Schools
Michigan Teacher Duct Tapes Student To Chair To Control Hand Gestures: Reports
A Michigan high school chemistry teacher said the student was a distraction to others in the class and has since resigned, police said.
A Michigan high school chemistry teacher has resigned after video surfaced showing her strapping a student to a chair in class, according to media reports. The teacher told police in Bangor, located in the southwest corner of the state, that she was only joking, but the student, a 16-year-old male, thinks the teacher should face criminal charges.
The teacher reportedly wrapped the duct tape around the student’s chest and arms to stop him from gesturing with his hands while talking, claiming it was a distraction to other students in the class. Another student helped the teacher, while another shot video footage of the incident, according to multiple reports.
Bangor Police Chief Tommy Simpson said the teacher admitted to the act when he interviewed her, and the matter has been referred to the Van Buren County Prosecutor’s Office for review.
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“He uses his hands a lot to gesture when he’s talking,” Simpson told WWMT-TV. “During the time he described what we did this weekend, the teacher grabbed duct tape and began to put it around the upper part of his arms and his body.”
The student initially laughed off the incident, Simpson told WXMI-TV, but later said he was embarrassed. “It was an uncomfortable moment for him,” Simpson said.
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Robert Huber, an attorney for the school district, told Mlive.com Wednesday that the school district is investigating the duct tape incident as well.
In a separate incident, six Bangor teachers have been reprimanded and a school district secretary has resigned after a video shot a local bar and posted on YouTube reportedly showed them playing a game in which they named people they would have sex with, marry or kill. The video was brought to the attention of the school board by parents.
Huber, the school attorney, told MLive that despite initial reports that students were named in the game, that wasn’t the case. Still, two teachers received written reprimands and four others were verbally reprimanded.
Photo by liz west via Flickr Commons
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