Student Seeks Damages Against Teacher

KCTV 5 News ^ | Feb. 21, 2003 | Unsigned AP

[Hoppean]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- A kindergarten teacher is being sued by a student who claims she taped him to his chair.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in Jackson County Circuit Court by attorney Lyle Gregory, seeks at least $25,000 in damages against DaMara Lashley, a kindergarten teacher at Pitcher Elementary School in Kansas City.

The lawsuit claims that on Feb. 5, Lashley punished the student by "binding him to his chair with tape" although the student posed no danger to himself or others.

As a result, the lawsuit claims, the student suffered emotional distress and humiliation and had to undergo psychological counseling.

Lashley did not immediately return a telephone message left at her home seeking comment.

Lashley and another kindergarten teacher as well as principal Rick Mills were suspended last week.

A Kansas City School District spokesman said last week that the district was investigating reports that kindergartners were bound to their chairs with tape, threatened with a glue gun, had their hands bound and had pepper placed in their mouths.

Mills has acknowledged that he is a staunch believer in corporal punishment, but denied swatting Pitcher students. He has said he follows district policy and disciplined children by putting them in the corner with their hands behind their backs.

[Hoppean]

I take this story as another incident in a long chain of anti-male bias against vulnerable children at the hands of squeamish and overcontrolling female teachers. These sorts of incidents occur more frequently than you'd think, and every so often make it into the newspapers.

If you think I'm exaggerating the cultural and political significance of this, consider reversing the situation: what if a male teacher had taped a girl to a chair as punishment? It would be taken much more seriously, and it would be much less likely to happen. I suspect a lot of people out there at first glance might cheer this lady on, seeing her as striking a blow for "discipline," but underneath it all is a scary assumption: that boys naturally deserve this sort of treatment, while angelic girls do not.

We do live in a feminist-dominated culture at this point, where young boys with natural levels of energy and the like are simply classified as "unruly" or wrong, and the school system even goes as far as to drug them up with Ritalin. In a case a while back like this one, a female teacher had taped a boy's mouth shut--a variation on the taping to the chair bit.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

They are innocent, until proven otherwise. This story sounds so far-fetched. Threatened with a glue-gun, especially... do you realize how HOT those things can be?

[thinktwice]

One of the reasons things went bad in Vietnam -- thanks to morale problems induced by anti-war protestors in the United States -- was that it came to a point where officers were not allowed to discipline men that were taking drugs.

Senior officers in the field reached the point where the primary objective was keeping their men alive.

[beaversmom]

My now 45 year old brother often laughs about the time his 1st grade (female) teacher tied him to the chair with a jump rope--guess they weren't pushing Ritalin back then--ha, ha. He also recalls that same teacher taking the entire class for a tour of her property and house trailer and showing the class a gun she kept in the drawer. Can you imagine if those things would have happened today? Personally, I think a lot of things were better when the world wasn't so politically correct.

[beaversmom]

I understand what you are saying about the attacks against our boys. I have a son whom we consider to be very bright. He is in a public kindergarten right now. We are having a terrible time right now with the schools. They first tried to push ritalin (although they won't admit they do that) on us after the first semester. Luckily our pediatrician was kind enough to go with us to that meeting and took some wind out of their sails. Since we refused the ritalin route, they then started pushing that he has learning disabilites and needed to be tested to get him in special education. We also refused that not wanting him to be labeled at such a young age. Our pediatrician and a retired teacher have both told us that a child has to be at least in the 3rd grade before you can assess what his academic abilities will be. Needless to say, we aren't happy with this school at all and are very seriously considering alternatives for next year. Personally, if he is a little antsy during the day, I wish they would tie him down with a jump rope or tape him to his chair for a few minutes--I'd rather have that than the strong arm tactics they are using with us right now. I now have a little taste of what it feels like to go up against a system.