Teacher disciplined for claiming senior White House aide ‘ate glue as a kid’

School say they are concerned about issues surrounding privacy and the release of information about students

A former teacher of White House senior aide Stephen Miller is being disciplined after claiming that the top official ate glue when he was a child

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District teacher Nikki Fiske has been put on “home assignment” in light of a recent letter she wrote about her former pupil.

Ms Fiske is a veteran of the California district and taught Mr Miller, 33, decades ago when he was a student of hers in the third grade at age eight.

“Do you remember that character in Peanuts, the one called Pig Pen, with the dust cloud and crumbs flying all around him? That was Stephen Miller at eight,” Ms Fiske told the Hollywood Reporter. “I was always trying to get him to clean up his desk — he always had stuff mashed up in there”.

She continued to describe the young Mr Miller’s system for making a lunch out of glue: “He would pour the glue on his arm, let it dry, peel it off and then eat it. He was a strange dude”.

Ms Fiske’s disclosure raised concerns with the district for reasons related to privacy policies and laws in California, where the 72-year-old Democrat has been a teacher for decades.

The district’s concern is “about her release of student information, including allegations that the release may not have complied with applicable laws and district policies,” Gail Pinsker, a district spokesperson, told the Los Angeles Times. “This has been picked up by other digital publications and blogs, and some issues have been raised,” Ms Pinsker said.

It is not clear what kind of glue Ms Fiske may have seen her former student eating, but most glues available to children in schools are non-toxic.

That includes some of the more popular glues, such as Elmer’s white glue. Those glues typically have little or no long term impacts on children.

Mr Miller is one of President Donald Trump's most controversial advisers, and has been a key figure in developing policies that have incited major protest, especially related to immigration policiy.