It's ok to have a time-out room for disruptive students--in fact, I'd say that nowadays it's only common sense to have one. But for such a room to resemble a dungeon, and for it to be unsupervised? Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do.
Add in the physical restraint, and the part about autistic or otherwise disabled students, and this story is very disconcerting.
Thank you for posting this, Darren. My autistic son was kept in one of these rooms on several occasions. We've been homeschooling for about two years now.
ReplyDeleteCalling it a "time out" room makes it sound like a pleasant corner, though. These are CLOSETS. They are locking children in CLOSETS. I think that if I as a parent can be called into question for abuse if I did something like that, so should teachers. Unfortunately Missouri law at least is not on my side.
These practices are barbaric. BTW I have no objection to a room like this with an open door and supervised. And then only when truly necessary. I think too often we don't give disabled kids the tools they need so BOOM we get "behaviour problems" which "require" these measures.
Also on a related note the BIST program must come from a medieval mindset as well.
In 1970, 1972 and 1973, I worked at a summer camp for behavior problem adolescents (emotionally disturbed but not retarded). We used time-out frequently. But, like this boy's parents thought, our time out was sitting quietly for 5-10 minutes. Time-out was a technique to help the child learn self control. Once the child had set quietly for 5-10 minutes he/she had demonstrated control and could rejoin normal activities. It worked pretty well.
ReplyDeleteMuch to my dismay, I later learned that for most places time out was a punitive measure with no real emphasis on self control. Time out rooms are barbaric. The kids would be better off with an old fashion spanking. I hope the school system ends up having to fork out millions.
DADvocate, paddling kids is totally legal here in public schools and without parental consent as well. I live in Missouri.
ReplyDeletei used to go to a school in california (private school, however) where they had parents submit a legal release saying the school can whoop the student for "any reason deemed fit", their justification was if they students disobeyed. however, students were often beat with a wooden bat for the smallest things such as sharing their food cause it's "spreading disease" and stupid stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteif the parents didnt sign the consent, student was expelled at no refund.