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June 4th, 2008
11:25 PM ET
Taped Down?
The school superintendent says it's unlike any accusation he's heard: that a teacher would tape down a student to get him to stay in his seat. Now at this point, this story is still under investigation; though the student's mother says the teacher admitted to taping down the 9-year-old boy, the school district wants to get all the facts before it takes action. But it brings up a lot of questions, including whether the teacher went too far AND how much authority a teacher has to discipline a student.
Carl Azuz, Anchor
Oh comeon for crying out loud..... that mom sure is making sure she over exaggerates everything. "My kid is so emotionally damaged." How about you get your kid in order and stop babying him.
It's possible the boy is an out of control brat or has ADHD and the teacher was at her wit's end. She shouldn't have done it, but I can caertainly sympathize. No mother in this country raises or has to tolerate 30 kids, but teachers do it every day.
Maybe someday parents will start taking responsibility for their kids. Maybe the teacher went alittle far but if I told my mom about the tape she would have asked why didnt I stay in my seat and then got punished at home. Its always the other persons fault. I bet that mom doesn't spank that kid and if the teacher would have spanked him then she would have been mad about that. The kid was being abd and the teacher was just trying to get control. PARENTS TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.
Back in the fifties, as a kid growing up in Chicago, if I were to act up in the neighborhood one of the neighbors would come out, grab me up, give me a couple of quick slaps on the butt, then take me back over to my house, tell my Mom and Dad what I did, and I would get another butt whipping and at school they would wrap your knuckles with a ruler, and if it was real bad they would call in one of your parents, and they would beat your butt right there and then, in front of everybody in the school! Since parents today wouldn’t discipline their children, and the teachers cant, just close all the schools, and let the parents take care of their children! Kids don’t know how good they got it; in a lot of countries kids can’t get an education, or they have to pay lots on money. It’s better to keep the masses dumb, that way they are easier to control is their thinking.
This is outrageus! It is difficult for to believe that an educator would do this to a student. If this really is the case, this teacher needs to take a long break away from children before he/she does something worse.
That teacher discipline that student too far! A teacher should NEVER tape a student to his or her chair or hit he or she. I think that when someone wants to be a teacher, he or she must have a class that teach the becoming-teacher-person how to deal with a student, bla,bla,bla, stuffs like that. And students won't be hurt.
I think that's crazy! The kid won't even learn anything! How bad can a nine-year-old be to let that teacher do such a thing! Going to the principal's office, report it to the kid's parents, or having a detention is enough for a punishment. :O
On second thought, the teacher must be very strong to tape a struggling kid!
Im 20 and i srsly believe that there's nothing wrong with 'taping a student to a chair', as long as it's not for too long. Maybe make a time limit for it instead of kicking the teacher out of the school.
I believe teachers have their hands tied up as it is, on what concerns student disciplination. One of the teachers at our school actually got fired for holding a students arm(for not more than 5 seconds), but it didnt matter because the student said she had 'hurt' him, Lol, i was there and the only harm that was being done was probably emotionally to the teacher because the student was a real stubborn, 'do as I say' type of guy.
Because all the facts are not in, I'm not making a judgement on this case. But, the only time when a caregiver of children like teachers have the right to physically restrain a child is when he is physically endangering himself or others. 🙂
the way this teacher acted wasn't completely out of line. Students in school these days show no respect to teacher, and need to be taught a lesson. As a senior about to graduate, I see kids like these everywehre, even in my highschool. The kids act up, and wont listen to their teacher, and because their parents wont do anything, they have to. Teachers have to deal with problamatic kids kids everyday, and if this is what it takes to get them in line, then so be it.
Well, the same thing happened in MY school a few years ago. The teacher got fired.....
I understand why Austin's mom is upset, I mean, taping a student to chair is kind of going to far, but I suspect that Austin was being bad. So I think all of them are wrong. The teacher, Austin and his mom for being so overprotective.
Anyone who has ever had or been around 9 year old boy (or girl, for that matter) knows that they're not perfect. They act out sometimes, regardless of how well disciplined they may actually be. Ask yourself honestly, did you behave 100% of the time when you were a child? If you say yes, then I say you're either a liar, or at the very least delusional. I can understand a teacher being at wit's end, but at what point do you make the rationalization that it's acceptable to tape a child to a chair and leave him there for over an hour? If he had been a danger to himself, the teacher, or any of the other children then I can fully understand restraining him. However, the principal and the parents should be notified immediately after such measures have taken place. As it is, she didn't notify either of them, but only admitted it after the superintendent asked her the next day if she had done it. Would you want YOUR child in a classroom with a teacher who would resort to taping a child to a chair? Why didn't she send him to the principal's office? Why didn't she call his mother? She bypassed two of the primary actions she should have taken and went straight for a roll of tape. I know for a fact that his mother wasn't notified. If she had been, the situation would have been taken care of. I know, because my sister doesn't put up with her sons being disrespectful or acting like hellions. My nephew is not a bad kid. He's just a kid.
i think that this is outrageous!! a teacher taping a kid to his seat just to keep him down!!!!!! all of my teachers are too nice to do that. if that happened to me, i would find another school.
This teacher is absolutley crazy. Maybe the kid is not behaved but why would a teacher do this. The teacher should be fired.
It doesn't really sound like the story was credible. It kept getting changed around in the video and I hope justice and be done.
i was once taped to my chair when i was in 5th grade, i found it funny and it taught me not to get outta my chair when my teacher was teaching the class. She didnt do it right away it took her main times of telling me to sit down. I think the mom is making a big deal over nothing!, how does taping a child down hurt them? the kid didnt listen and in the video it didnt look like the mom had much control anyway. shes just trying to get her 15 min of fame, and its not even a big deal
The teacher should get fired and sent to jail of child abusement and not to teach at that school again.
ALL THE MORE POWER TO THE TEACHER!!! however like most stories on CNN they –ONLY TOLD ONE SIDE OF THE STORY– i for one want to hear what the teacher said and i mite cite the quote from the story "Becky" (the mom) "says her son sat like that for over an hour." how on earth did the mom know how long heck, how did her son know since she most likely got that fact from her son if he was so tied down that he was unable to look at a watch or possibly a clock. Here is a example of CNN not even getting the facts straight the reporter said "Austin told his mom he wasn't obeying his teacher when she told him to stay seated, so she used duct tape and tied Austin to his chair" even though Austin was latter quoited saying "walked over with a roll of masking tape and taped me down." confusing Masking tape with duck tape goes past over exaggeration and spins the story way too much just for effect, at the teachers expense. i mean come on this is the type of one-sided news the i would expect from watching CNN on TV. Now wait before you point out the fact that this is –CNN– Student News i do have to say that the people at CNN student news do a much much better job of telling both side of a story unbiasedly then the CNN channel but if this type of story telling goes on much longer i will have to find a different new program to show my students like ABC's World News Webcast
MY teacher kids around about doing this but that teacher is doing it for real. It is horrible!
i was there when we choice the video at bring your children to work day.Now that i have seen it i think we should have chosen another 1.
We all know teaching little kids is a hard work. So every teacher should be more professional. They have to control their temper. Some parents love to spoil their kids. Teacher cannot change this situation. So, be professional, after all, they are not your kids.
Go teacher! Seriously! Teachers need to show the kids who's boss. School discipline is so lenient these days. My parents grew up in countries where teachers were strict enough that if one student was disciplined in front of the others once, no one acted up for the rest of the year.
Maybe the mom is exaggerated. She should, and this is an understatement, get a life. it's never too late! 🙂
So what could have been done? I think the best course of action would have been to suspend the child from school for 30 days. 2nd violation, another 30 days, and 3rd violation, expelled from school. Might sound a bit harsh, but the child needs to respect the rules of the school, or face the consequences. Our legal system is the same way.
Back in high school, the biggest fear was to end up getting 'paddled' by the Vice Principal, Mr. Scott (Southwest High – miami). I am going back to the early seventies; we were kids of a different mind set as those of today. One day, at the locker room, after gym hour, a fight broke out. Turned out pretty bad, three kids ended up being taken to the hospital, one with a broken skull. The chaos and resulting visit to the Vice principal's office added to the suspense of how hard that paddle was going to hurt. I received four wacks, right on the six o'clock, the fourth one a total 200% stronger than the first one. My parents were called to 'remove' me from the school, with a five day suspension. Lesson learned ? You bet. I went back to that school with a whole 'new attitude'; that is to stay clear of all types of trouble. My parents did not sue the school, they actually welcomed the action.!!
Yeah i totally agree with thaat boy parent. The teacher had no right to do that and should of handled it in a different manner. My homeroom 6th grede class in Girard College totally gave that two thumbs down.
I think that the teacher took it WAY too far! That could and SHOULD be counted as child abuse! The teacher should be taken to jail. Not just let off the hook! She should've just told him to sit down and wrote a note to his mom. That teacher doesn't have that much authority. That is cruel and could scar the child emotionally forever. EVIL!!!
So, basiclly, the teacher should be taken to jail. She went too far. She doesn't have that much power. The teacher should've just sent him to the principals office!
I think this absolutely unacceptable. If the teacher was having such a hard time controlling the student she should have called in an administrator to help! I mean at every school I've ever attended there is a "panic/call button" that the teacher can use to contact the main office, and after all the hoopla over school security and safety, I am sure this school had one too. So why not make use of them?!?
And to Adam, I have never known CNN to take a biased approach to a story. Secondly, when I was that age I thought all tape went by those names (that "masking" and "duct" -not "duck"!- tape were the same thing!). And thirdly this is a blog -not a story/article- therefore it would be irreasonable to believe all the sides of the story would be represented!
I do not believe the teacher should be sent to jail but should be warned or otherwise penalized. We all make mistakes, and especially if the teacher was fresh out of college I would let this incident serve as a lesson with a dock in her pay!
regardless to the boy's behavior this teacher went way too far. I mean teachers these days are totally irresistable!
sounds exactly wat my dad would do lol wen i cut my horses tail he sia dto me if u were a boy i would have shaved ur head that very day 😛
i can honestly say that if a teacher ever decided to tape me down to a chair or otherwise desk i would be more of a disturbance than ever. i would start laughing and that would cause my friends to laugh...but my mom wouldn't like either, on my part or the teachers. not that my teachers would do a thing like this but if they did i must have been pretty annoying...
I think that you guys are right about going to a different school where the teachers are thinking that every kid who fails there class is nt reasponsable for failing its the way that the teachers are teaching that class. For an example a teachers never taut you how to divid and then their was a pop quiz and it had divition on it and the teacher said that you have to do it you would probable get a d- on the test. But if the teachers go over every thing like one subject every few days then youwould know everything on the test and get an b+.
What the hack is wrong with these teachers. Sex, drugs, and now taping down students down to stay in there sits. what is the matter with them. We need to find someone to crackdown on this. These teachers are taking it too far. They shouldn't be able to do this. Now making them stand in the corner for 2 mins thats fine. But taping down a student i can't believe them.
it was wrong to tape down that kid. what could a kid do that was that bad that you needed to tape him down. yea some kids need disapline. There is no reason what so ever that you are going to need to tape a kid to a chair. i think that the teacher should atleast lose his job...think if some students taped a teacher to a chair that teacher would press charges...
I think most of you siding with the teacher are crazy. No teacher has the right to restrain a child no matter what that child did. Unless the child is phisically a danger to himself or another person. This is why it happens because no one would believe a child educator would do such a thing. It's not like it's unheard of people. And stop blaming the parents it's always the parents. You spank your child and your a bad parent. You dont spank your child you dont disapline enough, your still a bad parent. You ground them they dont care you speak to them they dont care what is a parent to do. BOTTOM LINE IT'S WRONG.