SPRING HILL, Fla. -- A Hernando County father is taking action after he says one of his daughter's teachers forcibly closed her mouth for reading too loudly.
- Parent noticed daughter's face was scratched
- Teacher is under investigation by school
- Battery case open with Sheriff's Office
"There's a lot of emotions," Joshua Jones said. "It's hard to separate the emotions from each other -- they all sort of jumble into anger."
Jones explained he noticed scratches on his daughter's face after she came home from the Head Start school in Spring Hill on Monday. He said his daughter told him her teacher held her mouth shut.
"She (Jones’ daughter) says she was reading too loudly," Jones said. "She feels like she made a bad choice by reading too loudly and this was her punishment for it, to have her mouth squeezed together until she was scratched and scarred and abrased."
The Head Start school confirms they are investigating and the teacher has been removed from the classroom for now.
Jones has also opened a battery case with the sheriff's office.
"This is not right," Jones said. "Nobody should put their hand on my child, especially to the point of leaving marks on her -- an educator, a caregiver, somebody that we trust with our children everyday."
He hopes drastic action is taken.
"I hope she's arrested. I want to visit her through a glass pane in the county jail. I hope she's arrested and I hope she's never allowed to teach children ever again," he added.
We did reach out to the teacher for a comment, but have not yet heard back. While the school is investigating, there have been no charges filed in this case.