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School Punishment with Duct Tape Alleged in Denver

By Minara El-Rahman on October 27, 2009 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A Denver Public School secretary at Palmer Elementary School allegedly used duct tape to bind the hands and mouth of a six year old boy who was acting up. Talk about taking school punishment to a whole new level!  

The Denver Post reports that Ms. Jennifer Carter is charged with false imprisonment and child abuse of six year old Joshua Fredericks. These are both criminal misdemeanor charges.

According to the boy's mother, Ms. Ashlye Tenner, the incident occurred last Wednesday when her son was sent to the principal's office for acting up. She told NBC's 9News Denver: "I can't even start to imagine what would make someone do something like this. Joshua is my son and I would never tape him up for any reason, so for a school secretary to tape up a student, it's beyond me."

Denver Public Schools has fired the secretary.

This was after the school caused controversy for a lack of immediate response to the accusations. The principal initially sent out a letter to the parents of the child simply stating that "allegations of misconduct" had been made.

Ms. Carter was placed on paid leave but no discplinary action was taken. According to 9News, the police were not contacted until Thursday morning when the boy's mother came to the school to follow up with her complaint.

The school's actions are shocking considering the gravity of the complaint.

The boy's mother hopes that the school ensures that the safety of other students is taken into consideration: "Hopefully she won't be working around kids anymore. I do not believe she should be working around children, and hopefully with these charges, it will prevent her from being around someone else's child to do something like this in the future," she said. "I am glad that the police department is taking it as serious as I took it when it all happened, and I think this sends a clear message to her, and to most of all DPS, that this kind of behavior is not OK, and there are consequences for what happened."

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