Parents in Pennsylvania are outraged after a photo of a school staffer taping a mask to a young student’s face was posted online and went viral, and the school district confirmed that the photo was real, Fox News reported Wednesday.
“Pro-mask or anti-mask, I hope we can all agree that taping masks to children’s faces crosses the LINE,” the Facebook group North Penn Stronger Together noted in a post on Monday accompanied by the photo. “This was not a joke for the child or the parents.”
“An image taken in one of our classrooms last week and circulating on social media does not represent the universal values that the North Penn School District strives to instill in both our students and staff,” the school district, which is situated in the Montgomery County suburbs of Philadelphia, noted in a statement Wednesday. “After an immediate investigation, it was determined that while the incident was isolated and no malice was intended, the actions of the teacher were entirely inappropriate and unacceptable, no matter the context.”
“We understand that the act of taping a mask to a student’s face is concerning to many and apologize that it occurred,” the district added. “The matter is serious and it is being addressed with the employee. However, all personnel and student matters are confidential and no further information can be provided.”
“The lack of good judgment and common sense demonstrated by this educator is shocking,” a spokesperson for the North Penn Stronger Together Facebook group told Fox News in a statement. “There is no justification for this action – regardless of whether the intent was playful, joking, malicious or something else.”
“The fact that our school district leaders did not immediately remove this educator from any classroom responsibility may be a bigger and more shocking offense,” the group spokesperson added. “Every district should take measures to ensure that this does not happen in their schools.”
Chuck Callesto, a one-time GOP candidate for Florida’s 3rd Congressional District, highlighted the outrageous incident on Twitter. “Teacher at Pennsylvania’s Pennfield Middle School caught taping mask to young child’s face in class,” Callesto wrote.
BREAKING REPORT: Teacher at Pennsylvania’s Pennfield Middle School Caught TAPING MASK TO YOUNG CHILD’S FACE In Class – Outraged Parents Plan Demonstration at Upcoming School Board Meeting…
— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) January 19, 2022
Fox News adds:
More children have been hospitalized for COVID-19 due to the omicron variant of the COVID-19 disease than with previous variants. Even so, children are far less likely to experience severe symptoms from the disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 596 U.S. children between the ages of 5 and 18 have died of COVID-19 as of Jan. 19, 2022, or 0.07 percent of the 848,388 deaths in the U.S. population overall.
This isn’t the first instance of mask-taping lunacy involving a student and a teacher.
In September, reports noted that a Las Vegas mother demanded that a teacher there be fired after taping a mask to her son’s face.
“He was very upset. He was crying. He was humiliated,” the anonymous parent told local Fox outlet KVVU-TV, which took place at Reedom Elementary School in Mountain’s Edge.
Since July, the Clark County School District has required masks in schools, regardless of age or COVID-19 vaccination status, the report said, adding that the incident occurred after the ‘offending fourth-grader’ got up to get a drink of water without donning his mask.
Instead of simply asking the student to mask up, however, the female teacher “pulled him up in front of the classroom” and “taped the mask across the top of his face,” eliciting laughter from the student’s classmates, the mother said.
The teacher then slapped an additional piece of tape on the student’s forehead for good measure.
The boy recalled several other incidents allegedly involving the same teacher taping masks to students’ faces.
“The district is aware of the isolated incident and is dealing with the employee through the proper channels. The principal proactively notified the family of the investigation,” Clark County schools noted in a statement.
