Duct-Taped Students: Ohio Teacher Melissa Cairns 'Found a Way to Keep Kids Quiet,' Faces Termination After Controversial Facebook Pic

Ohio middle school teacher Melissa Cairns "finally found a way to get [her students] to be quiet!!!" - and such a controversial classroom tactic may ultimately cost Cairns her career. After posting a (joke) photo of several young students posing with duct-tape covering their mouths on her Facebook page back in October, Cairns now faces termination from her teaching position at the Buchtel Community Learning Center. Cairns has until Saturday, January 26 to respond to the allegations made against her... the Akron Public School Board of Education will vote on whether or not to fire her at its BOE meeting on Monday, January 28.

According to Cairns, a seventh and eighth grade math teacher at the Bucktel Community Learning Center, the picture posted on Facebook (which has since been deleted) was meant to be taken as a joke. Cairns allegedly gave one of her female students a piece of tape to fix her binder. The student then cut a piece of the tape and placed it over her mouth... about eight or nine other students followed suit and told Cairns to take a picture. That's exactly what Cairns did, and she posted the image on her personal Facebook page with the teasing caption, "Finally found a way to get them to be quiet!!!" Cairns insists that she did not directly place the tape on any of her students' mouths.

Cairns initially believed that her Facebook settings were made private, meaning only her online friends would be able to see the picture. However, another school employee got a hold of the duct-tape image and promptly alerted a supervisor. Principal Sonya Gordon told Cairns to take the picture offline and all parents/students were quickly made aware of the situation.

According to reports, Cairns (who has worked in the Akron school district since 2007) has been on paid leave since Oct. 19, 2012. The district teacher's union plans to request a referee in the case.

Cairns recently told reporters, "I would never in a million years do anything to harm students... [one mistake shouldn't] cost me the last 10 years of all the good I've done."

The "duct-tape students" photo has since been taken off of Cairns' Facebook page. The profile does say that Cairns, a Kent State University graduate, is an avid marathon runner and founder of a domestic violence awareness organization called "On My Own Two Feet."

According to Akron School Board President Jason Haas, the students' rights may have been violated by choosing to participate in the joke - "Students are protected under federal law and they have certain protections. Not knowing all the circumstances, it looked like that potentially violates those protections." 

Cairns' attorney told WEWS-TV that she would file an appeal today.