Anonymous wrote:So the article is missing the other part - if this doesn't work, what does? Where is a system or protocol that keeps everyone safe, de-escalates the situation, allows teachers and students to keep teaching and learning and is not detrimental to kids?

What is the solution?

Safe from ripping up a math paper? IDK.

Anonymous wrote:I read about this earlier today and am so horrified by it. Can anyone tell me if the child’s parents have to be informed when the school does this? In DC and in other states?

16:19: we’re in MCPS and yes I get an incident report sent home with him any day it occurs. I also have an open invitation to visit my sons class during the school day as long as I check in with the office. They are not hiding what is occurring from me.

So the article is missing the other part - if this doesn't work, what does? Where is a system or protocol that keeps everyone safe, de-escalates the situation, allows teachers and students to keep teaching and learning and is not detrimental to kids?

What is the solution?

I read about this earlier today and am so horrified by it. Can anyone tell me if the child’s parents have to be informed when the school does this? In DC and in other states?

I’m not a fan of these spaces. My kid is in a self contained program and lacks the skills to deescalate himself. Often the quiet room is the safest place for him for everyone involved.

Yes the school and his therapy teams are working to try and teach him the necessary skills, but in the moment of crisis is not the time to do it. My son needs to explode before he can begin to calm himself.

I get a minute by minute report any time he is in the quiet room. It doesn’t thrill me but in the moment, I’m not sure what alternatives the school has. When incidents happen at home, he goes to his room where he can scream and hit without harming any family members. My son has never told me that he was not let out of the quiet room when he was able to ask in a calm voice.

Anonymous wrote:What's the alternative? I'm not being snarky. Restraining the child? Medicating the child? A lot of these kids are physically harming the teacher or other students. Obviously if they aren't a harm to others they shouldn't be in this room, but plenty of the kids are a harm to others.

This. I'm in canada and my school district disallowed rooms like this, but the level of violence from one of the children in my son's grade is insane. Like they lockdown the pod, lock all the classrooms while he throws a fit flipping tables and smashing stuff in the hallway. He is 9. Presents fairly typical other than the rage at the drop of a hat. He's suspended right now but unless the school is allowed to inject him with tranquilizers a room seems the best bet. Awful but the school system deals with some pretty extreme cases these days. He is a big kid too. Nothing works. 4-5 teachers including administrators can't help him when he unleashes. Yet he has rights. The rooms are disturbing but more so the situation of exactly what kids do these days. It was not like that when I was a kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its been happening for many many years. This is nothing new and still sad that today we haven't found better ways to deal with it.

There are ways. But it starts with the federal government, and Dept of Ed., DOJ civil rights, and parents questioning schools. I just found out Arlington county has been sending my kid out of a classroom.

What questions should they be asking? What are the better ways to deal with it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its been happening for many many years. This is nothing new and still sad that today we haven't found better ways to deal with it.

There are ways. But it starts with the federal government, and Dept of Ed., DOJ civil rights, and parents questioning schools. I just found out Arlington county has been sending my kid out of a classroom.

And investment in our kids / OP

Anonymous wrote:Its been happening for many many years. This is nothing new and still sad that today we haven't found better ways to deal with it.

There are ways. But it starts with the federal government, and Dept of Ed., DOJ civil rights, and parents questioning schools. I just found out Arlington county has been sending my kid out of a classroom.

What's the alternative? I'm not being snarky. Restraining the child? Medicating the child? A lot of these kids are physically harming the teacher or other students. Obviously if they aren't a harm to others they shouldn't be in this room, but plenty of the kids are a harm to others.

Its been happening for many many years. This is nothing new and still sad that today we haven't found better ways to deal with it.

Wtf? One of the examples is a kid who wet his pants in the seclusion room and then pooped and was then left naked for almost an hour to run around swearing poop all over while the aide watched from outside and took notes.

That was a terrifying article.

https://features.propublica.org/illinois-seclusion-rooms/school-students-put-in-isolated-timeouts/?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

THE SPACES have gentle names: The reflection room. The cool-down room. The calming room. The quiet room.
But shut inside them, in public schools across the state, children as young as 5 wail for their parents, scream in anger and beg to be let out.
The students, most of them with disabilities, scratch the windows or tear at the padded walls. They throw their bodies against locked doors. They wet their pants. Some children spend hours inside these rooms, missing class time. Through it all, adults stay outside the door, writing down what happens.


This is happening here. Not just to the poor. Not just to special needs kids. And no they may not tell you.