A father from Tempe, Arizona, accused a teacher of duct-taping the legs of his special needs son at school. The incident occurred at The ACES East, on Mar 25. ACES East is a special education school attended by 11-year-old Armando Howato.
According to Mail Online, the boy has started attending the special needs school just a month ago. The student is a non-verbal autistic boy with the mental capacity of a second-grader.
Destin Howato, the boy's father, wants the teacher to face charges. The school has placed the non-identified teacher on administrative leave.
Mr. Howato said that he never heard of a similar incident happening before. He added that a teacher should never do something like this and described his son as a loving kid. Mr. Howato told KTLA that there is no reason to have this incident happened to his son, Armando.
The school explained that the teacher duct-taped the autistic boy to stop him from removing his shoes. Mr. Howato said that the school is supposed to be there for special needs kids, and if such an incident could happen to his son, it can happen to anyone's sons or daughters.
After hearing that Armando's teacher wrapped his legs in duct tape last week, Mr. Howato got furious and was stunned by the school's statement. He said that no one's kid should be duct-taped at all and the explanation given by the school's administration was absurd.
Armando's teacher explained that the student kicked off his shoes several times and he duct-taped the boy's shoes to his legs to keep his shoes on. According to teacher's statement, when he called the boy's mother, she gave permission to use duct tape on the shoes.
However, according to Mr. Howato, this is child abuse. The father filed charges at the police section against the teacher. He wants the teacher to be arrested.
The ACES school declared that the teacher was fired Wednesday and it is indeed against their policy to use duct tape on a student, according to Tucson News Now.
Do you think what happened to Armando is child abuse? Share your comments below.
