An angry Nashville mom is taking action after she says a teacher put duct tape over her 10 year-old daughter's mouth for talking too much in class.
Metro Nashville Public Schools say they are aware of the claims, and the Department of Child Services is investigating.
The 5th grader's mom tells us this happened a couple weeks ago at Dupont Tyler Middle School. She's gone to the principal, and even as far as the police, saying it unacceptable to put duct tape over a child's mouth, period.
Victoria Phillips says her 10-year-old daughter, Reagan talks a lot during class, but she's excited to learn. Often Reagan wants to answer questions, but doesn’t always raise her hand before talking. Phillips says they have been working well with teachers at the school, until something happened. "I am angry, I am hurt, and I am driven," she says.
What Reagan told her mom, sent chills down Phillip's spine. "Reagan started to cry, and I am like, what's going on? Tell me what happened Reagan? And she's like, well she put tape on my mouth. She put tape over your mouth? And she said yeah." Phillips says what is even worse, "Everybody laughed at me, and then she ripped it off, and it started bleeding."
We spoke with another 5th grader, off camera who was in the same orchestra class at the time.
She says the teacher was trying to get the class to be quiet, and when Reagan was still talking, the teacher got out tape from the desk and put it on Reagan's mouth. But this other 5th grader claims it was meant to be a joke, and says that teacher respects the students.
A joke, or not, Phillips says what's not okay is the public humiliation, "That messes with you for life, and then as a mother to protect, it's like, that messed up our trust, she felt like I knew about it and I allowed it to happen."
She's hoping to see some action taken against the teacher. "I would like for her to make a public statement, and a public apology to my daughter. She was humiliated."
Metro Nashville Public Schools tells us the department of child services is looking into it, and if they find something did happen against code, they will take action.
Metro Nashville Public Schools tells us they expect their teachers and employees to operate with care and be professional at all times. Adding that if parents have concerns, they should act right away.