Teacher Fired for Taping Shut Student's Mouth

[The Straight Story]

Teacher Fired for Taping Shut Student's Mouth


LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) The board of Tippecanoe School Corp. voted Wednesday to cancel Pamela Dahnke's contract. She was an eighth-grade health and nutrition teacher at Battle Ground Middle School in West Lafayette.

Superintendent Scott Hanback says the September taping incident
"cannot be tolerated.''

The board also says Dahnke failed to implement the student's
program for special needs and that she returned to the school after
being told to leave.

The Journal & Courier of Lafayette reported Wednesday that
Dahnke said she was unaware the board had made a decision. A call
to a listing for Dahnke was not answered Friday.

http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/37739624.html

[daninthemoon]

1. the ads to the right of this post are for online teaching degrees. I

wonder if this teacher got her degree that way. pretty tacky for that ad to appear by this story though.

[The Straight Story]

2. Does the course come with a free roll of duct tape?

:rofl:

[Patchuli]

5. The taping was horrible and wrong, wrong, wrong

but please don't knock online college. It works for people who cannot devote long classroom hours to better themselves.

[daninthemoon]

8. Yes, but teaching requires interpersonal skill and training that the

internet cannot supply. many online college courses and even degrees are terrific and appropriate, but teaching is different.

[Patchuli]

23. Of course it does

You don't have to learn it all on the net. I have worked in schools for over six years (not a teacher, support staff) and have pretty much learned the interpersonal skills with kids on the job. Being a mom didn't hurt either. But the academics can be learned online and well. I am working towards a degree...

[daninthemoon]

25. well done, and best wishes.

[baldguy]

3. Catholic school - 1969

I was in a kindergarten class when someone threw a spitball at the 9000-yr old nun teaching the class.

She was coldly furious, and got out a 2-in wide spool of masking tape from her desk and proceeded to tie every student to their desk & chair, along with wrapping the tape around each child's head to cover the mouth.

We sat there from 2pm to 3 to 4 to 5 to 6 - finally MY MOTHER showed up at the door with the principal to release the students.

[livvy]

4. If the story is true as printed...

this is not a person I want to share the profession with. I know special needs kids can be challenging, however, if you can't handle it, without getting abusive, get out.

[Catherine Vincent]

6. I remember when I was in grade school....

My 5th grade teacher taped one of my classmates mouth because he was talking too much. I remember it was the whole day and I don't think he was allowed to take it off during lunch...well maybe as he sat dowm to eat it but he had to put it back on right after he ate. Back then we always were lined up by height as we walked the halls. When the other students from the other classes saw him, they laughed and made fun of him. I remember this same teacher used to paddle this student every other day because he would act up and she would hit him with all her might. Now that I think about all that, it was abusive of what she did to this particular student. I often wonder how he turned out as a grown up.

[cynatnite]

7. My daughter was duct-taped to her chair when she was in grade school...

Couldn't get the teacher fired, but I did force them to transfer my daughter out of that class.

[Ghost in the Machine]

15. My 6th grade teacher shoved me over a desk one day...

He got kicked in the nuts and punched in the mouth for his troubles.. and that was just from me. My father came in the next morning and smashed his face into the blackboard a couple of times, right in front of the whole class...

R.R. Moton Elementary School, Perrine, Florida - I remember it like it was yesterday...

[Catshrink]

9. I agree the teacher's action was wrong, but I understand the frustration.

There are some kids who just can't keep their mouths shut. They disrupt the learning of other students -- the other kids are annoyed as much as the teacher. Phone calls to parents, time outs, detentions, etc. don't work on some kids. AT 16 years old, kids should have a degree of impulse and self control. But some continue to talk and talk and talk and talk. I wish I had a solution.

[Doremus]

10. My daughter once had a teacher that made a student put on a dunce cap.

Then made all the other students laugh at him.

I informed the principal (another piece of work), but the woman is still employed and probably still terrorizing people shorter than herself.

[L0oniX]

11. Teacher torture ...she was only following the US government example...

[Bucky]

12. When I was kid, teachers used to staple our mouths shut if we didn't say please

And we thanked her for it. Dammit, those were the days...

[The Straight Story]

13. let me guess...catholic school?

:rofl:

[petronius]

14. Personally, I don't have a problem with a strip of tape across the mouth

As long as it isn't a suffocation risk or something, it seems like a visible and embarrassing message to shut the hell up that doesn't missing class on a trip to the principal or getting tazed by the school cop.

I suspect the special needs issue is the bigger problem here...

[Ghost in the Machine]

18. What a sick fuck....

You actually *condone* child abuse?

:puke:

[petronius]

21. No, I don't. What I described in my post isn't "child abuse."

Jackass. :eyes:

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. Taping a child's mouth shut = child abuse

pure and simple... if you're too ignorant to understand that, you shouldn't be allowed near children. Period.

[petronius]

27. In your not-so-intelligent opinion. Whatever - save your feeble insults for

someone who cares what you think...

[Ghost in the Machine]

29. Obviously it's *you* that lacks intelligence you child abuser..

If you ever did something like that to *my* child, I'd feed your ass to a gator...

"Whatever" <~~~ The standard answer of someone with nothing intelligent to say...

[Budgies Revenge]

16. that happened to me once

A teacher taped my and another kid's mouth shut for talking during nap time when I was in preschool. It's actually one of my earliest memories of "school"--I do remember thinking it was funny at the time, but strangely, my mom didn't seem to agree.:evilgrin:

[The Straight Story]

17. There are some folks on DU whose hands I would like to duct tape

:rofl:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

19. Wow. Miss Hyde would have been fired numerous times, then

She regularly taped kids' mouths shut in my first grade classroom.

[Fire1]

20. Again? This teacher must have missed the article about this

same thing about 10 years ago. Stupid, stupid.

[U4ikLefty]

22. Is this a public school or a private school?

[timtom]

24. Dahnke...Dahnke...

Just how would one pronounce that...?

[TheKentuckian]

28. If the kid is disrupting the class then

that's what Vice Principles, Principles, and Councilors are for. Remove the disruption with penalty and maybe they'll be more respectful of their opportunity for education and that of their classmate's.

[yasmina27]

30. Everyone here is fired up over

the mouth-taping.

As a teacher, I can say that this is an abhorrent behavior control method for any student.

However, this is probably what really enabled the district to fire her:

"The board also says Dahnke failed to implement the student's program for special needs."

As professional educators, we are required by federal law to abide by any IEP/service agreement. If you don't, you are subject to disciplinary measures and lawsuits. My guess is that this is the district's way of CYA.

As much as I would like to sometimes, only in my wildest dreams would I actually tape a student's mouth shut. I have an 8th boy right now who not only cannot keep his mouth shut, but he literally can not stay in his seat. I would love to use some fluorescent pink duct tape on various parts of his body. :)

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. You are on a roll this evening

Why don't you just start an evil teachers blog site? I would gladly post comments:)