Teacher accused of taping student's mouth shut

October 5, 2010

Posted: Oct 04, 2010 6:12 PM CDT

Posted by Dave Schroeder

A Mishawaka mother claims her autistic son had his mouth duct-taped shut by a

physical education teacher last week.

The School City of Mishawaka is now investigating.

" I was outraged, " said Rita Burnett, who was shocked to hear that her autistic

son had been forced to wear duct tape over his mouth during gym class last week.

She says her 8-year old came home from school humiliated last Thursday.

" Gym teacher called him out in the middle of a game, made him put duct tape over

his mouth and made him run around in the gym the rest of the day with duct tape

over his mouth. All of his classmates witnessed this and thought that it was

hilarious, and it really humiliated my son, " Burnett said.

Enraged, Burnett went to Battell Elementary to complain. She wants her son's

PE teacher fired.

Mishawaka schools' Gregg Hixenbaugh has issued the following statement:

" I can confirm that we have been made aware of the concern on the part of the

parent. We certainly stand ready to cooperate with any law enforcement

investigation. We will be dealing with it also as an internal matter, as it

involves the employment of one of our teachers. "

Mishawaka police have also been contacted.

" Any incident that involved juveniles or children we take very seriously, " said

Mishawaka Police's Ken Whitkowski.

They are currently gathering information.

" Right now it's just an alleged incident, we'll investigate it as we normally

do, " Whitkowski said.

Burnett feels that not enough is being done.

" I believe that this is child abuse. If I were to do this to my own child and

he came to the school and say something to the principal, CPS would be on me in

a heartbeat for doing this, " Burnett said.

While her son is attending school, Burnett says he is scared to go back to PE

class.

Burnett says that her son can be loud at times, but she says he doesn't know why

the teacher put duct tape over his mouth on Thursday.

This isn't the first time an Indiana teacher has caught heat for taping a

student's mouth shut.

A Tippecanoe teacher was fired for doing so just last year.

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