A stunned teacher has shared her surprise at the number of parents who send their kids to kindergarten still wearing diapers.
Brenda Capone Kingston, who goes by the handle @Ms3rdGrade on TikTok, is a popular teacher who boasts 43.7K followers on the social media platform.
Last week, Kingston shared a now-deleted video about how she's shocked that some children have been sent to kindergarten still wearing diapers.
"Diapers in kindergarten - this has been something that's been a conversation with fellow teachers for the past several weeks now," she said. "The amount of kids in diapers in kindergarten- I had no idea. The more I talk to some kindergarten friends, and they tell me how many they have."
Watch the now-deleted video below:The baffled educator, who filmed the video in her classroom, clarified that she wasn't talking about children who have special needs.
Instead, she opened up about how she raised her own children, saying: "I remember when my kids went to school...your child had to be potty-trained before you could send them to kindergarten," adding that her daughter would be 24 in November and that her son would be 22 next month.
"I don't feel like I imagined that," the teacher continued. "I am in the state of Arkansas, and I learned last night that in the state of Arkansas, it's not required, and I'm like 'Why?'
"Why do we have so many five-and six-year-olds still in diapers," Ms3rdGrade continued to ponder. "You kindergarten teachers that are dealing with this, bless your heart because I don't think I could," she said, shaking her head.
The TikToker widened her eyes when she said "If you have two or three kids in diapers...woooh," before questioning if other teachers had experienced something similar.
"Am I alone on this? Do you have a lot of diapers in your school right now?" she concluded.
Kingston removed the video from her page after garnering negative comments from online users and instead shared a follow-up clip, expressing gratitude to everyone who supported her.
"Let's address the elephant in the room," she began in the clip. "First let me start by saying thank you to the overwhelming amount of people, especially teachers, that have reached out to me."
"[It] was so sad that somebody took something innocent and turned it into something harmful. And it didn't need to be that way," she continued. "If you know me, have followed me long enough, you know that was never my intention. I really try to keep my page upbeat, and positive, and I try to really spread joy."
In March, Utah passed a piece of legislation that made potty training a required 'condition' for kindergarten enrollment.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. Douglas Welton, said that it was a response to the increasing number of kids who were starting school without having been fully potty-trained., per Daily Mail.
Ms3rdGrade works in the state of Arkansas, where such legislation hasn't been passed.
According to the Mayo Clinic, most children show signs of being ready to be potty trained between 18-24 months of age, while others take a little longer until around three years old.
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