Teacher 'taped boy's mouth'

BBC News ^ | Tuesday, 10 February, 2004

[presidio9]

Education officials are investigating a claim by an 11-year-old boy with learning difficulties that a teacher taped his mouth to stop him talking in class. Ben Deacy alleges his mouth was taped during a lesson at Llanrumney High School, in Cardiff, last Thursday.

It is also claimed that the teacher involved in the incident wrote in a school report which the boy took home: "Excellent work - once I taped his mouth up!!"

The boy's mother, Kay Morgan, said the teacher's alleged actions were "stupid" and added that she was now keeping Ben, who cannot read or write, home from school.

Ben's mother Kay Morgan

Cardiff Council has confirmed that an investigation will be carried out.

The school's headmaster, Don Barnfield, told the South Wales Echo that the incident was "grave error".

He is reported to have said: "What seems to have happened is an inexperienced member of teaching staff has made a grave error. The pupil was talking a lot during the lesson and a piece of masking tape, a very small piece, was put on his lips.

"It was just a symbolic piece, if you like, to make the point that he needed to work quietly. It wasn't appropriate and goes against all our codes here in school.

"It was a very, very silly thing to do and I can understand Ben's family being very upset by this.

'Appropriate action'

"The tape wasn't put the long way over the mouth. It was a small piece going from the top to the bottom lip and wasn't blocking his breathing.

"It was totally inappropriate and I will need to take appropriate action."

Ms Morgan, 45, said her son had become "a bit quieter" since the incident.

She claimed the tape had been placed across Ben's mouth and he had been taken to see a doctor after getting an allergic rash.

Ms Morgan added: "He wants to go back to school because he does like it, but he doesn't want to see that teacher.

"If a parent had done that they would have the social services on to them.

School report

"Ben has a tendency to talk a lot but to tape his mouth up is just wrong.

"No teacher should be doing things like that to children - especially children like Ben who have special needs.

"He brought his school report home at the end of the day and I couldn't believe my eyes."

Ms Morgan added that she would make a complaint to Llanrumney High School.

A statement released on behalf of Cardiff Council said: "Prompt and appropriate action was taken following existing procedures and relevant actions are now being considered.

"Investigations will be carried out but it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage in accordance with clear procedure."

A South Wales Police spokesman said no official complaint had been made to them about the incident.

[radiohead]

the teacher would have ... given them three swats from the "Board of Education".

Did you go to my Catholic school? Sister knew how to wield a ruler, I must say.

[luckystarmom]

Obviously you've never been around anyone who really has the problem.

[petercooper]

Problem? It's called lack of discipline. Was there any ADD/ADHD when we were kids? No. There were kids who were hyper.

It's just like obesity now being classified as a disease. Yes it's a disease of the mouth that can't stop having food forced down it.

[luckystarmom]

Actually, my daughter with special needs (only half a brain), has one of the best math scores in her class.

She is not the top reader in the class (her identical twin sister is). However, she is in the middle of the class.

She has only missed one spelling word on all of her spelling tests for the entire year. She routinely gets her bonus words correct. She is in the first grade and can spell the months the years, the days of the week, equation, equals, collection, holiday, and a multitude of other words that are bonus words.

She is one of the best spellers in her class. I think the best speller is her identical twin sister.

My daughter is one of the best behaved kids in the class, and probably works harder than the other "normal" kids.

She does have severe speech problems and does not talk much.

If you have a kid with ADD then you must know about IEPs. IEPs are plans with teachers and parents to figure out the best education for a kid. It does not say what kind of classroom setting this kid was in. Maybe it is a special needs class. Maybe the kids needs to be in a room by himself. He doesn't need to have his mouth taped shut.

People have made all sorts of assupmtions about the kid. There is just too little information, but I do know that taping a kids mouth shut is extreme. It is physically dangerous.

[luckystarmom]

Methinks that maybe you need to go back to school because the article does talk about the kid having special needs.

"No teacher should be doing things like that to children - especially children like Ben who have special needs. "

How do you know he isn't in a special needs classroom? It doesn't say.

[luckystarmom]

Actually it's not that rare. My son has a tic disorder (not tourette syndrome). I think it is something like 10% of kids will have a chronic tic disorder, and then I think about 10% of those have full blown Tourette Syndrome.

Nowadays, there are medications that hide a lot of the symptoms so you may not know that someone has full blown Tourette's Syndrome.

Tics wax and wane. They are usually worsened by stress.

If a kid is talking in class too excessively, then the teacher needs to talk to the parents. There needs to be a plan of action but not taping a mouth shut. If it is something like Tourette's syndrome, then the kid might need to go to another room or might need more medication.

I'm not saying that the kid should disturb other kids. Taping a mouth shut is dangerous. People can gag, vomit and die because their mouths are taped shut.

I also have asthma and severe allergies. I cannot breath through my nose.

This teacher was stupid and made a huge mistake. There are lots of other options to handle a kid who talks too much. Geez, just send him to the principals office would be a first start.

[luckystarmom]

Are you saying that a kid who is blind should not be in a regular classroom?

Are you saying that a kid who is deaf should not be in a regular classroom?

One of my best friends was blind. We all loved her. She was routinely in our classrooms. She could read braille. She had books in braille and a special thing for typing. She graduated from college with a master's degree.

[luckystarmom]

When my daughter was 3, we put her in a special day class for kids with special needs, mainly communication problems. We thought we would give it a try because she was not talking at all.

She hated it. For over 2 months she cried every day. They thought she was choosing to not talk, and they asked me to send her foods that she could not easily open at lunch time. They would only open the food if she asked them to. She never did.

One day, I picked her up and she was hysterical. They left her outside alone with the male janitor after recess because "she wouldn't come inside". She was 3 years old. They could have picked her up and brought her inside. They didn't call me. I have a cell phone, and I lived close to the school. I could have been there in 5 minutes.

My daughter never went back. We found out that she was not a selective mute, but she had severe brain damage. One of the problems was that her mouth muscles are very weak.

We put her in a regular preschool with talking kids. She loved it!!!! We only had 1 discipline problem. She would run to the bathroom and the teacher didn't know where she was. We taught her to go to her teacher and point to her private parts. Problem solved.

We also switched to a great speech therapist who worked on strengthening my daughter's muscles and then taught her to talk.

She's still got a long way to go, but with the right placement and therapy she's doing great.

There are good teachers, and there are bad teachers. There are things a teacher should never do.

I also know of another kid who was mainstreamed into a regular kindegarten class. The parent picked him up one day, and he had been restrained in a chair for a very long time. The school had insisted that the child was ready for kindegarten, and the parent decided to go along with the school (and didn't trust her own intuition). The kid wandered in class and was a total disruption.

Instead of restraining the kid every day, the parents figured out the real solution. They switched him to a preschool class in another school. Now, the child is doing wonderfully. He is not have "behavior problems". In the first school, he was not in the correct environment, and it caused problems.

Teachers need to work with parents to figure out these soloutions. Sometimes, teachers think they know it all (or they just don't care).

I have never said that a kid should not be separated from regular ed kids. Each kid needs to be looked at individually.

[Rebelbase]

The kid could be Ralphie's brother.

[Blood of Tyrants]

The teacher stated that the tape was a small piece of masking tape. Purely symbolic and not restraining at all.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Nope, just a school in a small Southern town with old fashioned values.

[Blood of Tyrants]

P.S. G. Gordon Liddy calls her "Sister Mary Diesel Locomotive".

[Xenalyte]

Well, since you don't have children then you don't know what this "catch all" phrase means.

I've never been pregnant either, but I know what C-sections and epidurals are. What point is that supposed to make?

[Xenalyte]

I hope you're proud of yourself. You took a perfectly good thread about a kid who looks like Ralphie getting his mouth taped shut, and you turned it serious. I hope your proud of yourself missy.

I didn't mean to do it! Will this help?

[humblegunner]

What point is that supposed to make?

It means that when one becomes a parent all manner of arcane
knowledge is magically bestowed upon you and the scales fall from your eyes.

So it is written.

[luckystarmom]

When my son was in 2nd grade at a private Christian School, his teacher had a "Not Ready for 3rd Grade Box" in the classroom. Any time a kid made a mistake like asking how to spell a word instead of looking up the word in the dictionary, the kid had to put his name in the box.

My son never got his name in the box, but his tics started in 2nd grade. He was petrified that his name was going in the box and he would be going to 3rd grade. He also never learned anything and was never inspired in 2nd grade. He still talks about his awful 2nd grade teacher.

Another little boy who had ADHD put his name in the box every day. He was going home crying every day.

That was also a purely symbolic way of disciplining the kids. However, it was a bad idea.

Thank God, the principal made the teacher take the box out of her classroom after several parents complained.

My sons 3rd grade teacher (at a public school) had a very well disciplined class. She rewarded and praised her students. The kids loved her, and they wanted to please her. She also challenged (and inspired) the kids so that they were not bored.

[LibertarianInExile]

Gosh, golly gee, that pokes a hole in my entire argument, then. NOT.

The point is that classes that are distracted by special needs kids ought not to be. You're saying that any teacher that did that to your kid would get a whuppin'. I'm saying that any teacher that didn't do SOMETHING to change the class situation would be catching hell from ME.

We aren't necessarily disagreeing on the situation, depending on the facts which are missing, but your reflexive coddling of the kid behaving inappropriately is in itself telling. Me, I'd reflexively side with the teacher if my kid was running his mouth, special needs or no, and tell the kid to apologize to the class and teacher and ask the teacher to complain to me and I'd handle it, instead of acting like he's scarred for life and bitching out the school. Teachers don't make that crap up, and this kid wasn't abused by a freakin' piece of tape.

[LibertarianInExile]

Not if the kid slows down the rest of the class, no.

I don't care if your pal grew up to be Pope or Helen Keller. If the rest of the class had to wait for her, that's not equal education--it's favoring her needs over theirs.

[presidio9]

Would you do me the favor of taping this photo strategically? Every time I post it lately, the Admin Mod deletes it. Thanks.