A 12-year-old boy says his teacher taped him to a chair for 20 minutes during class at a New York school.
Irel Jones said he was taking a test at the I.S. 339 school in The Bronx last Friday when another student started asking him for answers, and he got out of his seat.
The boy said the teacher asked him to sit — then duct-taped him to his chair for 20 minutes as punishment, MyFoxNY.com reported.
“She duct-taped my arm, my other arm and my stomach together and then she wrapped it [the tape] around the chair twice,” the sixth grader told the TV station, adding that the incident left him feeling “embarrassed and bullied.”
His mom, Lenora Cuffee, said it was “unacceptable.”
“We’re taught not to bully in school … but a teacher is doing this, come on,” she said. “When he was duct-taped, the students were taking his chair and pushing it around the classroom, and the teacher was grinning.”
Cuffee, who describes her son as a shy boy who likes math, wants criminal charges pressed against the teacher.
“The [district attorney] wouldn’t take the case. They said it wasn’t enough [evidence], but … if it was me and somebody came into the house and seen I duct-taped my child to a chair, I would have been arrested,” she said.
Cuffee added that her son is seeing a psychiatrist, and she is demanding he is transferred to another school.
The Department of Education said the teacher is still employed within the New York City schools system while an investigation is carried out.
“No charges were filed,” the department said in a statement. “The teacher has been reassigned away from the school. The matter is under investigation.”
To read more, go to MyFoxNY.com.