Waterloo elementary teacher facing charges for allegedly taping 2 children to desks at school

A Waterloo Region teacher has been charged with two counts of assault and placed on home assignment following allegations that she tied down two children with masking tape while in the classroom.

Waterloo Police laid charges against the French teacher in connection with an investigation into how she purportedly disciplined the two students at Alpine Public School in Kitchener, Ont.

Const. André Johnson tells CityNews investigators received a report from one of the young victim’s family and children’s services on October 22. Inspectors then arrested a 52-year-old Waterloo woman following a joint inquiry by the Youth Protection Unit and Waterloo Region’s Family and Children’s Services.

CityNews has learned that one of the alleged victims is a five-year-old boy, a Canadian-born child whose background is Pakistani. Police have not released the age or gender of the second alleged victim.

The boy’s mother and father told the Canadian Pakistani Narrative, a prominent society and lobbyist group, that he was in shock at the time of the incident. The family is hiding their identities for privacy reasons and is demanding a change in the system.

“First, he wasn’t talking to us. I took him to another room, and I said [to him] everything was fine. Then he told me she taped me. She taped me because I moved the desk,” his mother said. “There was another child of colour as well,” the boy’s father said in the interview. “The teacher taped two kids in the class. Our kid and the other kid, as well.”

The child’s mother says her son told her that the pair were allegedly left unattended in the classroom with the lights off for an unknown period.

“Both kids were taped to their desks. There were no other kids in the classroom … the teacher told the kids that they had to get out of the tape by themselves.”

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Both parents believe more charges should be laid against the teacher, who was released from custody based on an undertaking. They claim the school informed them that nothing could be done until the internal investigation concludes.

A spokesperson for the Waterloo Region District School Board (WRDSB) confirms the accused is an employee and says she was placed on home assignment when staff first became aware of the allegations. The board declined further comment as the case is now before the courts.

“This is humiliation. Forcible confinement. Negligence … She [the teacher] left the kids in the classroom. This is clearly racism. They were racially profiled. Those poor kids in the class with the lights off,” the boy’s father said. “They’re just kids. What if a fire broke out? No one would know that they’re in the class. This is negligence.”

They allege that this particular teacher taped down other students to their desks in the past, with children complaining that the woman did this “two or three times” before. They’re also calling on Education Minister Stephen Lecce and the Ford government for “systematic changes.”

“We need to see that kids are safe in school. As of now, you see they’re not,” the father said. “What will happen to her teaching period? I want her license taken away. She should not teach further, from this day onward. She should get jail time.”

The unidentified teacher will appear in a Kitchener courtroom on December 8.

With files from Anureet, OMNI News reporter and CityNews reporter Erica Natividad