The white headmaster of a Catholic school on Long Island  in New York has been placed on leave after a black child’s mother says he forced her son to kneel while apologizing to him.

Headmaster John Holian of St. Martin de Porres Marianist school on Long Island was placed on temporary leave after details of the February 25 incident came to light, according to the school’s letter to parents.

“I am writing to inform you about an incident that occurred recently which involved our school headmaster,” the school said in the letter. “The manner in which he disciplined a St. Martin’s student was not consistent with the policies and philosophy of St. Martin’s. Our headmaster will be on a leave of absence from St. Martin’s while we investigate this matter.”

The student’s mother, Trisha Paul, told the Daily News that her son, Trayson, finished his reading early that day and took out another assignment.

Paul said the boy’s English teacher reprimanded Trayson for working on the wrong assignment, ripped up the paper and marched him to Holian’s office, where the headmaster told the sixth-grader to get on his knees and apologize to the teacher.

The child’s mother says when she asked Headmaster John Holian about the unusual disciplinary action, the answer he gave seemed to point to her son’s race.

Holian said the punishment was not standard disciplinary action, but added that he’d learned the approach from a Nigerian father who said it was an “African way” of apologizing, Paul said.

“Once he started mentioning this African family, that’s when it just clicked,” Paul, who is Haitian American, told the newspaper. “Like, this is not normal procedure. I felt there was no relevance at all. Is he generalizing that everyone who is Black is African? That’s when I realized something is not right with this situation.”

The newspaper said that after it made inquiries about the forced kneeling, school officials sent an email to parents saying Holian had been placed on temporary leave pending an investigation.

“I want to assure you that St. Martin’s neither condones nor accepts the actions of our headmaster,” acting headmaster James Conway wrote in the email Friday. “The incident does not reflect our long, established values or the established protocols regarding student related issues.”

The newspaper said Holian himself declined to comment on the specifics of Paul’s complaint, saying only that “we love our students here” and noting that the “vast majority” are students of color.

Paul said her normally outgoing son has been reserved since the incident.

“My son was humiliated, hurt, embarrassed, sad and confused,” she said. “He reads about things happening because of your skin color. To experience it. … he’s just trying to process it in his 11-year-old brain.”

Paul told Eyewitness News that she wants the headmaster to step down.

The school says it’s investigating the matter.

ABCNEWS