‘Teacher taped our mouths closed during maths class’

Inquiry hears of substitute’s efforts to quieten ‘giddy’ 11-year-olds

‘One or two of the girls were crying’

A TEACHER trying to quieten a rowdy class told five pupils to put sticking tape over their mouths, it was alleged at the State’s first ‘fitness to teach’ inquiry yesterday.

After the incident, the children appeared upset and with red marks on their faces and around their mouth when they went to the principal’s office to complain, the inquiry heard.

The five students, now aged between 15 and 17, were in a primary school maths class on March 7, 2012, when the substitute teacher was allegedly struggling to quieten the giddy class.

‘She was shouting first; she said “whisht”. She picked up the Sellotape off the dispenser on her table,’ one of the students told the inquiry yesterday. ‘She held it up in front of me and asked me to put it on. I was scared and shocked.

‘I said no. She told me to put it on again. I said no. Then she put it on.’

The woman teacher began teaching at the school two days previously in a learning support role to provide sick leave cover for 12 weeks.

She did not attend yesterday’s hearing and had no legal representation. An attempt to serve a summons requiring her attendance was unsuccessful.

She described the allegation of professional misconduct as ‘historic and unfounded’ and said in her initial contact with the Teaching Council that she could not go through the inquiry for health reasons.

She stated that she would not be ‘physically able for the rigours of an oral hearing’.

Her submission conflicted with the students’ evidence at the hearing. ‘I said, “whisht” quietly so as not to distract the other children working away quietly,” she said. She was later shocked to see some students with Sellotape over their lips. ‘I asked them to remove it immediately which they did. I saw two others with Sellotape on their lips and asked them to remove it quickly so it would not hurt them,’ she said.

In evidence yesterday, one pupil said the tape ‘was on for about 40 minutes. It was uncomfortable but we just got on with what we had to do in class.’

The principal said the five students were ‘visibly distressed’ after the incident. ‘Their expression, demeanour when they came in, I knew there was something wrong… One or two were crying. There were little red marks on their faces around their mouth.’

The teacher was told not to return to the school. She did not engage with the inquiry process, stopped answering her phone and deleted her details from the Teaching Council system.

The inquiry panel has retired to reach its decision.