School discipline fail: Halifax-area after-school instructor tapes kids’ mouths shut

Should tape be a disciplinary tool in Canada's classrooms?

In a word, no.

I understand teachers today feel they have less and less latitude to deal with unruly students. Mouthy kids, chatterboxes, class comedians; they've been part of a teacher's burden since students carried slates and chalk to school.

I spent a lot of time standing in the hall in Grade 5. And is it too late after half a century to say sorry, Mr. Mendes, for helping make your life a living hell when you were our substitute teacher in Grade 7?

But none of my teachers, who had a much freer hand than their 21st-century counterparts, would have humiliated any of us by taping my mouth or other body part to make a point.

Parents at a suburban Halifax elementary school are rightly upset that an assistant instructor in an after-school program allegedly taped shut the mouths of as many as a dozen chatty students.

[ Related: Halifax parent irate over claims students had mouths taped shut ]

"I think we're all in shock, to be honest," Jennifer Procunier, whose seven-year-old son got the treatment, told CBC News.

Procunier said she understood about 10 children at the school in Bedford, N.S., were involved and she has spoken to other concerned parents, CBC News said.

The "discipline" apparently was punishment for unruliness, father Chris Procunier told The Canadian Press.

Her son told her the miscreants were lined up against a wall and their mouths were taped shut.

“My son said they were speaking out loud, but I’m not sure what the catalyst was … and there was actual duct tape placed on the kids mouths for an extended period of time,” said the father.

Jennifer Procunier said she didn't learn about the incident last Thursday until her son made an offhand remark about it.

"He said, 'I tried to take the tape off my mouth and as I did that I got in trouble and was told that if I took it off, I was going to get it put back on,'" she told CBC News.

Another parent whose child got the same punishment confirmed to her that it happened. Procunier said she's upset the school did not inform the parents.

"If we would not have approached the school board ourselves — as parents who are in the know — we would not know our son was involved," Procunier said.

Halifax Regional School Board spokesman Doug Hadley told CBC News the mouth-taping was unacceptable under any circumstances and the instructor was put on paid leave pending an investigation by the board and local police.

He told CP some parents were contacted the day after the incident and over the weekend, but others weren't informed until Tuesday.

Hadley said it's not known what kind of tape was used but if the circumstances are confirmed, the instructor violated board policies.

[ Related: Kids' mouths allegedly taped shut ]

Nova Scotia Education Minister Ramona Jennex, a former teacher, said said in a news release Wednesday she was "very upset" about the incident.

"I want to reassure parents that this behaviour is not acceptable nor will it be tolerated," said Jennex. "I have asked the board to keep me informed as to the progress of the investigation and its outcome.

"Our schools need to be safe havens for children in this province."

This isn't the first time tape has figured in classroom punishment.

Last fall, police were called in after a Moncton, N.B., mother claimed her daughter said she'd had her wrists taped to another student to for the pair to get along, UPI reported.

In 2011, a Vancouver teacher was belatedly investigated by the provincial college of teachers for taping a Grade 7 student's mouth shut, apparently using "classroom tape," CTV News reported. The incident was dealt with by the principal but the teacher was not suspended, nor was it reported to the college until it became public during an school-board election campaign.

I get that teachers today, barred from physically disciplining misbehaving students, feel unarmed. But resorting to duct tape represents failure.