Teacher who used duct tape is suspended

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A school board in Florida has decided against firing a teacher charged with duct-taping a male student to a chair for refusing to be quiet.

Instead, the Duval County School Board voted 6-1 to suspend seventh grade teacher Kasey Goodin for 10 days without pay, The Flordia Times-Union reported Wednesday.

Members of the board who voted against firing Goodin on Tuesday said they did so after an internal investigation of the incident concluded that the teacher hadn't acted with malice.

The investigation revealed that the boy ignored repeated requests to stop talking during class before he was duct-taped, the newspaper account stated.

The district's human resource officer said Goodin should have used better judgment on how to handle the disruptions.

The boy's mother had openly lobbied for Goodin to be fired and indicated she disagreed with the board's decision to suspend her instead, the Times-Union said.