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A Texas teacher is accused of taping a 10-year-old student to a chair

The elementary school student was also hit over the head by his classmates when the teacher left the class unattended to return the tape, his mother said.
/ Source: NBC News

A Texas school district is investigating claims that a teacher taped a student to a chair Wednesday.

Charlotte Johnson said her 10-year-old son, Zye, was taped to a chair by his fourth-grade teacher at Crosby Elementary School in Forney, about 30 minutes from Dallas.

“I’m very emotional. I haven’t had any sleep,” Johnson said. “That’s something you don’t do to a child.”

Zye told his mother his teacher grabbed him by the arm after lunchtime Wednesday and led him to his chair, Johnson said. The teacher enlisted the help of two other students — one to hold him down by his other arm and the other to get some tape, Johnson said. The teacher then taped Zye’s body down to his chair, keeping his arms free, she said.

10-year-old, Zye.
10-year-old, Zye.NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

When the teacher left the class to return the tape, a few of Zye’s classmates began hitting him over the head, Johnson said. Zye, who has dwarfism and chronic migraines, put his arms up instinctively so he wouldn’t get hit in the face, his mother said.

“My son has dwarfism. He’s 10, but he doesn’t look like he is,” she said. “He tells me one of the students told him, ‘I’m going to slap you as hard as Will Smith slapped Chris Rock.’”

After the teacher returned, Zye freed himself from the tape because he had a headache and went to an area of the classroom designated for students to “cool down.” While he was there, the teacher went over and said, “You know I was just playing with you,” Johnson said. Zye asked to go to the nurse, whom he told about what happened.

Johnson said it wasn’t until the school day was over that she got a phone call from one of the assistant principals about what had happened. Asked why the teacher would do that, she said, the official replied, “He wouldn’t be still.”

Crosby Elementary School in Forney, Texas.
Crosby Elementary School in Forney, Texas.NBC Dallas-Fort Worth

“I was upset. I said, ‘You mean to tell me she taped him because he would not be still?’” Johnson said. “It really doesn’t matter what he did — you don’t do that to a child. He’s not an animal. You don’t do that and leave him unattended for students to assault him.”

The teacher was put on administrative leave, Johnson said she was told.

The Forney Independent School District said in a statement Tuesday that it is “aware of the allegations, and an investigation is underway.”