Audio: Michelle Rhee's Masking Tape Story
Rumors about this anecdote have been circulating for a couple of weeks and the audio tape has been posted online by the Washington Post.
In it, Michelle Rhee tells what's either an amusing anecdote about getting kids to be quiet or child abuse.
Below's an example of a comment sent to me from someone in the latter camp. But having listened to the tape I'm not so sure I'm all that worried. How about you?
Hon. Scott D. Shellenberger
State's Attorney, Baltimore County, Maryland
Dear Scott D. Shellenberger:
The statute of limitations may well have expired in this matter but I
feel it is a matter of conscience that this be reported to your office
Sometime between the years 1992 and 1995, a teacher at Baltimore's
Harlem Park Elementary named Michelle A. Rhee, placed masking tape over
the mouths of 8-year-old students in her charge in order to quiet them.
She herself reported that several of the children cried and were
bloodied when the tape was removed.
Recently Ms. Rhee, who now serves as the Chancellor of the Washington,
D.C. Public Schools, made a stunning public confession of her abuse of
the children, albeit nearly two decades after the fact. This is
conjecture on my part but possibly Ms. Rhee is aware of the statute of
limitations in a crime of this nature. Or that because these were Black
children living in poverty, Ms. Rhee feels they could be abused with
impunity and the whole thing could be made into the opening joke of an
after dinner speech.
Ms. Rhee testified to this before an audience of hundreds of people who
will serve as teachers in the District's public schools. Just as a
matter of curiosity have you been contacted by any of them? Unlikely it
would seem, many of the new teachers inexplicably laughed at Ms. Rhee's
cruelty. Maybe just confused white Ivy League kids anxious about having
a job and eager to please the boss, you think? A lot of them were Teach
For America doing missionary work.
The following link to a Washington Post audio recording of Ms. Rhee's
full confession is offered as potential evidence if you should seek an