A teacher at Hollinger Elementary in Tuscon, Ariz. is being accused of possible assault for the way she disciplined an eight-year old student with ADHD, KGUN9 reports. The student, Mia Kramer, was allegedly duct-taped by her teacher to her chair after frequently getting up to sharpen her pencils, and her family is outraged.
Kramer showed police and reporters exactly how her teacher taped her to her chair after scolding her for getting up one too many times to sharpen her pencil. "It felt like something's happening to me and it's wrong," Kramer said to KGUN9, explaining that one strip of wide packing tape went around her stomach and the back of the chair, and one went higher up around her body.
"The other one I had to put my arms up," Kramer said, adding that it "hurt a little."
Her outraged mother spoke out to KGUN9 against the teacher's methods.
"She likes to be happy and they tied her to a chair," Maria Vasquez said. "Regardless if it was a little tape - she got tied to a chair where she couldn't move. That's not right."
Kramer's self-described adopted grandmother, Maria "Toni" Gonzales, agreed. "The thought should've not gone through the teacher's mind - to tape child to a chair," she said.
Gonazles, a former teacher herself, laid out what the teacher should have done instead with a child with ADHD. "Buzz the office, have somebody come in and help you for ten minutes and walk out of there [to calm down]," she explained.
Tucson Unified School District representatives declined an interview with KGUN9, but did send a statement on the incident, explaining that the teacher in question is "not in the classroom pending the outcome of the investigation. The complaint has been referred to district leadership and if it's determined that this incident took place, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken." They added that they take what happened to Kramer very seriously, and agree that such behavior on behalf of her teacher was not acceptable or appropriate for the classroom. However, the teacher has not been fired as of yet.
"I want them to understand that they hurt her by tying her to chair and that that was wrong," Vasquez said, who wants acknowledgement from the school.
Kramer, who has not returned to school since the alleged incident, echoed her mother's sentiments. "She should respect kids - not hurt them," she said. Local police are investigating the matter as a possible assault.
Click here to see KGUN9's video report on the incident, including interviews with Mia Kramer and her mother.
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