
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 8, 1991                   TAG: 9103080547
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOUISA                                LENGTH: Medium

FIRST-GRADERS TIED TO SEATS, PARENTS SAY

Louisa County officials are looking into allegations that some first-grade pupils were tied to their seats to keep order in the classroom.

Deborah and Jerry Caldwell said their daughter, Heather, was tied to her desk at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School last Thursday.

"Any type of restraint is not OK. If I tied my child to a chair, a social worker would take that child away from me," Caldwell said.

He said he considered tying to be mental abuse and a hazard if an emergency such as a fire called for the quick evacuation of the classroom.

Deborah Caldwell said she discussed the incident with school Superintendent William Thomas and school Principal Mary Clarke on Monday and with Commonwealth's Attorney John Garrett Wednesday.

Deborah Caldwell said another parent told them last Thursday that Heather and another child were tied to their seats with a vinyl jump rope.

Heather told her parents her teacher had tied her that morning because she wouldn't stay in her seat.

The 6-year-old said, "Mommy, I was good, so they let me out for lunch," Deborah Caldwell said. Her daughter also told her that she was tied back to her seat for her reading class after lunch and stayed tied the rest of the school day.

At the Caldwells' request, officials put the girl in a different class the next day. When the Caldwells looked through the window in the door of the new classroom, they saw three or four chairs with yellow yarn tied to them.

Deborah Caldwell said their daughter's teacher, Elizabeth Fletcher, and at least two other first-grade teachers tied pupils to their desks as a means of maintaining order.

Deborah Caldwell said her meeting with Thomas and Clarke was unsatisfactory and that the only concession she got was that Thomas agreed to take the yarn off the chairs.

When asked whether tying of pupils was occurring at the school, Thomas said, "a variation on that theme could have occurred in the past, but that has been stopped."

by CNB