Middle School Teacher Resigns After Student Accuses Her of Taping His Mouth Shut

NewsNew97351204/Twitter; Smithfield Middle School/Facebook

Receiving a selfie from kids usually means goofy faces staring back at you from your phone. But Catherine Webster received a very different kind of selfie from her sixth grader on Valentine's Day. According to the Daily Mail, the photo her son Brady sent her was of him with painters tape over his mouth and the message, “I don’t know what to do.” It was evidently a punishment for talking in class.

“So, I asked, ‘What is that? Who did that?’ And he didn’t respond,” Webster told WRAL. She indicated that multiple layers of tape were across his face and as far up as his lower eyelid. Brady told her that his English and Language Arts teacher had applied the tape to his face.

The teacher has resigned from her position.

The Daily Mail identified the teacher as Dawn Felix. Webster reportedly contacted Smithfield Middle School's principal, LaShunda Faison, to investigate, according to the news outlet. “School administrators are always able and willing to speak with any and all parents who may have concerns regarding any issue that occurs,” Johnston County Public Schools reportedly noted in a statement, according to WRAL.

A Johnston County Public Schools representative told WRAL that Felix, a new hire, resigned from her position on February 17, three days after Brady shared his selfie. Webster and other parents’ allegations were investigated by the county sheriff’s office, but prosecutors “determined there was not enough to bring a criminal case.”

Other teachers discipline with redirection and correction.

Webster posted the shocking image and the story of her son's interaction with Felix to her social media. In a post from March 22 that has now been made private, she went into greater detail about her son, indicating the way other teachers have worked with him and discussing the climate in Felix’s classroom, according to MEAWW.

She shared that Brady is talkative, but his other teachers have indicated that he gets along well with his peers. She noted that their methods for dealing with his “tendency to clown around and be disruptive,” have been redirection or correction, followed up with an email to her.

“They give him silent lunch or move him away from his buddies or in some cases, more serious but acceptable forms of punishment,” she explained. “They have never laid a hand on Brady.”

One question remains for Webster.

North Carolina English teacher resigns after 'covering mouth of boy, 11, with heavy duty TAPE to stop him talking in class'

Brady Webster, 11, sent a selfie to his mom Catherine on Feb 14 which showed him with his mouth taped shut with multiple layers of painter's tape pic.twitter.com/vww1x0VnJd

— News News News (@NewsNew97351204) March 23, 2023

The mom reportedly indicated that Felix’s punishments were “an ongoing thing in her classroom, and always without a call to parents about their children’s behavior, at least mine and one other parent I know, and potentially a third."

Webster shared with WRAL that her middle schooler felt “humiliated” but was “afraid to speak up.” “Just because Brady didn’t get hurt doesn’t make this less serious,” the mother said.

“It had been going on, you know, about two months, and it had happened to several kids in the classroom. And sometimes she tapes some kids’ wrists together. Sometimes she tapes their mouth,” WRAL also reported.

Although Felix has left the school system, and there isn't enough evidence to prosecute, one question remains for Webster, “I want to know who is going to be held accountable, so this doesn’t happen again.”