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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be mildly amused by the teacher placing sticky tape on her pupil's mouths?

178 replies

Firsttimmemummy · 04/03/2014 21:11

I know it's not on. I do. But all the same I can't help chuckling every time it's read out on the bbc news and picture this teacher just snapping.

Please don't all be mean to me, I'm new!!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-26431417

OP posts:
Ledare · 05/03/2014 10:11

so it does Grin

Burren · 05/03/2014 10:14

This was done to me when I was about seven (late 70s). Standing solo out by the wall. My best friend of the time (a sweet, over-eager child who was always jumping up from her chair with her hand up to answer a question) was tied into her desk with string for the morning. And another girl (whose name I still remember because of the humiliation) was made to stand in the bin, because she was 'rubbish'.

Another teacher at the same school would send miscreants around all the classrooms holding the wooden spoon with which they were going to be hit, and saying what they had done wrong to the whole school.

All punishments designed to humiliate publicly. I haven't read the article but I'm horrified anyone would think sellotaping a child's mouth was ok. It sounds like a throwback to the past, apart from parental complaints.

looknow · 05/03/2014 10:16

I note that the parents have abided by the requests from the head to not talk to the media or post on social media sites about this.

A total non story, other than to illustrate how overly precious some parents can be.

cobaltcow · 05/03/2014 10:20

Feel sorry for the teacher most. Probably just a joke that escalated. She shouldn't have done it as she should have thought it through. Can't help thinking mst of the kids probably thought it was hilarious.

Such an OTT reaction unless they were all sobbing and she held them down whilst laughing maniacally.

cory · 05/03/2014 10:21

I am experimenting. How do you make lips bleed by applying sellotape?

Fecklessdizzy · 05/03/2014 10:23

Cory I think you have to punch them first.

Fecklessdizzy · 05/03/2014 10:24
Grin
baby2love · 05/03/2014 10:24

It was wrong and obviously she should know better, but very funny to hear on the news

Sparklingbrook · 05/03/2014 10:25

Quick! Put Channel 5 on, TWS are discussing it after the break....

nonameslefttouse · 05/03/2014 10:35

Well I giggled at this story, I would definitely have gaffer tape in my top drawer, you can stick everything together and down with that stuff!

I really do think it was a joke taken out context, no way can tape be applied without getting them to sit still and keep their mouths shut and I would personally give my dc a rocket if they were being so misbehaved in class that a teacher felt the need to do this!

Please note I do not work in a school so no gaffer tape to use on little darlings

SomethingkindaOod · 05/03/2014 10:36

I couldn't make the sticky tape I used at Christmas actually stick the damn wrapping paper together. Any teachers want to let me in on the secret of where you buy your tape? I NEED decent sticky tape!

Sparklingbrook · 05/03/2014 10:36

Daniella Westbrook is being ridiculous. Hmm

midwifeandmum · 05/03/2014 10:40

tbh I would of been angry if it was my daughter. But these parents are ripping the arse out of it.

It would of been an outrage if one or two kids had been singled out and Cellotape applied but a full class bar 2??

I agree catbinlady or tjis isnt morally funny but these parents and photos are making a mockery out of it.

I have a sick sense of humour, I neec one to get by in my job otherwise Id crumble and cry with the stress of todays midwife health care Grin

Sparklingbrook · 05/03/2014 10:41

I can't understand why anyone would want to be a teacher ever.

Crowler · 05/03/2014 10:42

^Yep Sparklingbrook, I would die.

wintertimeisfun · 05/03/2014 10:42

the usual over reaction. good for the teacher, it didn't exactly hurt them. too many precious mothers out there. if dd was talking too much in class and the teacher did that i personally would say good for the teacher. teachers have little control these days hence badly behaved kids that know they are untouchable. ridiculous

NCedToProtectTheIgnorant · 05/03/2014 10:42

IF all the details are true (not always a given) then I hope the teacher is sacked! It wasn't one piece of tape on one child for a minute as a joke, it was all the children with mouths repeatedly taped (article said the teacher had to keep reapplying the tape) for the entire lesson. That's far above and beyond a joke or losing your rag territory imo, that's a sustained and abusive punishment. Yes it's not as bad as having something thrown at you but that doesn't then make it ok. Even just one child doesn't deserve their mouth taped up but I completely fail to see how an entire class could be so out of control they 'needed' taping up in order to carry on the lesson. I'm happy to punish my child for misbehaving in school and would support the teacher in doing the same but that's not punishment, it's the teacher losing control and not even realising they have for the whole lesson!

nonames - doesn't the fact that they would have had to be still with mouths shut to have the tape applied make it worse? Evidently none of them were so badly behaved that the teacher couldn't get them to be still and quiet for that moment so why the need for the tape?

Crowler · 05/03/2014 10:45

I'm generally not crazy about references to the good old days as they too often seem like platitudes, but it does seem to fit here. When I was a kid, my parents supported any discipline on the teacher's part 100%. It would not have occurred to them to even hear my side of the story (the flip side of 1970's/80's parenting!).

Parents have really become overly precious about their children.

ouryve · 05/03/2014 10:55

Yeah, but when we were kids in the 70s/80s, Crowler, "fold your arms", "hands on heads", "heads on desks" and "fingers on lips" were all sufficient to bring down a room full of primary school kids who were bubbling too much. Done with appropriate humour, those things even work with slightly older kids.

Crowler · 05/03/2014 10:57

Sure. There's clearly a backstory to which we are not privy.

NCedToProtectTheIgnorant · 05/03/2014 11:05

Crowler - my DM was a 70's/80's (and earlier and later) era teacher and my sister and I were 70's & 80's era pupils and can tell you if one of us came home saying we'd been punished her first q would have been a stern "well what were you doing?" but her second would have been "so what happened?" and she'd have been straight into my school if she thought the punishment was unfair, and you'll have to trust me that she was the absolute opposite of 'precious' about her dc's. But she'd been mistreated by teachers as a child, as were many people her age, and saw no reason to support that happening again as a parent.

FWIW, her own pupils were s**t scared of her and usually behaved perfectly (saw when I had to go in with her on primary inset days and in secondary a lot of kids would ask me if she was "that scary" at home too) but she NEVER touched them with a bargepole, she'd have thought sticking sellotape over their mouths was not only horrifically wrong but also a massive sign of weakness and losing the plot. She, all 5'4 of her, managed to control whole classes just by giving out boundaries and sticking to them. I know teaching is getting increasingly harder but I don't see why the same shouldn't apply now.

Crowler · 05/03/2014 11:17

NCed your mother sounds pretty modern - women like that were fairly rare in the 70's/80's in my anecdotal experience. My husband's mother was (and is) like that, my husband refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance (American school) & faced some difficulty - MIL was in there like a flash telling them off and she was forevermore considered a "rogue" parent.

My parents were absolutely supportive of authority, and that was overwhelmingly how the parents were across my peer group.

MyBodyIsAtemplate · 05/03/2014 11:18

Dame was your school in birmingham by any chance as I had a teacher who did exactly this too.

Crowler · 05/03/2014 11:19

^strike "women" and insert "parents" above

shggg245 · 05/03/2014 11:19

The teacher should not have done it and although I don't feel it justifies dismissal, I suspect that's what will happen. Formal reprimand and intensive training re classroom management would be more appropriate imo.

I reckon this story is also massively exaggerated, my ds complained about being 'shut in a cupboard' at school, after detailed questioning it transpired it was a small room because he hadn't finished his work - so children do exaggerate.

The press have totally spun this to the max. It saddens me. Daniella Westbrook speaking on the Wright stuff is also 'outraged' about this 'abuse' she is ridiculous.

Generally I am troubled by parents being constantly 'outraged' by schools attempting to discipline their children. They are paraded in the press with arms folded and wearing angry faces. This is usually about uniforms ie the unfairness ugg boots not being allowed school.

Parents should work with the school and if there's an issue deal with it through the right channels not ring the press.

They will be suing without a doubt.