Chip

Teacher 'taped boy's mouth'


Ben Deacy's mouth was allegedly taped to stop him talking
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 has a tendency to talk a lot but to tape his mouth up is just wrong

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.




Feel a claim coming on here. Serves the little ****** right if you ask me tho I suppose the do-gooders will say different.

Chip.

PG

This reminds me about when I was in p4 iirc and there was a boy in the class that would bite his classmates so the teacher taped his mouth up, put a collar and lead on him, stuck signs on him saying " I'm a little puppy dog and I bite." Myself and another guy had to parade him round the entire school !! Ah ! the good auld days

OllyK

Amazing how things used to be in the good old days! Bloody PC crowd!!

yoza

He was let off lightly.

I had to stand at the back of the class, in a corner, on one leg, with a big pointed dunce hat on!

God I hated 5th year seniors.

And yes, it was my English class.

Katana

Sorry. But if I catch ANYONE hurting my child in that way, I'd staple the teacher's mouth.

Madjay

if u read it i think it is blown out of proportion, the teacher was using it as a symbolic act for the child who has "learning difficulties" which may also impair his thoughts of right and wrong. by putting a small bit of tape from top to bottom not all across is mouth, it showed him in a way not to talk during class and that it was time to work. i see nothing wrong with it. more a teacher showing some initiative(sp?)

Jerome

I got a hefty wack round the head with a blackboard ruler from an Art teacher when I was about 12.

After what I'd done, I bl00dy deserved it. My mother (a teacher herself) agreed with what the teacher had done.

No-one mucked around in that teacher's class again!

Do something like that today and you'd end up in jail. Coincidence that todays youngsters are a poorly behaved bunch?

fast bloke

I remember talking in class in P5 (aged 9?) Teacher came down, lifted the lid of the desk, slamed it down and said - next time your head will be in there - Didn't speak for about 6 months -next time I spoke other than to answer a direct question she threw the wooden duster thing they use to clean the blackboard - Hit me right in the middle of the forehead - Went home with a big bump and told me da what had happened - He beat seven sacks of **** out of me and then marched me into school next day to apologise to the teacher in front of the entire class.

Wish I was at school now

scoobypreza

Have a look at BBC3 (sky 115) now .... Little Angels (i think its a repeat)
These are the kinds of children I try to teach everyday.

Edited to say....
ooppss prog isn't quite what I thought it was.
This prog is focusing on positive parenting approach.
Its a good programme actually.

PG

ouch ! wooden duster things !! had to dodge a few of them in my time !!
There was always the techy teacher that offered ...a punishment exercise or a punch !! Punch it is please Sir ! dont have to take that home to my mum to get signed

fast bloke

yeah - the good thing about education then was that you learned to dodge the dusters in primary school when they were being thrown by women....That way you didn't get killed at college when the were being thrown by some feking 7 ft monster psycho

ajm

Its hardly hurting the kid is it. Perhaps if parents accepted that once in a while their little darlings are in the wrong kids may be sent to school with more of a concept of right and wrong.

Sounds like the little brat was badly disciplined. What is the teacher supposed to do if the kid refuses to STFU and is disrupting the whole class?

What would you do if your kid says to the teacher "don't tell me to be quiet or my Dad will staple your ******* mouth shut!"? Would you be proud?

Big Daz

Agree entirely.
Much harsher disipline in schools would sort out a lot of the little ******* kicking about these days.
School was a very different place in my day.

Big Daz (age 31)

ProperCharlie

bullsh*t. who ever got an allergic rash from masking tape? if the mother didn't like it, why can't she just have a quiet word with the shcool and leave it at that? storm in a tea cup IMO.

Iwan

Agreed, I'm 30 and a couple of the teachers in my Comprehensive school used to put the fear of god into the pupils. On my 1st day at school, i mucked about in a woodwork class and was screamed at for 5 minutes and pushed around the classroom. I wasn't actually hurt, but it taught me a valuable lesson about discipline - i.e. to listen to someone when they have something to teach you and not **** around.

If i'd told my dad i'd have got a belting and been grounded for weeks. Not, "oh i have to keep my boy off school as he's now traumatised by having his mouth taped shut" FFS!

We wouldn't have half as many chavscum ruining this country (kids and parents) if it wasn't for the PC brigade and the constant decline in moral values/taking responsibility for ones actions.

David Lock

Wooden duster thingies...... yeah had forgotten those - usually got one of those hurled at us after we had dipped the chalk in water.... DL

milo

damn skippy... id do the same.

i cant stand unruley kids... but the teacher should be able to discipline the class WITHOUT resorting to ANY form of violence. if not, they should find another line of work.

andrewdelvard

But was it violence milo?

ajm

Violence? There does it say there was violence? The kid wasn't held down and gaffer taped, he had a small piece of masking tape placed across his gob to make the point.

What the article DOES say is that:-

and

So the kid has become quieter and his work has improved - the teacher has done a good job!

Iwan

Perhaps you could argue that if the teacher can't discipline certain pupils without resorting to violence/mouth taping etc, then it's the parents who are clearly doing a poor job instilling a sense of discipline in their offspring?

Not aimed at you, just a question.

ajm

Exactly, and little wonder when you look at the two examples of adults on here advocating violence against the teacher who, in the evidence presented in the article, has managed to get an improvement out of the kid.

milo

i absolutely 100% agree - it's the parent's job... and if they don't do it, they've failed in that respect.

but just because the parents failed that doesn't mean the teacher gets the right to be violent tho.

milo

the article also says:

i'm SURE the kid HAS become quieter... cos now he's scared ****less of the teacher. is this the right thing to be doing?

i'm definitely not in the pc brigade and am all FOR parents disciplining their kids.... but what right should teachers have to do this?

milo

purely out of fear.. which is wrong.

dsmith

Violence ?

You lot must have had very very sheltered upbringings. I went to a "decent" school. Nothing inner city. etc. And even there the things inflicted on each other by the kids - being kids - would somehow suggest not many kids would see a small bit of tape symbolically keeping someones mouth shut as "violence".

"Stapling someones mouth shut" however seems to pass for rational debate. No wonder so many kids have a screwed idea of what's right and wrong any more.

Deano

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

And can you explain exactly HOW the teachers of today can discipline a class of 11 year olds who don't want to do as they are told, much less the 16 year olds????????????

All without violence, please, in spite of the fact that a lot of the kids WILL resort to violence and/or abuse.

Are people aware that ALL headteachers are now having to be properly trained in restraint techniques??

FFS, my wife is 5 foot 3 inches, and she's supposed to restrain violent kids????????

Alcazar

Dream Weaver

Parents are always to blame, and a teachers job is hard enough these days without little bellends like that in class.

Bring back discipline I say, and for those that say "if anyone did that to my kid" etc etc, its parents like you that are bringing up the little ******* that are ruining society, cos they get away with murder.

My wife is a teacher, and the number of rough parents that couldnt give a toss is unreal. But as soon as their kid is "told off" (which these days means nothng), both parents are in school (usually over 30 stone each) threatening physical violence, solicitors etc.

Shambles!!!

milo

warning, send them out of the class, suspension, permanently suspend them... in that order for each incident.

what's the alternative? that's all you can do.

NACRO

Taping his mouth up was wrong, the teacher is a bully. How would the teacher like it if someone was to get him tape his mouth up and tie him to a chair say in a dark cellar and then do a job on him?
Just because the system sucks and is failing doesn't give anyone the right to do that, bring back corporal punishment by all means but an adult doing **** like that to a child however unruly is out of order. I don't have kids but if that teacher did that to any of my offspring they would be getting a visit from me with balaclava/baseball bat at night when they got home. Along with a stern lecture on the perils of bullying.

ajm

Everyone has been a little scared of a teacher before. More often than not in retrospect they respect that teacher. All this molly coddling of kids, with parents defending their kids even when they are in the wrong clearly isn't working when you look at the appauling discipline problems we suffer today.