A PRIMARY schoolteacher has been suspended for cellotaping over the mouths of her 10-year-old pupils after they refused to stop giggling and talking.

Priscila Davo Ortega, 27, allegedly lined up more than 20 children during her art lesson and put layers of sticky tape across their lips because they were being too noisy.

Parents said that when some children ripped off the tape because they were struggling to breathe, the Spanish-born teacher replaced it.

Other children were left with bleeding lips when the tape was removed, and several said that they were scared about returning to school.

Miss Ortega has been suspended from teaching art and Spanish at Danesfield Church of England middle school in Williton, Somerset, pending an investigation. Police said they would work with the local education authority.

Parents learned what had happened when their children returned home on Monday. The Year 6 pupils said Miss Ortega imposed the punishment because they were making too much noise while playing a game of blind man’s bluff.

Lisa Duffield, said: “I was absolutely disgusted when my daughter told me what the teacher had done. I went straight round the school and demanded to speak to Mr Bradbury, the head teacher.

“I told Mr Bradbury that under no circumstances was my daughter to be taught by her until this matter was sorted out. I didn’t trust myself to speak to the teacher myself, as I feared I might slap her.”

Sarah Gower, 38, of Williton, said: “The teacher did not like that they were giggling too loud, told them all to be quiet, and if they weren’t quiet she would put sellotape over their mouths, which she did.

“A couple of them had difficulty breathing, so they ripped it off and she put more on top. My son was confused about what happened and he was a bit scared about going to school this morning.”

Stacey Bradbury, 28, from Watchet, Somerset, said she was “disgusted, shocked, traumatised” by Miss Ortega’s actions.

Her 10-year-old son Thomas said: “She put sellotape on our mouths just because we were talking. Some people had a really bad rash after and some girls in my class had their lips bleeding.”

Rob Lovell, 33, of Williton, said his 10-year-old daughter told him Miss Ortega said she was carrying out an “experiment” to see how long the children could be quiet.

“When my daughter took the tape off her mouth, it split her lips and they were bleeding,” he said.

“The same thing happened to quite a few of the pupils. They were all very upset.”

Miss Ortega is from the village of Huetor Santillan, near Granada. She worked as a nanny in London from November 2010 to June 2011, before returning to Spain to complete a master’s degree in secondary education.

She did a month-long placement at Danesfield in 2012, and began working there full-time in January. In May last year, she wrote on Facebook: “Now for sure, next school year, I will be an art and Spanish teacher in Danesfield School in pretty Sommerset[sic]! A bit nervous but happy.” Last night, Miss Ortega’s family said she must have acted “in jest” and not to punish the children.

Pablo Davo, her uncle, who lives next door to her parents Jorge and Mari Trini in Huetor Santillan, said: “Sellotaping children’s mouths up because they’re being noisy would be totally out of character for Priscila.

“She loves her job and she loves children and she never mentioned any problems when she was back here a couple of weeks ago.”

Danesfield School was rated as “good” in its most recent Ofsted report, and the incident happened on the first day of lessons since it became an academy.

Head teacher Ian Bradbury said: “The wellbeing of our children is of vital importance to us. An incident happened in a lesson on Monday. Following that incident, I have suspended the teacher involved until a full and thorough investigation has taken place.”