Boy tells lawmakers he was forced into 'seclusion room'
SALEM, Ore. – Lawmakers heard emotional testimony Friday about a bill that would ban some types of so-called "seclusion rooms" in public schools.
The type of isolation room at issue is similar to a room in Washington, which was a standalone cell or padded room. KATU first reported on the parents' outrage over the use of that isolation room last year. Since those series of reports, the Longview School District stopped using that isolation room. But that type of room may soon be banned all together in Oregon schools.
A mother and others testified before lawmakers in support of the ban.
Jennifer Harrison said school staff at her son's Eugene school, McCornack, used the room to punish him for four years without her knowledge.
"I was never notified. I didn't know it was happening until I walked in and found him screaming facedown on the ground with two adults sitting on top of him," she said.
Her son, Jared, now in the seventh-grade, said he was in the first-grade when he was first forced into one of those rooms, sometimes for hours. His mother sat by his side in tears as he told legislators it happened almost every day for four years.
"You have two adults dragging you into a room and locking the door behind you and you're just a little kid and you don't know what's going on," he said. "You're not going to be calm. And I know no one else in the room was calm. They were all freaking out because their friend's being locked in a room. It didn't help the situation at all. It made it worse – much worse than it would've been if I had just sat in a timeout chair for five minutes."
Kerry Delf, a spokeswoman for the Eugene School District, said she couldn't comment on specific students.
McCornack does not have a seclusion room in use at this time but it did have one at one point when it had a "behavior support program," she said.
There are a few seclusion rooms throughout the district, she said, but they are only used as part of a "student behavior support plan," which is developed in cooperation with the parents.
"A student wouldn't be put in a seclusion room if they were not part of a behavior support plan, which a parent would have to agree to first," Delf said, adding the rooms are not used for punishment or discipline.
The district follows the Oregon Department of Education’s guidelines regarding seclusion rooms, and they do not have locks, she said.
If Oregon's bill passes, it would join four other states that ban "isolation rooms." Those are Nevada, Texas, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
On Thursday a Washington House committee approved new legislation that would require schools to notify parents if their kids are put in isolation or restrained. The bill's sponsors expect it to pass the full Legislature and become law.
Watch Jennifer and Jared Harrison's full testimonies:
There should be more stories covering how public schools help students. A lot of teachers really care about their students and most schools don't even have rooms like these. Public education is the great equalizer and gives students a chance to have opportunities with careers and higher education that many other countries don't offer.
@citizen Public schools are great for kids who are self-driven, independent and do not require special needs services. You may have a different opinion if you were the parent of a special needs child who was failed by the system. It is all relative to our own experiences.
All I know is 4J school district supports bullying 100%!! It's as if it is a requirement to be hired in this district that you support the bully and make the kid being bullied suffer. It is pathetic!!!
Let's face it...some kids need a 'seclusion room' these days. It's no different than a prison for adults that need to be secluded.Â
@ntk0716 ... The good news is There is better way educate children then seclusion rooms. There are many schools in oregon that don't use these rooms and are extremely successful with all their students.
@ntk0716 Except that adults in prison have had a trial and been convicted in a court of law. They are being punished for their crimes.These kids have not had a trial, and the seclusion rooms aren't supposed to be punishment.
My son, who is now 18, was a student in a behavioral support program at a 4j elementary school. I was aware of the seclusion room and understood that it was used for kids who became "out-of-control" and that they never LOCKED the door! I was never told that MY son was being put in the seclusion room, nor do I believe he would have behaved in a manner that would require the use of it. My son had ADD and was not in the least violent. I didn't find out until he was in middle school. Somehow it came up in a conversation. I asked him how it made him feel and he said scared. It's angering to find out that your child endured a difficult, emotional trauma without your knowledge. His behavior worsened while in that program (no wonder) and we, ultimately, withdrew him and homeschooled for 4 years. 4j lacks in so many ways when it comes to special education. A lot of their strategies are downright abusive. When my son reentered public school for 7th grade, he again struggled and we ended up pulling him out again, half way through the year. The next school year there was a new teacher and we found out from another parent the prior teacher had been withholding lunch if a student didn't complete their work! Our experience with the local public school system has forever altered my view of public education. I should probably write a book about it! Everything from mismanagement of funds to abuse and everything in between. It's a government monopoly going seriously wrong.
Please send this article and conversation to your state representative and senators!
I don't see this as any worse then being put in a corner.
This travesty isn't about the seclusion room -it''s about the sadistic teacher that put him in there!
Where is the Dad in the picture? Strong male role models in schools are almost politically incorrect anymore. Â Hiring some male teachers in the early grades would make up for the lack of father figures in single mother homes. One would think this a priority in schools everywhere because of the breakdown of two parent families. Â
@drinkmorewater .. Children from single and two parent families, with and without a strong male role models are being locked in seclusion rooms. The use of seclusion rooms, isolation techniques, sensory closets, whatever the school calls it, needs to stop!
Nothing about this story passes the smell test. Why hasn't KVAL bothered to interview an expert in child psychology and behavior?
@Twistthewrist ... Maybe they should, just not an expert that works for public education. Public school teachers and psychologists are subjected to administrators making their dream job a living hell. Especially for teachers and other employees labeled "whistle blowers"
@timeforachange@TwistthewristAhh yes the big bad school district picking on one child and his family. I find the timing of all this a little too convenient. Do I think your child was subjected to an isolation room? Yes. Do I think you are crying foul because after 4 years of treatment the school/district determined they were unable to meet the needs of your child or he posed a risk to other children in a public school setting and recommended his expulsion from 4j or not moving onto middle school? Possibly. If the school had done something criminally negligent you would have lawyered up. The fact that the district legally cannot disclose any information around the incidents you claim only benefits you in this case.
@timeforachange I don't care what offends someone. I care what works. You literally just said "most" of the kids you have known do not like the rooms, implying that some do. So feel free to explain yourself.
@PleaseBeSmart .. Most kids I have known and work with do not like the rooms. It seems that the people who think they are beneficial are not the kids in the rooms. There are schools in Oregon that are successful without them and none of their students are offended. So why don't we do the thing that offends no one?
@timeforachange How are they wrong if they are beneficial to some students? They can be used wrong, of course. But how are they inherently wrong, as you claim?
@Twistthewrist .. Sorry, I mistyped that was 40 years ago .. It really is time for a change!
@Twistthewrist .. I find it ironic, I believe it is time for a change, you believe it is time for twisting wrists.
@Twistthewrist ... 20 years ago all children with developmental disabilities were taken from their parents and institutionalized with the "expert" agencies. They eventually found the majority of these kids just Locked away, some in boxes. Why did we change that if it worked? Why did we need CIVIL RIGHTS laws to change that? Because it didn't work and it is morally wrong!
@Twistthewrist @timeforachange ... You have stated no proof they do work and its obvious you know no other alternatives because you only advocate for locking in a box nothing else. That's all you got? I feel so sad for you, truly thinking that locking a child up is all you can come up with to solve these issues. Is this article saying how good this child felt being locked up alone for hours in a box? No. You obviously have no idea how that feels. The child in this article does!
@timeforachange@TwistthewristMa'am, I am happily unemployable by outside agencies. That being said it does not mean I am not an active volunteer with young kids in the classroom (yes I'm a parent volunteer). If anything it has solidified what the parents of many young kids deny. They lie when they think it will benefit them. The fact that you would blatantly, without any evidence or statements to support your claim, accuse me of working in cahoots with the district merely proves my point that you blame other's for your issues. Also, you never denied my statement of the possibility that you were acting in retaliation as a result of an unfavorable decision against your son as a result of his actions. You claim to "teach kids with a variety of sensory issues without using a box." Yet you fail to provide any documented proof that these boxes are ineffective in dealing with mentally/emotionally disturbed kids in need of drastic intervention.
@Twistthewrist .
@Twistthewrist @timeforachange .. Maybe i teach kids with a variety of sensory issues without using a box. The fact might be that no matter what the incident these rooms are wrong and solve nothing. Maybe you work for an education agency who is advocating that we should just throw children in a box,alone,without a teacher, to educate them.
They should ban all "seclusion rooms" in all schools. If there is a problem with a student, schools should call the parents.
@timeforachange They can be immensely beneficial for children with some disorders who tend to get sensory overload. Just because your child shouldn't be put in a seclusion room doesn't mean they should be banned outright.
@PleaseBeSmart ... There are other techniques for sensory overloads besides putting them in isolation rooms. Try putting a locked 4x4 isolation room in your home and see what child services thinks.
PleaseBeSmart @timeforachange ... yes, I have and i already wrote them in this strand. I gave you two of hundreds of techniques that are used in schools that use techniques that are more successful and don't offend anyone. If you don't believe me, (which it seems you won't) I gave you a source you could, I said go to any school of hundreds in Oregon that don't have isolation rooms and ask them. You gave me only one that offends way too many children, parents, yes, and even teachers.
@timeforachange That's because you've said nothing to actually counter it as a management technique. You just rant on and on about it not being educational, about it being a 4x4 box, about "other" things working though you've yet to name any that accomplish the same thing. And you've managed to say some ridiculously insensitive and inapt things that really make me think you either do not work with these students or shouldn't be working with them.
@PleaseBeSmart @timeforachange here I copied it here for you...CC: Most kids I have known and work with do not like the rooms. It seems that the people who think they are beneficial are not the kids in the rooms. There are schools in Oregon that are successful without them and none of their students are offended. So why don't we do the thing that offends no one?
@PleaseBeSmart ... Look above at my comment to you. I am getting tired of repeating myself when I have already given you all the answers.
@timeforachange Time to calm down isn't education. It is simply time to calm and recharge. For plenty of kids with sensory disorders it it immensely beneficial. You've said nothing to counter that. It is a well established management technique and you just don't like it.
.
@PleaseBeSmart @timeforachange Yes, i do know more than just putting kids in a 4x4box, And it shows you really like them and that's your decision isn't it?. Most of these kids dont have a choice, the choice is made for them! When all you got to do is stick those children in a box, huh? The environment I prefer children to be educated in is a classroom and hopefully with other children who might need that same environment to learn. 1on1 teaching would be better than alone in a box. What kind of education occurs alone without any teachers in a 4x4 box? Not any education I want my children to have!
@timeforachange You obviously know nothing about sensory disorders. You're just bent on banning these booths because you don't like them.Â
@timeforachange None of those accomplish what the booth does, now does it?
@timeforachange  so everyone else should wear ear plugs?
@PleaseBeSmart .. Some techniques are taking the child for a quick walk outside the class. Another is wearing ear protection.. There are many more, too many to write... Educate yourself!
@PleaseBeSmart... Not as insensitive as locking the confused child in a 4x4box. Removal from the classroom is one thing, locking them in a4x4 room is another thing completely. As I said, talk to a school that does not have isolation rooms and you will find out how mistaken you are.
@timeforachange You're the one who said there are other methods, so feel free to cite some. Reduction of stimuli is a well established method of sensory disorder management. You haven't presented a single valid argument as to why that shouldn't be available for those purposes.
@timeforachange That is an incredibly insensitive statement. For someone with a sensory DISORDER, being removed from stimuli is a completely reasonable accommodation!
@UsaidWHAT Absolutely, and that needs to stop immediately. That doesn't mean that using them therapeutically needs to stop though. Teachers who have abused this and sat on children need to be FIRED.
@PleaseBeSmart .. Life is a stimuli- rich environment! Life doesn't just stop to allow us to run away and have someone lock us in 4x4 isolation rooms.
PleaseBeSmart...the problem is that THEY ARE being used as a punishment according to this story. And that is wrong. It creates many fears in a young confused child.
@PleaseBeSmart @timeforachange .. There are more schools in Oregon that are successful in dealing with these issues without isolation rooms then with them, I would suggest you visit those schools and ask them and educate yourself.
@timeforachange There being other techniques does not discredit this technique as a helpful tool. Though, I'm curious what "other" techniques you think accomplishes the same thing in a stimuli-rich environment like a school. I don't really care what child services thinks.. they can get educated on the topic. Like it or not, these rooms do not have to be used as a punishment (and should not be, of course.) They can and are used as a comforting, quiet place to safely calm down.
why is it ok for the schools to do this but yet if we were to put our child in a closet for any length of time that would be child abuse, if we were to hold our child down or sit on them that would be child abuse..... Just saying.
So what did he do to be put in the room? If he goes to school with my kid and puts my kid in harms way, they better put him in a seclusion zone to protect my kid or I am going to sue.
@Michael Michaels ... If a student hurts another student they should be sent to the office and the parents should be called immediately. A student that hurts other kids should be sent home with parents before being locked in a cell.