Arcadia teacher prompts child abuse investigation involving napkins

ARCADIA, Fla. – A special education teacher is under investigation after allegedly stuffing paper napkins in a student’s mouth, DeSoto County school officials said Friday.

Carol Pauls is suspended from teaching at Nocatee Elementary School while the Department of Children and Families investigates.

Her third-grade student Taylor Muryzn told his mother, Sandra, that Pauls said she’d “shove [a] napkin down his throat.”

“They were trying to quiet him down. He was being a little rowdy,” Sandra Murzyn said. “He was choking and gagging and coughing and crying the whole time and everything and he was really upset.”