A mother has been left appalled after claiming that a member of staff at her son's school put tape over his mouth to stop him from talking.
The seven-year-old was reportedly left with so much anxiety as a result of the incident that he was unwilling to complete the final two weeks of his school year or attend the Christmas concert at his school in Colwill School in West Auckland.
The boy was one of several who had their mouth's taped for talking too much in class.
This teacher lost their cool from a school prank:A letter written by school principal Rob Taylor to the mother stated that the use of tape was a "game that the children appeared to enjoy", Stuff reports.
"Even though you chose not to follow the school’s complaint process, this did not stop me from dealing with this concern as if you had," Taylor wrote in the December 11 letter.
The letter continued: "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."
Taylor wrote in the same letter that if the boy was traumatized, the Ministry of Education support team would be able to offer him counseling.
However, the child's mother said that despite this, the teacher has yet to apologize for the November 25 incident.
She explained that the trauma caused by the incident was worsened by the fact that her son is asthmatic.
"I asked my 7-year-old what he thought about all this, and he said: 'When we do something wrong in class we have to say sorry and that we won't do it again, why can't the teacher?'"
The mother said that her son didn't tell her about the incident and she instead found out about it through her daughter, who attends the same school.
"I'm just absolutely appalled that a teacher would do something like this," she said.
"One of the other girls came to her and said 'Hey, your brother's mouth was taped for talking too much in class'," the woman said.
"He was a bit apprehensive of telling me because he thought he was in trouble."
Taylor explained that the mother's complaint had been taken seriously when Stuff reached out to the school for comment, but he could not say more about the incident as it is now being investigated by police.
