Teacher Resigns After Taping Student To Chair

After FBISD officials discovered that a seventh-grade teacher had taped a student to a chair with packing tape,  the teacher resigned late last week. District spokeswoman Nancy Porter declined to provide the identity of the the teacher or to reveal how long the teacher had worked for the district.

The incident occurred on Wednesday at  Crockett Middle School.  School officials learned that a language arts teacher taped a student to his hair to prevent him from turning around. The student remains in classes.

The teacher resigned on Thursday, which is when Principal Catherine O’Brien sent a letter about the incident home with students.

Apparently, the practice of taping students is not uncommon.  A similar incident occurred in Oregon in June of 2008.  A lawsuit was filed in 2003 after a teacher duct taped the mouths of students in Tacoma. A Florida teacher was suspended in 2008 after duct-taping a student to a desk. An Indiana middle school teacher was fired in January of this year for taping a student’s mouth to keep him from talking.  A Missouri teacher resigned in 2004 after taping a student to his desk.  A California teacher was suspended after duct-taping a student and allowing other students to take pictures with their cell phones.  In New York, a teacher was arrested after wrapping a student with duct tape as a punishment. In Dubai, a teacher was fired for taping a student’s mouth.

This is getting to be an epidemic.  A teacher in Maryland has been accused of taping kids’ mouths shut. And now a mother is suing over an incident where her kindergarten child was handcuffed over a temper tantrum.