Taping a talkative child’s mouth shut may not be the best approach, but it is not a crime, a Cobb County magistrate decided Thursday.
Criminal charges will not be filed against a current and a former staff member at a Cobb after-school program where a student’s mouth was taped shut last week.
James Arrowood, director of public safety for Cobb schools, said campus officers went to Magistrate Court Thursday morning. But after speaking to a magistrate, “it was determined there was no crime,” Arrowood said.
“There was inappropriate conduct and improper action,” he said. “It was definitely inappropriate what happened. When we presented this matter to the magistrate, they determined warrants would not be issued.”
That ends the criminal aspect of the case, Arrowood said. But the school district’s human resources department is still investigating the incident, said spokesman Jay Dillon.
The program assistant who did the taping no longer works for the Cobb school district. Another program assistant, whose been with district since Nov. 23, 2004, was placed on leave while the investigation continues, Dillon said.
The boy’s mother Tonya Jones complained to school officials after her son told her what happened at the after-school program at Compton Elementary School.
Last Friday, a staff member taped Jones’ 10-year-old’s mouth shut. And told him: “If you can sit there for five minutes with your mouth duct-taped, then you can play the game,” Jones recounted.
Dillon said the boy was put in time-out for talking too much. The staffer told the boy the time-out could be cut short if he stayed quiet. But then the staffer suggested that the only way the boy would stay quiet would be to put a piece of tape on his mouth.
Dillon said the boy agreed.
“It wasn’t malicious or forced,” Dillon said in an e-mail. “But it certainly was not an appropriate or smart thing to do.”
Jones complained to the Compton principal and to the directors of the after-school program.
School officials told her there was nothing they could do about the staff member who taped her son’s mouth shut —Friday was his last day.
That staff member was hired as an assistant in the after-school program in Sept. 5, 2006.
“Even if they are not teachers, they should have training in how to handle children,” Jones said.
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