A mum in New Zealand has pulled her son out of school, claiming a teacher taped his mouth shut for gossiping in class.
She claims the seven-year-old schoolboy has missed the last two weeks of term and his Christmas concert because he’s too scared to go return to class.
According to the furious parent, her son was one of a few who had their mouths taped plastic labels for talking too much, reports the Daily Star
Rob Taylor, principal of Colwill School in West Auckland, in the country's North Island, acknowledged the incident happened as he launched a probe.
A letter seen by Stuff.co.nz is reported to have said: “A careful and thorough investigation was finally able to be completed yesterday with the last of the parents of these children being interviewed.
"These things do take time, based on the availability of key people needing to be free to meet with us.
All children involved and their parents, excluding [student], have now been interviewed appropriately by the school’s Social Worker who informs me that [staff member’s] perspective that this was game [sic] that the children appeared to enjoy and wished to play with her was by all accounts the correct version of this event.”
That wasn’t good enough for the mum, who fumed that the school refused to apologise in person after the incident, which took place on November 25.
According to Stuff, she only found out about the tape incident through her daughter as her son was too embarrassed to tell her.
“He was a bit apprehensive of telling me because he thought he was in trouble," she said.
According to the school, police have now been called in to investigate as the teacher involved apologised for "causing upset".
In Mr Taylor’s letter, the teacher said: “I am very upset by what has happened and very sorry to [the student] and [the parents] for causing upset to your family.”
It is not known whether the teacher has been sacked.
