The shocking photo that exposed a North Carolina school's horrendous treatment of non-verbal autistic six-year-old

A six-year-old autistic boy was strapped into a restraint chair and shoved into a tiny mold-infested closet for a 'timeout' at a public school.

Sincere, who is non-verbal, was discovered in the sweltering space at Mariam Boyd Elementary in Warrenton, North Carolina, on Thursday by his grandmother.

She arrived to drop off lunch for the disabled boy and confronted the teacher when she found him in that condition, and snapped a photo.

Asha Crews, Sincere's mother, called the school and demanded to know why he had been put in the closet for so long that he was sweating.

Sincere, who is non-verbal, was discovered in the sweltering space at Mariam Boyd Elementary in Warrenton, North Carolina , on Thursday

'The teacher said he was in 'time out' because he was hollering at lunch time... and he was hungry,' she said when posting the photo online.

Crews sounded off in a video and several Facebook posts where she said she only went to social media after school officials took too long to respond.

'My mom said, 'Y'all are going to get him out of the closet. He's not a dog,' she said.

'I have a picture of my kid in a broom closet that has mold, that's hot... he had to have been in that closet for a long period of time because he was hot and sweaty.'

Asha Crews, Sincere's mother, called the school and demanded to know why he had been put in the closet for so long that he was sweating

Crews hinted at the situation on social media a couple of times before posting the photo and explaining what happened to her son.

'I'm so glad this school year is coming to end… it's literally jail or hell about my kid,' she wrote minutes after talking to the school on Thursday.

'And if you don't have patience you don't need to be a teacher in a EC classroom with special needs children!'

Crews sounded off in a video and several Facebook posts where she said she only went to social media after school officials took too long to respond

Then on Monday she wrote next to a photo of Sincere: 'How can anyone be so cruel to you woke up a emotional wreck this morning but I promise I'll always be the voice for you. 

'Warren County School System will not get away with this.'

Warren County Superintendent Keith Sutton said the teacher was a 'contractor' and not an employee of the school district.

He said the teacher was suspended and removed from the classroom, an investigation into the 'misconduct' begun, and the incident reported to 'the proper authorities'.