LEBANON — A mother and Carlisle school officials faced off Monday in a civil court case that will decide if a Carlisle teacher went too far when he tied a second-grader to his chair.

        Timikka Turner of Middletown wants $600,000 from teacher Larry R. Price and the Carlisle Local School District, which she said didn't levy enough discipline against the teacher for the 1997 incident.

        She also claims Mr. Price put a box on her son Robby's head, struck him with a ruler on the thigh, then left the boy alone tied to his chair at Alden Brown Elementary School for about 15 minutes while supervising restroom breaks for the other children.

        “This young boy was terrorized ... humiliated. There is no justification whatsoever,” Ms. Turner's attorney, Michael Thomas, told jurors during opening statements. The trial is scheduled to last five days in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

        Mr. Price, a Carlisle graduate who has taught in the district since 1983, received a 12-day paid leave, a five-day unpaid suspension and a reassignment to teach high school English after the September 1997 incident.

        Mr. Price acknowledged to school officials that he draped a cord from an unused window blind across the boy's lap and tied it loosely behind him to keep the boy from getting out of his chair.

        He has denied placing a box on Robby's head or striking the child, which Ms. Turner said caused a two-inch bruise. The bruise was discovered three days after the tying incident, when Robby objected to returning to school.

        “What he didn't do was hurt this child. He didn't imprison this child,” Mr. Price's attorney, Jeff Hazlett, said, calling the incident an “error in judgment.”

        He said Mr. Price came up with the idea to use a “seat belt” for Robby after he continually got up from his desk and bothered other students. Robby later untied himself at Mr. Price's direction.

        Police helped school officials investigate the case, but no criminal charges were filed.

        Patrick Dunphy, a lawyer representing the school board, defended former principal Mark Upton's disciplinary actions.

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