Girl,11, Had Her Mouth Taped By Teacher As Punishment

A classroom �chatterbox� had her mouth taped shut by a teacher for 15 minutes � because she would not stop talking. Elise Smith, 11, was made to sit with sticky tape over her lips as a punishment at William Allitt School in Swadlincote, Derbyshire. Her furious father, Marc Smith, has lodged a complaint with the school, which has recently been placed in special measures, as well as the local education authority and Ofsted. School governors have called the teacher�s actions �misguided� and he is understood to have apologised to the youngster and her family � but no further disciplinary action was taken. Mr Smith spoke out after the school was recently placed into special measures following a damning Ofsted inspection report. He said: �The children were all talking in class and were told to be quiet, but my daughter kept on talking. �He should just have sent her out. You cannot lay a finger on children. �I was at work when it happened, but my daughter told me when I got home and the next morning I went to the school. I was fuming.� At the time of the incident, former head teacher Mike McCandless had to get both sides of the story and took written statements from other pupils at the school. Mr Smith, who lives in Woodville, Derbyshire, said he was angry that the teacher in question was never suspended and remains at the school. He said: �The teacher apologised but has not been punished enough, in my opinion, because he didn�t get suspended and is still working at that school. �I heard about teachers in another school doing it and they were suspended, so why not here?� He said he was reluctant to send his child back to the school, but did so after she said she was missing her friends. Jean Mead, Chairman of governors at William Allitt School, said: �The welfare of pupils is always our top priority. �This was a misguided action rather than a malicious one. �It happened in December last year. It shouldn�t have taken place under any circumstances � the teacher immediately regretted his actions and apologised. �We worked alongside the local authority to carry out a thorough investigation and appropriate action was taken.�