http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/o...-discipline-children.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all I have to admit that I've never heard of the use of such a thing. I'm not sure what I found more appalling--- the school that would have such a room or the parents who would put their traumatized daughter back in the system that had and used it!
The elementary school here has an "isolation room" for in-school suspensions, but only bigger kids are ever put in it. Certainly not kindergarteners! I don't think first graders, either. The school is PK through 5th. It's like a smallish-office size room with regular lighting, not a closet with only a cement floor and a single lightbulb. And it's monitored in the principal's office by camera. And the kids have to take their classwork in there to do sitting in the regular classroom desk that's in there. Obviously, only one kid at a time is sent there. It's mostly just boring. I don't know what the high school does...
I've worked in two different schools where this was used and it is awful! One little girl who had autism was in my class in K and we did fine, a few incidents, but nothing too major. The next year, she repeated K with another teacher and she was put in isolation daily. You could hear her screaming throughout the building when they were taking her there. Another teacher and I talked to the principal about it, but it didn't change-they even convinced her parents to sign some sort of release giving permission for her to be put in there! That was my last year at that school. I will say, though, that the teachers are good people, but they didn't know how to handle her, so they were listening to what the "experts" (school psychologists) told them to do. I don't know if the room is still in use there or not. I was in another part of the building far from "the room" at my other school so I didn't have much knowledge of what went on there. I did hear of students being put in there often, though. My own son was physically restrained many, many times. Most of his issues came from his speech delays and frustration that the teachers didn't even try to understand what he was telling them. His last day of school, he was held for over and hour by several people who kind of "tag-teamed" and switched off when one got tired. Restraining NEVER calmed him down, it only escalated him, but they never got that. And this all was happening with me in the building! They refused to come get me from my classroom to deal with him because it would take me away from my job. Instead, they called my husband to come get him. Their solution suggestion was to move him across town to another building. No way! If they're doing that while I'm around, I don't even want to think about what would happen if I was across town! Thank God that my husband told me to quit and pull him out! All this was done on the advice of the "experts" as well. We met several times with the school psychologists and the special education superintendent. They wrote it into his IEP and his behavior plan. It was supposed to be a last resort and only when he or someone else was in danger. Instead, as soon as he showed any signs of becoming upset, they would grab him and restrain him. If he had continued in that environment, no doubt in my mind, he would have been one of those kids we read about where they had to call the police for a kindergartener. I always wonder how many kids who have behavior issues are actually just being traumatized by things going on at school like this. So many times, the parents are blamed when it's not anything they've done. The parent's will say "he/she doesn't act like this at home" and no one believes them because the school could never do anything wrong... Sorry, this really strikes a nerve with me. We still deal with some issues that I know are related to what happened to him at school. (If you've been on the spot for a while, you probably expected my little rant )
I subbed in a little rural elementary school that had a room like this. It was only used for 4th grade-6th grade and they were only there for a small amount of time to do their work. No one was ever dragged in there kicking and screaming while I was there. I don't have a problem with that at all. In fact, I would have loved a place like that when I was in school. No one could bother me or copy my work in there and it would be quiet.
A friends severly autistic daughter was locked in an isolation room for about an hour for not going to assembly (an activity on her 'optional' list, so she didn't have to go if she didn't want to). Her mother came to school early and found her in the room in fetal position in complete shutdown. She has never fully recovered from the trauma.
