Furious mum pulls son, 7, out of school after teacher tapes his mouth shut for ‘gossiping’
A FURIOUS mum who claims a teacher taped her seven-year-old son's mouth shut for gossiping has pulled him out of school.
The youngster missed the last two weeks of class and his Christmas concert because he had "too much anxiety" about going back to Colwill School in West Auckland, New Zealand.
The fuming parent says her son was one of a group of boys who had their mouth taped shut with plastic labels for talking during a lesson.
In a letter sent to the mum written by principal Rob Taylor, seen by , he confirmed the incident took place but claims it was "a game".
On December 11, he wrote: "A careful and thorough investigation was finally able to be completed yesterday with the last of the parents of these children being interviewed.
"These things do take time, based on the availability of key people needing to be free to meet with us.
"All children involved and their parents, excluding [student], have now been interviewed appropriately by the school's social worker, who informs me that [staff member's] perspective that this was a game [sic] that the children appeared to enjoy and wished to play with her by all accounts the correct version of this event."
Mr Taylor added that the boy would be able to get counselling through the Ministry of Education if the experience had upset him.
But this response wasn't good enough for the fuming mum, who was outraged no one had apologised despite the incident happening on November 25.
She said: "I asked my seven-year-old what he though about all this, and he said: 'When we do something wrong in class we have to say sorry adn that we won't do it again, why can't the teacher?'".
According to Stuff, the parent only found out about her son's mouth being taped from her daughter, who also goes to the school.
She added: "He was a bit apprehensive of telling me because he thought he was in trouble.
"I'm just absolutely appalled that a teacher would do something like this."
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The school says police have now been called in to investigate the matter .
Within Mr Taylor's letter to the mother, a statement from the staff member in question was included.
It said: "I am very upset by what has happened and very to [the student] and [the parents] for causing upset to your family."