Former Ohio teacher gives tearful testimony in court after recording herself laughing and mocking special education student duct-taped to chair

A former Ohio teacher has been found guilty of multiple charges stemming from an incident in which she recorded herself tying a special needs student to a chair with duct tape and then laughing at him.

Rachel Smith, 27, and her former coworker Allison Vestring were charged with illegal restraint after Smith recorded Vestring duct-taping a 15-year-old child with Down syndrome and autism at West Clermont High School, prosecutors said.

Authorities launched an investigation after a CPS employee at the college immediately reported each teachers to police following the incident in March, Fox19 reported.

Only parts of the incident were captured in two separate videos, but investigators say the kid, who has limited ability to speak and move, was held in the chair for between two and five minutes.

One video shows Vestring duct-taping a boy to a chair and Smith asking him to “stand up” when he cannot move, prompting laughter from his classmates.

“OK, try to stand up,” Smith tells the teenager in the video. “Stand up.”

As other students laugh in the background, the teenager says, “That’s not funny,” which only sparks more laughter and mockery.

“It’s not funny,” Smith says, mocking the teenager. “Yes, it is. It is funny,” he says, laughing.

In one other video, the victim might be heard calling out to one other worker for help, to which Smith responds, “He’s not coming to help you. You’re trapped here.”

When the teachers were reported to the police, they said the incident was meant to be fun and not harmful.

Vestring pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal detention in April and was sentenced to five years of community service. She was also banned from working with students with special needs.

Smith pleaded not guilty.

Her trial began last month, and she tearfully testified in court.

“I honestly didn’t think about it at the time and I thought he was going to say something funny,” Smith said. “And he never said ‘stop.’ He never said ‘stop.’ He had said those words before in the past and it didn’t happen at the time.”

The student’s parents expressed disappointment with the teachers’ behaviour and said the teenager was in a state of mental and emotional breakdown after watching the footage of the incident.

“We were putting up birthday decorations and he saw the tape and said, ‘He’s afraid of the tape,’ so we had to take him and take him out of the room,” his father explained. “We sent him to school to make sure he wouldn’t be bullied and we didn’t expect that from the teachers.”

Smith was found guilty of illegal detention and two counts of kid endangerment. She will likely be sentenced in October.