A chatty 11-year-old girl, Elise Smith, had been given a antiquated punishment that humiliated both the girl and angered the family. For 15 minutes, the girl had her mouth taped with Sellotape as a punishment for chatting with her friends when the class was supposed to be quiet, as reported in a DailyMail UK article.
The teacher stopped simply because he realized he should not have punished the child in that way. When Mr. Smith, Elise’s father, spoke to the school for closure, the school simply said that the teacher’s actions were ‘misguided’ and the school made the teacher apologize.
Mr. Smith does agree that some punishment should have been made for Elise. “The children were all talking in class and were told to be quiet, but my daughter kept on talking. He should just have sent her out. You cannot lay a finger on children,” he said. Instead of this humiliation she undertook, other appropriate measures could have easily happened.
Unfortunately, this incident happened last December, and only has been surfaced by Mr. Smith ever since the school has received a unfavorable Ofsted report, placing the school in special measures.
Still, the governors at that school insist that it was simply misguided, that an apology is sufficient and will not take place under any circumstances again.