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Subscribe to RSSA mother in Louisiana is pursuing legal action against a substitute teacher she says put duct tape across her child’s mouth.
Michelle Droody says it took her a week to figure out why her 9-year-old son, a student at J. Wallace James Elementary School in Lafayette, La., was so upset.
“He just told me he didn’t want to go back to school no more,” Wallace told KATC TV in Lafayette. “And he didn’t want to be friends with anybody in his class or school.”
Only after school officials interviewed about 100 students did Droody learn that a substitute teacher used red duct tape, normally used for arts and crafts projects, to quiet her son.
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Dr. Pat Cooper, superintendent of Lafayette Parish Public Schools, confirmed the incident to KATC, which happened Sept. 12, and said the substitute treated the student both “outside the boundaries of [their] discipline matrix” and “outside the boundaries of common sense.”
Cooper said the teacher had been disciplined.
“We fell like we’ve taken the necessary disciplinary action against that teacher, but the parent always has the right to take additional charges.
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Droody said she intends to pursue further criminal charges.
“Now he has to face these same kids for the rest of the year that were sitting there laughing at him, the embarrassment and the shame that goes along with having someone you’re supposed to respect that comes and duct tapes your mouth shut in front of everybody," Droody said.
Lafayette Police Department Public Information Officer Paul Mouton told NBC News police were contacted by the school, and a report has been filed and police are actively investigating the incident.
“If investigators determine that enough probable exists, the detective in charge will issue a warrant and have the substitute teacher arrested,” Mouton said. “If there’s not enough cause, the case will be submitted for review.”
This isn't the first time a teacher has tried to quiet a student by using duct tape.
A third-grade teacher in Albuquerque was placed on administrative leave last October for allegedly duct-taping the mouths of two students to keep them quiet. A first grade teacher in Massachusetts was fired after she duct-taped 20 students, although she insisted the duct tape was tied to a book her students read earlier in the year.
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Bottom line is that mouthy kid will ALWAYS and FOREVER be be known as the jackass that couldn't shut his trap! His choice to get it duct-taped because he wouldn't comply. Swift move, kid. You just earned a life-long title! Screw him, he doesn't run the classroom! In my day you'd get slapped and kicked in the ass out the door! It was a death sentence when you got home because your folks took it out of your ass! I actually applaud that corrective action! Today, we got ADD that for some reason it is non-existent in so much of the globe and it is now easier to drug them instead. F**k ADD, etc. A good kick in the ass goes a long way! If that were my kid I'd f**k him up once I got notice! Mom would do the same, screw double jeopardy! My kids knew it from the get-go. They knew what was expected from them and I never had one problem, not one in school. They've become great adults and leaders! All the credit goes to them!! If there's no discipline at what ever is called home there ain't gonna be any at school either. Kinda well-earned to be known as the parent whose kid's trap was taped shut!! Some folks have no business having children, none. In the end, a child is an ambassador of the parent or parents. If that kid sucks it is all on it's parent or parents! Since when is a school charged with raising a child? It's only responsibility is to educate! Become a better parent!!
I remember being "disciplined" for an incident in which I was not involved. Thankfully, Karma is a B*tch, and the teacher who paddled me was run over by a car less than a year later.
Teachers are either assaulting children or molesting them. It is a disgusting development! No wonder home-schooling is a flourishing industry.
When I was younger, we were made to stand in the corner. We talked too much we had "duct tape" put on our mouth. We were caught chewing gum, we had to put it on our nose. I am 51 years old and no worse for the wear. Come on people, knock it off with these trivial punishments. The kid will grow up and laugh about it when he/she thinks back about it. If they even remember.
I remember when I was in kindergarten (back in 85), the teacher regularly put tape over the mouths of the boys who wouldn't stop talking.
As far as I can tell, none of them were permanently damaged by it. I really don't think it's a great method of discipline, but I do believe that kids REALLY need to be disciplined more. My dad beat my little butt black and blue with a belt when I was two years old. I remember it to this day and I never did anything after that to get another spanking.
Geesh, this is what our great society has to offer? Applauding, cheering on, supporting, defending, justifying, and excusing this behavior....FROM A TEACHER?!
I'm all for disciplining a child when it is needed and warranted. Putting duct tape on a 9 year old's mouth is ok with some of you? Sounds like the teacher was kidnapping the kid, not disciplining him.
And a substitute teacher at that. He does not even know these kids. How often and what else has this traveling bully done to kids in other schools?
You all talk smack when it's not your kid. I'm quite sure you would be singing a different tune if your child came home crying and upset over something like this. Then you have the nerve to put down the child's mother when she comes to his rescue.
The school admin disciplined the teacher too. Are they wrong also? I don't know what punishment they gave him but I'm sure it was not enough. His teaching certificate should be suspended, AT LEAST!
I would hope he gets charged with assault. And anything else that is appropriate. And you people that agree and support this teacher?...the lot of you need to take parenting classes. And be enrolled in common sense 101.
Disgusting.
"I'm quite sure you would be singing a different tune if your child came home crying and upset over something like this."
The tune I'd be singing is this, "If I EVER hear you causing problems in school again, you'll be crying for a REAL reason, you little brat. Now go to your room, do your homework, and kiss your video game, television, ipod goodbye and by-the-way - you're grounded."
Then again - if I had the propensity to talk to my kid like that - he'd never have been causing problems at school in the first place, so I wouldn't HAVE to discipline him like that. That would be a lesson he'd already learned. And THAT, Phyliss, is how you raise a child, not by allowing them to get away with whatever the hell they want to grow up to be little hooligans.
Does anyone ever notice how these reporters are nowadays? They give you just enough information to get people hyped but not enough for one to REALLY make an informed decision. Like this article-why did the teacher duct tape the childs mouth-does not really say. Just that she used tape from arts n craft to tape his mouth. Was he cussing? Was he daring the teacher as we all know from our past(substitutes were always hazed for the most part because we knew they had no real clout, etc) to report him, etc. We just do not know. (Clarify I did not participate in hazing but then again allowing it to happen and not saying anything was the same as committing the same act! Again we really do not have enough NEWS but rather trolling news reporter such as this one! Come on do some REAL reporting!
I used to get spanked, and tied to my chair with hands tied behind my back by a 2nd grade teacher. I remember her shaking kids violently as well. As far as I know, she never lost her job. That was back in the sixties though.
maybe the mom should teach her child to respect adults and shut up in class so others can learn. How big of a fit would she have had if she received a call to pick her child up from school because he was being disruptive and was not going to be allowed to continue it.
I do think duct tape not appropriate but neither is the mothers reaction. A little humbling of a child is not the worse thing. I would hope the school would take action on the teacher and the student.
Someone should tape that ho of a mother's mouth shut, too.
The apple certainly didn't fall far from the tree.
All one has to do is listen (read) the mother's words to know she's an ignorant person - and her reaction shows she's an ignorant mother.
WHICH - explains why she has an ignorant son.
Face it lady - the kid has more strikes against him than being pointed and laughed at for being a tard in school.
What a bunch of fuss over nothing. If the mom had done her job raising the kid then he would not have provoked the teacher into tapping his mouth. I do not doubt that he deserved it and so the hell what if he was humiliated?!! He did not mind humiliating the teacher.