Indianapolis Star Wed Feb 6, 2013 7:52 AM

Nate and Elizabeth Searcy were shocked Monday afternoon when their daughter Shaylyn, who has Down Syndrome, arrived home from school with her feet and ankles heavily wrapped with duct tape.

The 8-year-old girl could not even stand up and walk down the aisle of the bus, said her mother, Elizabeth Searcy, 29. Shaylyn attends Westlake Elementary School in Wayne, Ind., west of Indianapolis.

“She said, ‘I can’t. It hurts.’ So we had to carry her off the bus,” Searcy said. “She had duct tape all the way from her feet up around the tops of her ankles. And it was industrial duct tape. It literally pulled fabric off her socks and vinyl off her shoes, it was so strong.”

Searcy said her daughter sometimes refuses to put on her shoes. She speculates that is why someone used duct tape in this case.

“They have called me about it before,” Searcy said. “I don’t know why they couldn’t have called me again this time.”

The Searcys immediately took their daughter back to the school, Elizabeth Searcy said, and sought help removing the duct tape.

It required 30 minutes to remove it, she said.

The girl had bruises from the tape, her mother said.

Advocates for special needs children, such as Lisa Wells, executive director of Down Syndrome Indiana, said the incident is “rocking” their community.

Wells said her organization does not support the disciplinary action that she called “seclusion and restraint.”