5th-Graders' Mouths Duct-Taped Shut In Texas By Substitute Teacher: School

KILLEEN, TX — A substitute teacher won’t be returning to the Killeen school campus after she was accused of covering 10 fifth-grade students’ mouths with duct tape, the district said in a statement Thursday. The district called the Maxdale Elementary School substitute’s behavior both “outrageous and unconscionable,” but said it’s unclear what prompted the woman’s action.

The school district said three other students voluntarily put duct tape on their mouths, apparently in a show of support for the students. All 13 were taken to the school nurse’s office for observation and treatment and then returned to the classroom, the school said. None of the students was injured, the district said.

Child Protective Services was also notified, according to the statement, and the teacher has been permanently removed from the roster of available substitute teachers and barred from the Killeen campus.

Parents were also notified about what had happened. (For more news like this, subscribe to Across Texas Patch for real-time breaking news alerts and free morning newsletters, or find your local Texas Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

One of the parents, Adaeze Akudolu, told the Killeen Daily Herald her son ripped the duct tape off his mouth, but the teacher reapplied it. The students’ mouths were duct-taped shut for at least 15 minutes before school officials became aware of the situation, Akudolu said.

The teacher, who wasn’t named, had been a substitute for the Killeen district since January 2016, a spokeswoman told ABC News.

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