Parents and students are outraged and demanding answers after a beloved Arlington Public Schools teacher was escorted from her classroom during school.

According to NBC Washington, Sharon Gaston has been serving as the lead reading specialist at Taylor Elementary School for over a decade. Parents believe was removed from her position after she applied for the principal’s job at the school and was passed over.

"She is the love of this school,” parent Carrie Wilks told the news station. “She is positive; she loves these children. They love her."

Parents, who rallied outside Taylor on Friday (April 6), say the new principal reassigned Gaston to a different position, which she reportedly turned down and filed a grievance to keep her job as reading specialist.

On April 29, while teaching, the school’s security went into her room in front of her students and escorted her from the building, saying she was done at the school.

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"It was a huge shock, and then for a lot of parents … to witness this. Parents are talking about maybe moving their kids if they don't feel safe at the school," parent Deanna Simon said, according to NBC Washington.

An APS spokesperson says they can’t comment on personnel matters.

Parents say Gaston needs to return to her old position. Symone Walker with the Arlington NAACP said Gaston was just one of five Black elementary reading specialists – all during a time when APS data shows literacy skills of Black and brown students are behind other ethnicities.

“Her being African American brings cultural competency to the job as well, which is critically important," she said.