5th-grader says teacher duct taped her mouth shut

A Nashville mother is furious after her 10-year-old daughter came home from school crying.

She says she was talking in class, and someone put duct tape over her mouth — and that person, she says was her teacher.

Victoria Phillips says her daughter, Reagan talks a lot during class, but she’s excited to learn, and they have been working well with the teachers at the school.

Until something happened.

“I am angry, I am hurt, and I am driven,” Phillips said.

What Reagan told her her mom, sent chills down Phillips’ spine.

“Reagan started to cry, and I am like, what’s going on? Tell me what happened, Reagan? And she said, ‘well she put tape on my mouth’. She put tape over your mouth? And she was like ‘yeah,'” said Phillips.

And what’s even worse, “Everybody laughed at me. And she said ‘I pulled it off’ and she said ‘that’s why my lip was bleeding.'”

News reporters spoke with another 5th grader off camera who was in the same orchestra class at the time.

But claims it was meant to be a joke and says that teacher respects the students.

A joke, or not, Phillips says what’s not ok is the public humiliation.

“That messes with you psychologically for life,” she said.

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,” said Phillips.

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.