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.
Was the student’s name John C. Dvorak?
“I don’t think that somebody else should discipline one’s child,” said parent Marisol Monilato. “It’s up to the parents.”
I think teachers and administrators should be able to discipline students to maintain order in the classroom. And from what I have seen in fast food restaraunts, some parents won’t discipline their kids. Scotch tape seems resonable to me. Makes the point without causing harm. Now if she had used duct tape instead ….
old tricks are the best tricks!
Heck…it’s not like she paddled them…those were the days…
From the article:
“At the school on Wednesday, other parents learning of the tape incident weren’t so forgiving. ‘I don’t think that somebody else should discipline one’s child,’ said parent Marisol Monilato. ‘It’s up to the parents.'”
Bullshit.
When I was in elementary school in the early to mid ’70’s this was commonplace, except masking tape was used.
Were the kids quiet after having their mouths taped? The parent who said someone else shouldn’t discipline her child should home-school her kid. It is unreasonable to expect a teacher not to discipline a student when necessary, as long as there is no physical punishment or humiliation involved. No child was singled out or physically harmed. What’s the big deal?
When students are unruly and interfere with the teacher’s ability to instruct the class, the remainder of the class is being unfairly deprived of their education. If my kid is out of line, it is the teacher’s responsibility to put him back in line and I will reinforce it at home. When these people undermine this teacher’s authority, they make it more difficult for the entire faculty to control their classes.
Right on, Cheryl. You can tell that the children who cause the most trouble for teachers are (almost always) children who receive NO discipline at home. Why insist that the parents harbor the right to discipline when they obviously don’t exercise that right at all?
The way it should go is this:
Your house, your rules, your discipline.
My classroom, my rules, my discipline.
If the parents want to be the ones doing the discipline, then call the parents at work when their child won’t shut up and tell them that you will call them every time they act up until the parents finally teach their children to be quiet.
And I would harbor no regrets in going above the parent’s head and speak to their boss. After all, their child is interrupting your work… why not interfere with the parent’s work? It was the parent’s choice to not discipline their kid’s that is the fault here… not the teacher.
[Stepping down off of soapbox now]
The parents should be ashamed that their kids are so unruly.
This is nothing compared to the paddlings back in the day.
Good! I had to endure four years of Chicago Public Schools, from 4th grade to the eighth, where the classes were completely out of control. The teachers quit, one after another. The students were backtalking, chatting, playing, doing anything but learning. It wrecked my high school education, since a hell of a lot of material was never covered in grade school, or (worse) was endlessly repeated because the class never absorbed the material for * years*. We were still being taught punctuation and basic arithmetic in 8th grade. When I made it to one of the premier college prep high schools in the city, I was at a total loss, since I’d missed so much material. My study habits weren’t all that great, either. MY discipline was shot. Took a while to unlearn Talcott School, Chicago, Class of 1975.
Ten messages so far, and nobody faults the teacher. I am encouraged !!
WHAT A BITCH!
No way should that be tolerated!
Shes obviously not a happy person and has no business being around children. Shes taking out her frustrations on the little rascals in her class.:-) Probably needs a good pumping…
Now if I was in that class and she did that to me I would have used some older people to beat the piss out of her
after school 🙂
Kids are suppose to be happy and have fun.
Children are motivated best with positive reinfocement not abuse.
Thier are other ways to discipline a child than with violence.
You act good you are rewarded it’s that simple.
#8 poster. Excellent idea you had: any parent who complains about fair and balanced punishment, no problem. Teacher phones the parent’s work and/or cell phone and gives the parent 30min to get to the school so the parent can discipline the child theselves………..Each and EVERY time.
Most likely the only parents who will complain are the ones with the Horror Kids; the ones with no discipline at home.
In my day, rulers on the knuckles were a very immediate, very fast, very simple, very un-harmful way of maintaing order – for reality is, we ALL were, at times, a bad student needing to be controlled.
When I was a kid it was masking tape too (I know from experience having been on the receiving end!). I’m still mouthy. 😉
Teachers should not have to tape students mouths shut. Instead teachers should have the power to ban students from regular school. School should be a privilege not a prison. If we sent juvenile delinquents away from our serious students, schools might maintain a much more professional atmosphere.
She has just been given a promotion to teach high school health education where she will have the vaginas surgically sealed of all her pupils who become pregnant.
As the students die a slow, agonizing, painful death from toxic poisoning, this will serve as a positive example for the rest of her students not to give in to their baser instincts.
Amen.
Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®
I wonder if the “nobody should discipline my child but me” mom would like it if every time her kid was out of line, the teacher was calling her at work and demanding that she come to the school and do just that.
but, since no one is faulting the teacher yet, I will just toss this out there: this is Texas after all, and with their mouths taped shut, how are those kids supposed to reach their spit cups?
scotch tape?
wow, what abuse?
when will dirty looks be suspendably offenses?
Ummm ….
I’m a kid in grade school and i find it amusing that all of you think you know what your talking about. There are many right ways to discipline children in school and none of them involve taping childrens mouth shut. No matter how tempted the teacher is. IF the students all gave in to THEIR temptations the bitchy teachers would be badly wounded.
They should fly that kid to a tiny country like where I’m living in, Honduras. And then they should whip that kid until it’s purple, that’ll teach that kid some humility >:)
whoa!! that chick is scary lookin
The Houston Chronicle just posted an article saying that most of the parents support the teacher. Even one mother of an “alleged victim” said that although she thought the teacher was out of line, it was not a firing offense.
The Chronicle goes on to note that the class has had six subsititue teachers in the eight days since the incident. It does not say if the subsitutes were fired, or merely chased away by unruly children.
This exact same thing happened in the UK ages ago.
Allen
Get a life. You are definitely not a well person.
Angel
Attitudes like that only beget more abuse. Maybe when you were younger someone “whipped you” until you were purple? You can be a sad case buddy.
Was it wrong to tape the mouth shut? I don’t think so. It wasn’t damaging to the children, it served the purpose, the children missed more severe punishment such as suspension or expulsion. Is it something to fire or discipline the teacher about. Absolutely not.
Calling the parent to come discipline their children every time they were abusive is wrong. Calling the parent’s boss is abusive and harassing. Not recommended. Calling the parent to come pick up their child because he / she was being suspended for the rest of the day might be very effective.
I had this happen to me when I was acting up in class by a sub’. Yes I was beeing bad and I knew it. Heck even with my mouth taped I didn’t even stop… she couldn’t see my mouth moving so I kept being what I thought for a 2nd graders was really funny.
Even raised my hand to answer a question and when she got flabbergasted and said “you can’t answer you have tape on your” I remember finding that to be extremly funny. I told my mother and she didn’t find the funny…. in my being bad. Niether did she think the teacher was out of line.Tthe ’70s
Shoulda used duct tape on the little beggars…
Duct tape would have been more appropiate…
Scotch tape? Pffttt, thats nothing more than a symbolic gesture to keep quiet. If she was going for the full treatment, there are some eletrical tapes out there that are truly unpleasent to take off.
Also, to tyler, you seem to be making a threat to physicaly cause harm to this teacher. A teachers job is to teach and your job is to sit like a mindless drone, whether you get anything out of it or not, so that other students may actualy learn so that they may someday succede in life.