Northeast Parents Say Teacher Involved In Paper Towel Incident Has A History

Some parents of children at are questioning whether a teacher should be allowed back into the classroom after being placed on leave for telling students to put paper towels in their mouths for five minutes after speaking out in class.

Superintendent for asking students to hold paper towels in their mouths if they spoke out of turn. The teacher, Carole Van Erven, has been teaching more than 20 years.

Kadri said the practice occurred for about three weeks in late Janurary and early February. Then she stopped doing it, he said. School officials learned what was happening after a child told his parent, who then complained to the principal.

Kadri said the teacher was sorry, was cooperating with school officials and knew she made a mistake.

He said the action is not a fireable offense.

Parent complaints

But some parents disagree.

“I’m shocked that they’re allowing her back in school, but that just shows that parents have no say in this school system,” said one mother, whose fifth-grade daughter had the teacher last year. The parent said her daughter was anxious all year, and she complained to the former principal about the teacher’s behavior.

“And as a parent it’s frustrating because you go in and they tell you it was a mistake. I don’t want to hear that it’s a mistake one more time,” said the mother, who also has a son in third grade.

Another parent said she also complained last year as well about how her daughter was treated.

“My daughter had so much anxiety and issues. I went to the principal, and my husband was furious (at the teacher). And we’d hear, ‘We just think this was a bad judgment call on her part,’” she said. She has two older children, and worked as an aide in Groton schools for eight years.

Respectful Process

Kadri said on Sunday the school department has a procedure for handling complaints involving students and staff. He said he believes it works.

“We go through a process as a community where we first make sure it’s real, make sure we’re not jumping to conclusions, make sure no one’s at risk, and then we make sure to be thorough and honest and respectful,” he said.

 “I think it’s completely inappropriate to take issues like this out of the system because the way in which we become a stronger organization is not by having outside pressures apply discipline.  It’s for us to deal with it. And nothing was hidden.

"It was communicated to those who were affected by it," he added. "The teacher has done nothing but everything we would ask for a person who makes a mistake, and whether it’s a student or teacher, I will stand by them.”

Rumors Among Students

Kadri and Principal Paul Esposito met with fourth-grade parents from the teacher’s class Thursday.

Esposito referred questions Tuesday to the superintendent. He said the school does not plan to send a note home to other parents.

Some parents also raised this as an issue.

“Our kids are coming home with rumors, we’re seeing it in the paper that something is happening in our school and our school is small," said the mother of two children at the school. "I think they should have just sent a note home saying, ‘this happened and (the teacher’s) sorry’,  . . . So we would know.”

Board Members' Authority

School Board Member Beverly Washington said she could understand why parents would want to be told.

“If I was a parent with a child that school I would have appreciated a letter coming home notifying me of the situation before I read it in the newspaper,” she said.

Washington said she received one call Tuesday from a citizen who was upset about the teacher returning to the classroom.

Washington said the school board has authority to fire a teacher if the superintendent brings the matter forward for a termination hearing. She said she could recall instances in past years. She said the board may also ask for a report from the superintendent in executive session, but only if that does not affect a hearing that might occur.

Telling the Board

Kadri told school board members of the incident by e-mail last week. He wrote that he wanted to make them aware of the situation “because of its bizarre nature” and the fact that some parents may choose to go public with the information.

His note explained that the principal had become aware that a teacher was disciplining students who talked out of turn by having them stand in the corner with paper towels in their mouths, and that the practice took place for about three weeks.

A 'Fireable' Offense

Jennifer Sim, a former Groton school board member who has an early childhood facility, said if a teacher in her school were found to have done this, she would consider it a fireable offense.

She added that she would consider it her responsibility to report it to the Department of Children and Families.

“Anything that could possibly be construed as abusive, it’s your responsibility to report it. So even though putting paper towels in your mouth may not have physically left a mark, there’s a question whether it’s abusive enough,” Sim said.

Mandatory Reporting

Josh Howroyd, spokesman for the Department of Children and Families, said new legislation was passed last year to clarify the responsibility of school staff in reporting suspected instances of abuse or neglect of children.

He said all professional staff who work in schools are considered mandatory reporters; meaning they are required by state law to report any instance they become aware of in which there is “reasonable cause to suspect or believe" that abuse or neglect may be occurring.

Howroyd said the threshold is deliberately low; sometimes one person does not know all the facts, but several reports come together, he said. Reports do not always lead to investigations, he added.

He said the law was meant to emphasize reporting because some school districts outside of Groton were filtering reports through administration.

Howroyd said he couldn’t comment on any specific situation - such as whether the instance in Groton would meet the threshold for mandatory reporting - without knowing all the facts. He declined to say whether a report had been filed, citing confidentiality.

Howroyd said if an issue falls into a gray area, the rule of thumb is this: “If you have to ask yourself the question whether you should or shouldn’t report, you should report.”