DALLAS — Was it a scare tactic or something more?

A Dallas Independent School district teacher is under investigation for reportedly making students surrender their fingerprints to help solve a classroom crime.

The educator in question is a science teacher at Comstock Middle School who allegedly tried to use a little bit of science to track down her missing belongings.

According to 7th grader Savannah Seal, the unnamed teacher accused students of taking her cell phone and credit cards. "That's when she told us she was going to fingerprint us."

Savannah said the entire 7th grade class was told to fill out background check forms with their names, addresses and parents' information.

Then the teacher went around with an ink pad and got them to put their fingerprint on the bottom of each form.

"'I'm going to find out who did it,'" Savannah quoted her teacher as saying, adding that the teacher said she would press charges against those who were responsible.

Savannah's dad, Lionel Hayden, was upset to learn that his daughter was being treated like a criminal. "There's no way that they should go through a situation like that," he said. "A teacher was doing a little bit too much. She's there to teach; she's not there to be a detective."

DISD detectives are now involved in the case; they have the student fingerprints as evidence.

In a voicemail left for Savannah's family, a school district investigator said "appropriate actions" were taken against the teacher.

The nature of the disciplinary action was not specified.

The Haydens said administrators told them the teacher's fingerprint scheme was a scare tactic gone wrong.

"I think they stepped over their boundaries, really," Lionel Hayden said.

E-mail ccivale@wfaa.com