Duct Taping a Student’s Mouth Shut? That was Nothing

When I think back to the punishments I endured growing up at Holy Rosary Academy in Union City, then at St Joe’s in West New York, I’m surprised I ever made it this far without losing my mind. In those days, the nuns and priests could hit and boy did they ever! I think of this now in the case of a substitute teacher who may face criminal charges for duct taping the mouth shut of a student to stop him from talking in class.

Michelle Droddy, whose nine-year-old son is a student at J. Wallace James Elementary School in Lafayette, told /1/" target="_hplink">KATC TV that it took her nearly a week to figure out why he came home so "extremely upset" Sept. 12

The article talks about the effect it had on the child and it took school administrators talking to almost 100 student to find out what happened. If that many kids had kept their mouth shut in the first place, this never would have happened.

The incident is hardly the first or only time a teacher has resorted to tape to quiet a chatty student. None other than school reformer and former Washington, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee has admitted to using tape to quiet a noisy cafeteria. She later said she admitted to the technique "to express how difficult the first year of teaching can be.

We all hear the “back in the day” stories of being punished in school. The difference then was that the parents had the teachers back. Today they don’t. Today in many cases the parents are the adversary of the teacher who has to break the news that their little bundle of joy is disrupting the class and making it difficult for the others to learn.

Today’s teacher has to not only teach, and discipline, but now watch out for bullying as well. What do you feel is an appropriate punishment for a student who disrupts the class?