Aspies For Freedom

Ruling reached on time-out room complaint

By ANGELINE TAYLOR
Hernando Today
Dec 28, 2005


SPRING HILL – A local mother’s three-month fight to protect her autistic son’s interests has ended in a partial victory.

Christine Trueman, mother of a 9-year-old autistic Deltona Elementary School boy, believed that her son was abused as a result of being locked in what’s been called the school’s time-out room.

A state agency has ruled that placing the child in the room did not constitute abuse but that some of his educational and personal needs went unmet during the 2005-2006 school year.

Florida’s Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services (BEESS) determined that the teacher who locked Trueman’s son in the time-out room was justified in her actions.

Officials said that Trueman signed a consent form dated March 3, 2003 to aid the teachers’ decision.

The form stated: “I understand in an emergency situation, if (my son) continues to be a danger to self and others, school board policy will be utilized.”


Locked time-out room’s OK

School board policy mandates that seclusion/time out rooms can be used when a student’s behavior, “endangers (him)self, others or property.”

School teacher Gladys Poindexter gave Trueman’s son a choice on Sept. 8. He could either sit down and do his work or go to the time-out area. According to Poindexter’s report, the child opted to go to the time-out room.

Trueman, in turn, contacted the media.

She gave permission for a Hernando Today reporter to use her son’s name. The paper’s policy, however, is not to disclose the child’s name because he is a minor.

Trueman said her son was locked in the room where he was taped and observed through a one-way mirror. After viewing the videotape, she became more concerned about whether her son was treated properly.

The boy stayed in the room for 28 minutes, said state officials. In the videotape, he was seen beating his head against the room’s unpadded walls.

“It looked like he was banging his head on the wall,” said Pat Haverfield, a developmental services support coordinator, about the video she reviewed.

Haverfield added that the child was also seen kicking and banging the door. She and Trueman were concerned because the boy suffers from a heart condition called tachycardia, an abnormally fast heartbeat.

Doctors have advised that the child should not to get overly excited at school. Trueman believed that’s exactly what happened.

“That’s abuse,” Trueman said in September. “And they risked my son’s life.”

The state’s Department of Education (DOE) did not agree with Trueman on that issue. State officials did agree that Trueman had just cause to complain about two other issues involving her son.

“The complaint outlined three allegations resulting in two findings of non-compliance,” said a DOE spokesperson. “The bureau handles all complaints with the utmost concern.”


State’s decisions

The investigation found that some of Trueman’s son’s educational needs were not properly followed during the 2005-2006 school year. They also determined that her son’s personal needs were not being addressed.

The child’s disability called for him to receive special attention with toileting and specific diet equipment.

“Based on the conflicting information that has been provided, it appears to be possible that the Hernando County School District has failed to appropriately address all of (the child’s) needs that result from (his) disability,” the report said.

The report also points out that at one time the child was not properly exposed to elective courses as specified in his educational plan.

The bureau team suggested two ways to remedy the infractions.

Officials suggested meetings to determine how best to expose the pupil to electives in a consistent manner and what needs must be addressed daily as a result of the child’s disability.

“The bureau has determined corrective actions for each of these findings and commends all efforts to improve the education of exceptional students,” said the DOE spokesperson said. “The complaint involved a single child in one school. Oftentimes policies, procedures and practices may be affected and thus have an impact on a larger number of students.”

The Deltona Elementary School complaint was one out of 35 complaints made by parents to the state in 2005. The 35 complaints from throughout the state addressed at least 98 issues and all required corrective actions.

“In rare cases if corrective actions are not met, according to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act …steps would be taken to ensure that corrective actions are implemented. Such action may include funding adjustments,” said the education spokesperson.

Asked if she would like to speak on the record regarding the state’s conclusions, Trueman referred a reporter to her attorney. She did not say if she was going to sue the school district. However, the state agency has requested that another meeting take place to determine “compensatory services.”


Aftermath of Sept. 8

Since the investigation started, the teacher that assigned Trueman’s son to the time-out room has been moved to another classroom. Deltona Elementary School principal Beverly Chapin said that the move to another class had nothing to do with the incident involving Trueman’s son.

“Ms. Poindexter is an excellent teacher,” Chapin said after the incident occurred. “I’m glad she is at our school.”

Poindexter’s report of the September incident details how Trueman’s son was allowed to leave the room after he asked to use the bathroom. He then returned. Poindexter wrote that between 2:20-2:25 p.m. (the child) exited the room and said, “I’m ready to do my math.”

Prior to that time, Poindexter observed the boy through the room’s one-way mirror. She said in her report that he was yelling profanities in a song he said he wrote about teachers.

According to state officials, the time-out room has since been “suspended.” State officials said the room has been “reassigned” as a storage closet.


Reporter Angeline Taylor can be contacted at (352) 544-5289.

Source: Hernando Today
http://www.hernandotoday.com/MGBVKMNCSHE.html

Right. Being locked in a room too small for most five year olds to comfortably sit in is not abuse. Thanks for clearing that one up, all you normies out there.

My son has suffered similar treatment to that, ie being locked in a small stock cupboard alone, and being locked in a classroom alone. This was at ages 8 and under though. :evil:

I would detail how I have responded to treatment like this some years after the fact, but given what is playing on my stereo and so forth, it would be dangerous.

It was interesting to see how a  locked cupboard came to be called "A Time Out Room" as if a change of name changed its character.

If they'd just said "The boy was locked in a cupboard" everyone would have seen the abuse for what it was.

If this boy and I were reversed in position, that is exactly what I would be telling the media. "It's a cupboard!"

I use to get locked in a bathroom by my mother.  She'd get a schrew driver to take the door handle off the door and reverse them so the lock would be on the outside so I couldn't get out.  One time after she had done that and had forgotten to switch the door back, I locked her in the bathroom for a change.  She never tried to lock me in the bathroom again after that.

Good for you. How old were you btw?

About 6 years old.

I'll bet the teacher never bothered to find out why the boy didn't want to sit down and do his work. He could have been bored, found the room too noisy, or any one of many other things. I can't believe they would lock a child in a cupboard just because he didn't want to sit down at his desk - that is just insane!

Wow!  What happens if there's a fire in the school?  The child is locked in a room and can't get out.  Perhaps the teacher in the rush forgets that the child is in there.  Recipe for tragedy.
Alison

If they're going to chuck a little kid in a poky little cupboard, one wonders how much concern they are showing for their personal safety.  :mad:

Time-out rooms revisited

BY JOHN HILDEBRAND
STAFF WRITER
Newsday
January 7, 2006

It's Thursday afternoon at the Masera Learning Center, a special-education school in West Islip, and a 7-year-old autistic girl has just bitten teacher Laura Kearnes on the leg. Keeping calm, Kearnes sends a terse message over the school's intercom.

"Code C ... Room 107."

Quickly, a team of four adult staff members arrives. The student backs off temporarily, then flies into another tantrum before she is taken to a padded room to calm down. Masera averages eight to 10 such confinements each month in its two "quiet" rooms combined -- and necessarily so, the staff says, though they add that the rooms are used as a last resort.

"Students really need some time to regroup, so they can get back to what they've been doing," said Robert Becker, director of special education at Eastern Suffolk BOCES, which operates the Masera center, one of dozens of special-education facilities on the Island. "It's like anything else -- if used appropriately, it does work."

Use of rooms challenged

Debate is growing over such confinements, however, and not just on Long Island, where some parents recently objected to use of a cubicle known as a "time-out" room at a Nassau BOCES school in Wantagh.

Nationwide, long-standing support for special confinement rooms on the grounds that they help improve students' behavior is under challenge by psychological researchers and family advocates who say such rooms often do more harm than good. The debate has spread to more than a half-dozen states, including big ones such as Texas, California and New York.

In some states, child advocates have seized policymakers' attention with reports of disabled students locked for hours on end in rooms the size of closets and stained with urine.

In New York State last month, education authorities issued a bulletin to every school superintendent in the state and reminded them of their obligation to comply with state guidelines governing time-out rooms.

The advisory was triggered by the complaint of a Hicksville couple, William and Janet Schafer, who have charged that their developmentally disabled son was illegally confined more than 20 times over four months in a 5-by-6-foot padded cubicle maintained by Nassau BOCES.

A civil lawsuit is being prepared in that case. Officials at Nassau's Board of Cooperative Educational Services, a regional agency based in Garden City, say the room is used according to state guidelines.

In theory, a last resort

While conceding that abuses do occur, school administrators in charge of time-out rooms nationwide say the vast majority are managed safely and humanely -- and only after teachers have tried less drastic ways of dealing with students' outbursts. Typically, such confinements are said to last 10 to 15 minutes.

On Long Island and elsewhere, many educators defend padded rooms as essential in restraining out-of-control students who can endanger teachers, classmates and themselves. Also, some say the isolation sometimes is therapeutic, in the sense that it may help students calm down and behave.

Still, some behavioral experts question whether such rooms can effectively alter behavior for the better -- particularly among students with disabilities who are the ones most likely to be forcibly secluded.

Edward Carr, a psychology professor at Stony Brook University who has worked with thousands of disabled youngsters and their families, advises teachers to look for early signs of distress in such students. The students then should be given stress-reducing breaks -- for example, in a room where music is playing -- rather than putting them in austere rooms with no furniture or decorations.

"Think about it," Carr said. "When you want to relax at home, do you lock yourself in a padded room? Do you? Don't you just go to a pleasant, peaceful area?"

Nationwide, confinement rooms are known by a variety of names, including seclusion rooms, time-out rooms or "stop-and-think" rooms. Many were first set up in the mid-1970s, when a new federal law allowed hundreds of thousands of disabled youngsters to get educational services for the first time. Often, such rooms are bare of furnishings except padded gym mats that line walls and doors for safety's sake.

While rare in regular schools, such rooms are common in centers enrolling students with severe disabilities. A 1995 research study of 156 students at a special-education facility in upstate New York found they were confined an average of 83 times each over the school year.

More recently, Minnesota became the scene of a statewide debate after child advocates issued reports of disabled teenagers repeatedly handcuffed in front of classmates and shut away by themselves -- in one case for more than 31/2 hours. Advocates elsewhere point to such incidents as evidence that such rooms are used routinely and not just as last resorts.

"It just invites everybody to say, 'Hey, I've got a kid who's throwing pencils. There's that room -- let's use it,'" said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, a Washington-based group providing legal advocacy services.

'Quiet room' alternatives

To avoid violent confrontations, educators have been developing milder strategies.

At the Masera center, lessons typically start with deep-breathing exercises meant to calm students, many of whom are severely autistic. Students who refrain from spitting and other misbehavior are rewarded with breaks and other incentives. And teachers frequently use flash cards to communicate with those unable to speak.

It's difficult, time-consuming work that doesn't always get the desired result. Many parents express sympathy for teachers working under such conditions and say they understand that seclusion rooms sometimes must be used. They also say they'd rather their children be isolated than physically restrained, which is another option sometimes used.

"In a way, what's the alternative?" asked Matt Cody, the father of three autistic students who attend another BOCES school in Stony Brook. A retired Wall Street investment executive, Cody has founded a center at Stony Brook University devoted to research and training in dealing with autism.

Others disagree. Among them is Deborah Ross of Shelter Island, who is pursuing a $25 million civil lawsuit against her school district. Ross contends that school employees traumatized her son in the spring of 2003, when they shut him inside a padded room without her permission. The district says its action was legal.

The boy has since transferred to another school, and the room itself has been converted for instruction. Still, the mother feels confinement has done lasting damage to her 10-year-old.

Said Ross: "He's still having bad dreams."

Source:
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longis...-headlines

My daughter was one of the children shut up in a closet-sized room alone for extended periods of time at her school.  I don't care what they call them, it is the same as locking a child in a closet for discipline and I don't like it at all.  I do send her to her bedroom at home for five minute time-outs as a last resort, but her bedroom is not a closet, she is allowed to read or play alone in her bedroom and it helps her calm down when she is agitated.

When they sent her to a new school, my husband and I insisted that they never shut her in the new school's "time-out" room because we said she has already been traumatized enough, and they agreed.

I'm trying to find out more about the cases above where handcuffs were used in addition to the bare cell or cupboard.