly told Stringfellow he did not know the two staff members, and later said, “maybe there was a blonde” in the bathroom. Stringfellow wrote that the women said they both knew Blake and one said she “talks to you all the time.”

Stringfellow wrote in her letter to Blake that his testimony “was not credible” and said accounts by all other witnesses contradicted his statements. Stringfellow wrote that when the staff members called for Blake to open the door, the student unlocked the door and came out before Blake arrived.

Stringfellow suspended Blake for two days without pay and demoted him to custodian, removing his leadership role. She transferred him to another school “so that the child and staff members are not made to feel uncomfortable and so that the child is comfortable returning to school.”

The union grievance stated that Blake was disciplined twice for the same issue, and the union believed the discipline was too severe and not warranted.

c.bessette@theday.com