abc13.com: News from KTRK, around Houston and southeast Texas — More school abuse stories. Incredible!
A Katy ISD teacher is in trouble for how she punished some of her students. She’s accused of taping some of their mouths with Scotch tape.
“My personal children go to that school, and it’s been hard to watch as a mom,” said Jennifer Silva, the teacher suspended in the taping incident.
The alleged incident happened February 2. Silva, who was struggling to control her class at Alexander Elementary School, reportedly told the students that if they didn’t pipe down, she would tape their mouths shut. Gina Lovett’s daughter witnessed it all.
“After a few more minutes after chatting, Ms. Silva just grabbed the tape off the desk,” said Lovett.
I absolutely CANNOT STAND stupid parents who wouldn’t control their own damn kids and rejects free help from others to do so.
The main problem here lies with the parents. They are the ones who should be severely disciplined in the first place.
I’m all for capital punishment. Not the “beat to within an inch of his life” type but at least moderate punishment should be met out.
Parents nowaday either love their kids to death or just simple don’t give a flying fxxk what their offsprings turns out to be.
Cheebye.
Jennifer Silva ought to be teacher of the year, IMHO. What the liberal Houston Barnacle isn’t telling anyone is that MOST parents TOTALLY support this teacher. The posts here that don’t support her, so far, are idiotic and lame…”abuse”? You have to be kidding. You people don’t know what abuse is!
Oh yeah, and #41′s comments…my guess is more than a few of those Olympic Medalists had their little butts spanked at one point or another.
This isn’t free, in our world they call it “taxes”(#42-go back to your own country). As for the rest of you, a teacher has several actions she is able to take to control inappropriate behaviour. It’s called Rules of Conduct, and she signed this when she accepted her contract with the school district. For those of you so enamored with coporal punishment, we still have parochial schools, the bonus there is that your child could possible learn about personal responsibility. If I tape my assistance’s mouth shut with Scotch Brand tape, I would be fired and sued. This is an adult, who chose this as her field of work, on the other side we have 7 & 8 year old children. How this firing could even be an issue continues to baffle me. This is an embarrassment to our school and the rest of the staff.
Having been on the receiving end of the punishment in question more times than I can count on my fingers and toes, I occasionally research the subject online. What was once commonplace and even hoorahed by parents now results in negative publicity and suspension or termination of the teacher’s career. It was not always so.
Taping the mouth of a disruptive student is an old, old trick. I have found accounts dating back to the Great Depression, the early days of mass marketing for Scotch tape. My own experiences date from the 1960′s, when tape was a rather routine part of my school makeup.
My first-grade teacher used masking tape with an adhesive that had a pleasant minty taste. I would act out in hope that my mouth would be taped shut. My teacher always complied. One boy with whom I walked to and from school once asked me why I seemed to enjoy having my mouth taped shut. I told him that the adhesive on the back of the tape tasted good. I suggested that he try it and see. He made sure that he subsequently got his mouth taped and found that the tape glue tasted good, just as I had told him.
My second-grade teacher used a foul-tasting masking tape, as did my seventh-grade science teacher, a substitute in my seventh-grade English class, and my eight-grade home room teacher. My general impression of masking tape is that it had little sticking power. It came loose from my lips after a few minutes. I could always move my mouth enough to talk behind the tape, although the words came out muffled.
My fifth-grade teacher used heavy white cloth medical tape that had a very strong adhesive and held so tightly that I could not move a muscle in my face other than my eyes. That tape obscured the entire lower portion of my face so that I looked somewhat like those featureless mannequins seen in some stores. Unlike other teachers who taped my mouth, my fifth-grade teacher forbade me to remove the tape before the end of the day. At dismissal time, she would let everybody else go ahead of me, keep me behind for a few minutes with my mouth still taped, and send me out of the classroom only when the hall was teeming with students from every grade, their teachers and parents who had come to pick their children up. I had to keep the tape on until I reached the main door, next to which there was a waste basket. Then and only then could I remove the tape and discard it in that waste basket. If I had taken it off any sooner, I would have received a paddling out in that hall, in front of the entire school community. I once exited the classroom with tape on my mouth and walked right into my father, who, to this day, laughingly recalls the incident and says that I undoubtedly had it coming.
I am still very mouthy. Teachers who did not tape anybody’s mouth threatened to do it to me through high school. I still have all of my old report cards: Straight A’s marred by a low grade in conduct and the inevitable comment, “Karin talks too much.”
Hooray for Jennifer Silva. It is about time teachers refused to be stepped on by unruly children.
I went to Catholic school and teachers used duct tape to cover the mouths of students who would not be quiet. 30 years later I have not heard of one single student being harmed physically or emotionally by this.
Perhaps the student’s mother should find out why her son can’t seem to stay quiet in class. Teach him a little respect and he won’t get his mouth taped again.
Ms. Silva, you deserve a raise!!!