Taping a kid's mouth shut in school

[uppity_heathen]

A special education teacher recently taped two 8th grade students' mouths shut. She sent a note home to one child's mother stating, "Santiago is suffering from 'diariha of the mouth' I taped it shut! :)" The teacher is now saying it was a joke. Do you think this is ever acceptable? How should the teacher be punished? The teacher is currently on

Comments

[spicycurvydiva]

Because they do. See also, teacher who cut off child's braid and said "what are you gonna go tell your mama now!"

[bluehairedchild]

where was this?

[rock_grrl]

Uhg. As a student teacher, both the action and the spelling bother me. In school we are adviced to not touch students EVER lest that touch be interpreted as abuse. Taping a student's mouth shut is just ... horrid.

[sleepwalkdance]

How could any sane person ever think that this was a good idea?

[anagramofbrat]

Oh god, how times have changed. This happened to me and a classmate in 3rd grade for talking in French class - with the exact same pronouncement! And when I told my mother about it, all she said about it was "well, you shouldn't be talking in class." Course, you know, my mother was of the generation where she got switched by her teachers if she were late for school.

I find it funny now, not horribly abusive. I mean, the teacher used masking tape so it's not as if our skin was going to come off or anything.

Honestly I'm more offended by the note (especially the misspelling) than the action, given the above.

[cpegasus]

I think I agree with that, except for the fact that it was special ed and that brings a whole new level of issues. But for kids in general I wouldn't have a problem with a teacher doing that...maybe if they held the kid down or something, but handing a child a roll of tape and instructing them to cover their mouth seems like a fitting "punishment" for talking too much

[sixdemonhag]

Yeah, I remember when I was a kid this one other kid was always causing problems in class. I had an old-school teacher who didn't play and after he wouldn't shut up, grabbed him by his ear and took him to the principal, him yelling, "owowowowow" the whole way.

Fun times.

[unconformed]

I agree, I think it's kind of funny and not that big of a deal. The misspelling bothers me more than the tape.

[journalismgirl]

There are so many things wrong here.

1) That a teacher did this.
2) That a SPECIAL EDUCATION teacher did this.
3) That a teacher can't spell.
4) That a teacher apparently can't use punctuation.

[uppity_heathen]

But she's great at drawing smilies!!! She'll probably get a raise.

[amyura]

Now see, this is one of a million reasons why people should be against merit pay for teachers. No raise even if someone in power for some reason thought what she did was a good idea.