It’s bad enough that the headmaster of the Lakeside Christian School in Slidell, Louisiana has been arrested on charges of child cruelty, but here’s what’s even worse: this is the SECOND time John Raymond has been arrested on these charges, WWLTV [1] reports.
On Monday, Slidell police confirmed that Raymond has been arrested once again. This time after another student came forward, alleging cruelty.
Raymond, a pastor, has previously been accused of bringing four students, who were all accused of talking too much in class, into his office on March 18.
Law enforcement previously arrested Raymond after he used a roll of packing tape to silence the students’ by wrapping the tape around their heads. The students were then sent back to class [2] with the tape still wound around their mouths in an incident that lasted about 45 minutes. But with the news of this recent arrest, other witnesses are coming forward to allege that Randall has perpetrated other cruel acts, with some happening as early as 2017.
I’m sure incidents like this were embarrassing for the students, but some also say they found it difficult to breathe. They also said having the tape removed was painful.
According to police, one incident involved a four-year-old pre-K student, who occasionally threw tantrums. Reports say that during one such incident, Raymond placed a hand over the boy’s mouth until he went “limp.” There’s also another incident in which that same boy was seen being “dragged by his ankles,” by Raymond after refusing to leave with him.
After investigating the new allegations police arrested Raymond, who was subsequently taken to St. Tammany Parish Jail. The investigation is ongoing as police seek more witnesses and hope to consider more allegations against him.
Sad that this man chooses such extreme methods to silence children. I’ve been witness to similar forms of cruelty as a former student in an overtly religious school. I was in the fifth grade at the time and my class had gathered together with the sixth-grade class to sing Christmas songs. But one student, a friend of mine named Kerry was apparently not feeling the Christmas spirit as she wasn’t singing. So my teacher sat at the desk behind her, grabbed a bottle of glue, pulled Kerry’s hair back, and poured the glue all over her face. Not only did this embarrass and horrify poor Kerry; it shocked all the students in the class. Obviously, her rights were horribly violated.
This teacher also bullied students, including me, to the point of tears. When teachers commit these cruel acts, do they not realize the real harm they are doing to students who look up to them? I wonder if Kerry looks back on this incident and if it harmed her in some way.
I guess I’ll never know.
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