Rachel Monahan and Ben Chapman of the New York Daily News (whose editorial board strongly supports charter schools) report that the KIPP Star School in Washington Heights (upper Manhattan) has a tiny padded room where students are sent to “calm down.”
According to the story:
A tiny padded room at KIPP Star Washington Heights Elementary School was a real-life nightmare for two young boys who were repeatedly detained in the tot cells, the Daily News has learned.
The students, who were enrolled in kindergarten and first grade at the highly regarded charter school, were both removed by their parents in the past two weeks after they suffered anxiety attacks as a result of their confinement.
“He was crying hysterically,” said Teneka Hall, 28, a full-time Washington Heights mom whose son, Xavier, was rushed to the hospital after he panicked and wet himself while he was holed up in the padded room. “It’s no way to treat a child.”
The school’s so-called “calm-down” room is small, about the size of a walk-in closet, said Hall, who visited it with her son at the start of the school year. It’s empty, but for a soft mat lining the floor and a single light on the ceiling.
Is this legal in public schools?
Cannot do in public schools. This is, and should be a big deal. Awful.
Some states outlaw seclusion rooms & some do not. Federal law is needed in this area. Wisconsin passed a law on seclusion and restraint in 2012 as I describe here. http://systemschangeconsulting.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/wisconsins-new-law-on-the-use-of-seclusion-and-restraint-of-school-children/
Given the history and genesis of charter adherents over the past two decades, I’m certain that this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of child abuse at the hands of charter operators… Witness, allegations — SEVEN of them — against Michelle Rhee’s husband, Kevin Johnson, now mayor of Sacramento, founder of St. Hope charter schools in Sacramento, for child sexual abuse, none of which were investigated by authorities, two of which were reported late deliberately to arrange for payoffs to victims, and all of which that remain unprosecuted…
I’m sorry, again perhaps I shouldn’t blame the victim, but this: “The school’s so-called “calm-down” room is small, about the size of a walk-in closet, said Hall, who visited it with her son at the start of the school year….”
What? You actually see something like this with your own eyes, and yet you enroll your child in a school like that anyway? What would it have taken to scare you away? Witnessing “enhanced interrogation” of the children? Dead bodies? Cripes!
Good point. These schools are being sold as such a great alternative to our horrible public schools, so maybe it’s ok to have an interrogation room?
I know, right?!
Can you imagine having such a thing in a public school..and showing it to a parent.
Hello evening news..pictures and details at 11!
It was not unusual to see the open time-out rooms in many schools. With thrust for inclusion, the most severe SED/EBD kids were in typical schools. Remember visiting a middle school hallway and an open TORoom door covered with scratched on profanity, often misspelled, from top to bottom. Door was left open to make sure no one was inside, unattended. Door had to be painted regularly. All kids and teachers walked by it throughout the day. Unreal! Not so uncommon, not too long ago.
I don’t know if it is legal in all states or all districts. We had a room with padded mats on the walls and the floor for the very few students who seldom used it. I never had any incidents. But, some of the students with certain IEPs who could have hurt themselves, their teachers, or other students had to be confined for short times to calm down. Some kids will bang their heads on their desks or the floor, stab themselves with pencils, pens, scissors, etc. if they don’t get to do what they want to do. No student was put into the room without parent knowledge. I never dealt with it myself and had no training or information about its specific usage. Many times, we weren’t allowed to know specifics because of privacy rights.
We had one student who tried to stab a teacher and a counselor with scissors (adult scissors) and eventually she was removed to the other elementary school. Her mother said that she couldn’t see why her daughter couldn’t just have her way, to prevent the outburst, because that was how they dealt with her at home. She had a fit when she was told to follow a command, so they didn’t make her obey.
The problem with that child was that she wasn’t raised to cooperate with rules of any sort. I don’t know if they used that room for her situation, but she was a danger to everyone, including herself.
The particular room at our school was about a 15 x 15 room, not a closet.
Lawful or not the law is not always correct. A padded room for a child is no way to support a child .
To my knowledge, having a “calm down” room in and of itself is not illegal, but it depends on how it is used. If it is a safe space that a child can use as a positive tool to help calm themselves when agitated, I think that’s a good idea for some kids (as long as the door doesn’t close and the children can be monitored while they calm). This would not be considered a restraint or seclusion as the child made the choice to go there and they are not stopped from leaving. This space could even be turned into a full sensory room for students with sensory integration issues or autism. Some therapeutic day schools do have full restrait/seclusion but the staff is specially trained for hands-on work and must adhere to very specific state regulations. These regulations differ state by state.
If the school is forcing children to stay there against their will, or closing the door and keeping the child inside, however, that amounts to seclusion and there are very strict and specific guidelines for restriant and seclusion including paperwork requirements, a doctor monitoring the child, and state inspections (at least in my state of Illinois. I know more about hospital restraint/seclusion than schools.)
If the kids were having anxiety attacks as a result of being in the room, it sounds like improper seclusion to me and that, without appropriate authorization and training, is illegal.
Katie Osgood: as always, your comments are most appreciated.
I once—while filling in for an absent one-on-one SpecEd aide—had to help physically restrain a HIGH SCHOOL student who was trying with all her might to bang her head repeatedly against a concrete wall. Yes, sometimes such is necessary, but due to my own background and with the help of another aide [a very capable young woman] neither we nor the student suffered any damage whatsoever.
However, I remind the viewers of this blog that the students referenced above were in kindergarten and first grade. While I admit to not having all the facts, what was presented above appears to me at this point to have been indefensible.
This may be another example of how so often charter schools adopt worst practices rather than best ones.
A reminder that when it comes to $tudent $ucce$$, the comfort and advantages accrue to the adults who run the Centres of EduExcellence. For lowly school staff, students and parents—
You can always choose to go to your local under-resourced public school.
Or you can choose to put up with the Masking Tape Disciplinary Code.
Your choice.
😡
I would think that each case is unique. Some children are violent to themselves and to others from an early age. Each situation has to have all the facts presented on each side.
I don’t think we have enough information to know what to do in these instances. Nor do we know the previous behaviors of this child. Sure the parent will defend the child. And if something illegal was done, I would hope it will be dealt with properly.
I don’t believe even half of what I hear or read.
At on point I worked in a Psych Hospital.
Taught on the teen unit.
Participated in all manner of restraints, when necessary, over the years.
But, the children were diagnosed with serious disorders. They were restrained to prevent harm to themselves or others.
The family was immediately made aware, there were nurses and Doctors on staff and required to monitor the situation either continually or every 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the child’s issues and the level or restraint.
This situation doesn’t sound acceptable to me.
Time-out rooms were used for students with severe behavioral disorders in the past, with parental permission and written into the IEP. Abuse and lawsuits have reduced or stopped the use of these time-out rooms. It does not matter what name or descriptor you want to assign to this room, the fact is that kids are removed from the class and locked in a small space.
I bet, Kipp will give children walking papers if they do not comply. BTW, Kipp usually draws the line in accepting only high functioning students with mild learning disabilities. So, who are they locking in these time-out rooms?
I am surely not justifying the improper usage of such rooms. However, I do know that ALL people in a school are entitled to a safe environment. Unfortunately, some children are a danger to others and themselves. Someone needs to develop foolproof ways to adress these situations, particularly when buildings are understaffed. Even if they are staffed, I have seen some of the paraprofessionals (paid minimum wage) who were expected to subdue students that were stronger than they were, even though the child was smaller.
It is a real dilemma as to what to do.
I am not surprise! All kinds of things happen @ KIPP Schools. It is amazing how they can
do these things and other school cannot!
I ask those who teach or who have taught in public schools: does your school have any kind of room where young children are locked in against their will? I taught in public schools for two decades, in some very challenging places, and never saw anything like this. Children could be isolated from others, but it was under continual adult supervision and not in a locked chamber.
Our school is public. The kids aren’t locked in. But there is a door. They are supervised. We also have kids who take off running at times. Twenty years ago, there were different students being served than are now in public schools. More and more, there is no money for alternative situations for students who refuse to cooperate and for those who need constant one-on-one supervision.
I will see if I can find out any details of how our room is used, since I never had to have it as part of my teaching assignment.
How do you know they aren’t locked in if you’ve never been specifically assigned to it and apparently barely knew it was there?
As for the alternative settings for children, main streaming is one of the leading causes of school budget shortages. Often people bemoan the doubling of the NYC schools budget and hold it up as an exemplar of money not contributing to student improvement. They neglect to mention (or do not know) that disproportionate amounts of money have been spent on special education students – more than school budgets have increased.
It doesn’t help that the amount per child isn’t enough to cover their needs and that many schools thus get “stuck” with these children – or worse – a charter takes their money and then boots them back to the public schools to deal with when return deadlines have lapses.
KIPP is in the same boat as all other schools – but we’d face a lawsuit if we didn’t have a trained individual who knows how to educate special education students that need seclusion documenting and following up on such instances. Even our regular students in SAVE rooms (in school suspensions) have heavy paperwork.
Yes, but they are only used such as when an Autistic student is having an absolute meltdown and are a danger to themselves, other students in the class, and their teachers. You’re not going to threaten a gened student with this room as a punishment.
Autistic students are often sensitive to sensory stimulation, so rooms like these provide an environment for the student to calm down with minimal sensory stimulation, with minimal opportunity for them to hurt themselves.
The bright colors, loud noises, and harsh lighting of a classroom can be very overstimulating for an autistic child, especially one who is in the middle of a meltdown and is having trouble regulating their emotions. Obviously, other calm down strategies are always used before resorting to this. It really is a last resort sort of thing.
MD123, would you care to share the number of autistic kids who are enrolled at the KIPP school in Washington Heights?
I knew it was there. Geez. It was in the front hallway. Our school is shaped like a U and my classroom was at the far end of one hallway, 2/3 of the way from that room. I never saw it closed. It was rarely used as far as I know. As I said, privacy issues prevented teachers from talking about students in other rooms (even their illnesses, which I think is simply stupid … how do you take care of a student that you know nothing about if he/she has a medical issue?)
In any case, I have contacted someone who has more familiarity with the whole issue since her room is about 5 doors from the cool down room. I am trying to find out myself, just how it was implemented. I am not a spec ed teacher and I am not privy to all that goes on. I have had kids on IEPs but none in need of the padded room.
Yes, it costs a lot more to fund helping those on IEPs often and usually. More one-on-one, more teachers, more paperwork, more meetings, more accommodations, etc.
I simply want to find out how the room was used, managed, etc.
However, in our district, with the level of differentiation that is required for each classroom, all teachers had to do many of the same interventions and use the same strategies and paperwork for 30 students that the teachers of special education student had to do with 12.
As a professional educator, reading Geoffrey Canada’s book, Whatever it takes, was an awful experience. Granted he deserves credit for creating a safe learning environment for his students, but the pedagogy, well it’s right out of a Dickens novel. What amazes me, is all the media pundits and columnists who applaud Canada’s schools, but would never send their children to a school with the motto, whatever it takes (e.g David Brooks). What is disturbing with these media pundits/columnists is the ends justify the means mindset.
I’d say, if a five or six year old is “rushed to the hospital” after a disciplinary procedure, something inappropriate went on.
Who will be liable for the ambulance bill, I wonder?
I believe that one advantage of public school over these charter schools is that they are more likely have institutional safety systems in place to prevent things like this (or worse, such as drowning on class trips) from occurring.
I know of a public school that has a very nice room that has comfort chairs, a nice rug and curtains and if a child is acting out or needs to calm down, a team including a school counselor will bring the student there. It is not a scary place nor a place for punishment or banishment. What could a padded prison like room possibly do to help a student learn how to calm down and reflect on how he/she got so wound up in the first place? Sounds more like a “prison sentence” for misbehavior… very wrong!
Exactly. There’s a big difference between a comfort room for a child to calm down under the supervision of an experienced teacher (nurse, psychologist, etc.) vs. a bare room with a mat and a single light where a child is left in isolation. I don’t care what the law says, there is no defense for the latter.
Yes
That public school must be “underutilized” Co-locate something there, quick!
/snark
NY State has guidelines. I sounds to me as though such rooms are not authorized except for students in special ed, and then only in conjunction with a behavior plan, monitored by a supervisor: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/BIattach-909.htm
So when will criminal charges be promulgated against this school?
At KIPP middle schools they refer to the disciplinary week/weeks of social isolation from peers during lunch and recess as “support”. Students earn this social isolation by talking in the hall when they are supposed to be silent, forgetting to wear a belt, not having 5 sharpened pencils, or not completing homework. Months of timed test-prep where students are identified by their numerical score (1-4) is called reading “instruction”. With this pattern in mind, I’m curious what a “safe and calm” room actually is.
Let’s also remember that these charter schools intentionally employ very young, inexperienced teachers. I doubt many if any of them have had specific training on how to deal with troubled children who might need restraint, etc. Especially since KIPP doesn’t enroll very many such children and quickly pushes out those they do enroll.
Dienne, this is one of my greatest fears about the charter school: movement, the purposeful destruction of expertise coupled with hubris which impacts students with special needs in profound ways. I work closely with charter schools in Chicago through my role as a teacher on a psychiatric child/adolescent inpatient unit. Time after time, I come across ideology getting directly in the way of clinically proven ways to address trauma or emotional/behavioral problems. “No excuses” schools tell me, “Yes, I know he has an IEP, but he still needs to follow our rules. We have ‘high expectations'”. or “we believe all children can learn” or “poverty is not destiny” as a reason not to make appropriate accommodations for children or young people. “Sure the pressure of our ‘no excuses’ school drove that young person to attempt suicide, but if he can’t handle it, maybe this school isn’t a good fit.” The schools won’t budge, even when there is an IEP in place. I try to explain that you can’t discipline away trauma-that the child is NOT being oppositional, but still they resort to same punitive discipline strategies that actually re-create trauma for these fragile children.
And the inexperience and lack of proper credentials and training is criminal. Special Ed teachers who are first year, uncertified TFA novices?!? They do not have the knowledge to create appropriate IEPs, to implement accommodations or modifications, knowledge of sped law (including restraint/seclusion),the ability to identify behavioral or learning difficulties. It is absolutely sickening when I think of people with zero knowledge of the complicated field of special education being placed in charge of our most fragile children.
It is the extreme ignorance coupled with the arrogance of ed reform ideology that is so damaging. The unquestioning belief that all things KIPP or TFA or Ed Reform are good, rejecting the pursuit of expertise as unnecessary or even a hindrance to “excellence” and overcoming the status quo. Kids are suffering as a result.
Kathy ~
Charter folks will claim that the local school systems have the responsibilities of due process oversight and should monitor that charters are trained in current state regs and system procedures.
If a lawsuit occurs, the school system is involved. Many systems are not well informed about charters and don’t step up to the plate.
Charters, who are well funded, run by non educators, those without ethics or are getting away with everything – just because they can and don’t have to comply. They keep SpEd kids out, or kick them out and they know exactly who they think they can do it to. The assumption is that poor families have no resources or connections and anything goes. There are untold horror stories of violations all around the country. This loosy-goosy stuff needs to stop. Kids are getting hurt.
I would have punched the principal between the eyes and called the police on the teachers for battery and assault on children.
AH CHARTER SCHOOLS!! The answer to all our problems in education.
This study just came out about the use of restraint and seclusion.
http://carseyinstitute.unh.edu/publication/969