Solitary Confinement for Gradeschoolers

[SkyFire]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op8GoDdtP34]Solitary Confinement? Parents concerned over school's use of "Isolation Booth" - YouTube[/ame]

Fuck me, we're taking training the cattle to be prisoners a step further it would seem.

Sandy Catt, the principle, thinks it's good for the kids. Oh ya, for sure.

 

[SkyFire]

Same vein:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/a-terrifying-way-to-discipline-children.html

 

[boatBurner]

That's disgusting.

Edit: Though I don't know what it's like to raise or teach special needs children. So I can't comment on that. This thread made me believe these were mentally sound children being locked in a small room.

 

[music4mic]

inb4 WF mob thread for this lady:

But yeh, seems like that shit would be pretty psychologically damaging, especially to a young kid and especially one that is below average intelligence.

 

[Johnathan]

I don't think the state of their minds changes that they are still children. A prison is a prison. Even if its a temporary one.

 

[dreamache]

"I believe that room has served a therapeutic purpose", yeah for who? Oh right, the teachers. I'm sure these children are just dying to get locked in a padded room.

 

[guerilla]

Edit: Though I don't know what it's like to raise or teach special needs children. So I can't comment on that. This thread made me believe these were mentally sound children being locked in a small room.

Would it be better to lock a mentally handicapped person in a closet?

I live with someone who has a severe brain injury. This would be like torture for them.

 

[boatBurner]

Would it be better to lock a mentally handicapped person in a closet?

I live with someone who has a severe brain injury. This would be like torture for them.

I'm not saying it would justify it, but I'm saying I'm at least aware that there are differences in behaviors and ways to handle those behaviors. I'm also very ignorant about the topic, having no first-hand experience nor having done any research.

It would lead me to at least wait until I had more information before concluding that this was an awful practice.

 

[JakeStratham]

Perhaps when folks stop thinking of children as property, they'll stop treating them like cattle.

 

[SkyFire]

It would lead me to at least wait until I had more information before concluding that this was an awful practice.

You ever been locked in a closet?

We all know what that kind of shit can do to a child, wouldn't the wisest assumption without additional information be that it would only be worse with a special needs child?

At any rate, this shit happens all the time. When I was in 5th grade a classmate was locked in our school supply cupboard for an hour by a substitute, and when our teacher came back we tried to tell her and she told us all we were lying.

There are no circumstances where it is ok for a GRADE SCHOOL TEACHER, to lock a child in a confinement space of any kind.

 

[mattseh]

Perhaps when folks stop thinking of children as property, they'll stop treating them like cattle.

Is it ok IYO to do it to animals?

 

[guerilla]

It would lead me to at least wait until I had more information before concluding that this was an awful practice.

What information do you need?

And why would it be ok to practice while you admit you don't know it is awful or not?

 

[crackp0t]

Do I personally think this is fucked up and wrong? Yes, I do. However, none of the parents that have children that use the room seem to care. It's really none of the other parents business.

 

[SkyFire]

Do I personally think this is fucked up and wrong? Yes, I do. However, none of the parents that have children that use the room seem to care. It's really none of the other parents business.

Bullshit.

According to the reporter, the school is looking into at least one instance where a child without parental approval was locked in the room, and the reporter has two other people who say their children were locked in.

Further, just because a parent says it's ok for X person to do something to their child doesn't mean X person should actually do it. Plenty of parents pimp their kids out for molestation and rape.

In addition, it affects the other children as well, no kid should see another child being forcibly locked away. That's some trauma right there.

Finally, it's a PUBLIC SCHOOL. If our money is going to be stolen by the state and re-appropriated, we should damn well get a say - and by state law, we do via the PTA and so on, so it is EVERYONE'S business.

 

[boatBurner]

What information do you need?

And why would it be ok to practice while you admit you don't know it is awful or not?

From second-hand accounts of raising children with Asperger's syndrome, I know that some disciplinary actions are taken that aren't common among children without Asperger's syndrome. As an example, a 10 year old with Asperger's may obsess over an item or a collection of cards to the point where he refuses to come to dinner or do other things expected of him. One solution that I've heard is used is to limit the time the child has with the item or the collection to avoid these episodes. Now, I don't actually know what that looks like, but if it required a time-out box as extreme as this room, I would at least hear the argument for it before I bashed it.

If a child cannot sit still in an open room because the simple presence of the object is distracting him, but displacing him in a nearby, safe room allows the healthy disconnection from the obsession of the object and the child, then I can at least understand that sort of reasoning.

However, there are many different forms of mental handicap, and I'm not someone who can argue for or against the disciplinary measures for each handicap.

Being willing to hold off at raising pitchforks and torchlights at a practice already in play does not mean I am giving tacit approval for the practice.

 

[zimok]

I was put in a foam cubicle as a child and told to write down dictionary words for hours. Internal suspension it was called, I had around 25 of those before finishing grade 7.

Figured out early on that they didn't re-read what was written. so I wrote at random after the first few lines. Spent the rest of my time playing hacky sack with my eraser and writing hidden jokes around the room for bored future prisoners. It did nothing for me except exacerbate an already existing hatred for the school(indoctrination) system.

I believe schools are a dying system. You'll be able to receive a much greater education at home with robotics/internet in our lifetime. The hurdle will be for that system to become accredited and recognized by future HR.

 

[potentialeight]

From Wikipedia on aversion therapy:

Traditional aversion therapy, which employed either chemical aversion (Watson and Reyner, 1920) or electrical aversion (Maguire and Vallance, 1964) has now, since Cautela, been replaced by aversion in the imagination, a technique which is known as covert sensitization (Cautela, 1967).

Covert sensitization is a powerful and effective form of treatment and it has been used successfully in the treatment of alcoholism, compulsive gambling and juvenile delinquency. This treatment approach can also be used in the treatment of cigarette smokers, and there are favorable results here especially when being compared to other techniques.

Kraft & Kraft (2005) assessed the value of covert sensitization in six case studies—a fingernail biter, a cannabis smoker, an obese lady, a cigarette smoker, an individual with a chocolate addiction and an alcoholic. The study showed that covert sensitization was a rapid and cost-effective form of treatment. All the individuals in the study eliminated their maladaptive behavior pattern, and this was maintained at the follow-up.

Neat stuff. However, it makes me think that the phrase "aversion therapy" was probably misused in the video.

 

[crackp0t]

Bullshit.

Emotional much?

According to the reporter, the school is looking into at least one instance where a child without parental approval was locked in the room, and the reporter has two other people who say their children were locked in.

I some how missed that somehow and if that's the case then no it's not right.

Further, just because a parent says it's ok for X person to do something to their child doesn't mean X person should actually do it. Plenty of parents pimp their kids out for molestation and rape.

In addition, it affects the other children as well, no kid should see another child being forcibly locked away. That's some trauma right there.

Equating a timeout box for kids who are acting out violently is different than forcing your kid into prostitution. Please seeing a kid that's a danger to the other kids around them being put into a timeout box isn't traumatic.

Finally, it's a PUBLIC SCHOOL. If our money is going to be stolen by the state and re-appropriated, we should damn well get a say - and by state law, we do via the PTA and so on, so it is EVERYONE'S business.

In an overall sense you're correct, but in regards to individual children you're wrong. The PTA, tax payers, and everyone else really have no business getting in between what's going on between myself as a parent and the educators at the school. If I have a choice between my kid not being able to goto school or having to goto a timeout box when they started going ape shit, because they have issues I'd choose the timeout box if I was like 99% of Americans. Not everyone has the luxury of being able to homeschool their kids or pay for a private school and in this situation those are more than likely the two choices, because the kids being put in there are a danger to the other kids around them. Every kid at that school has a right to be safe while they're there and the kids being put in that box are violating that right.

 

[potentialeight]

This seems to be a pretty balanced article outlining the use of isolation rooms in public schools in Ohio: Locked Away: How Ohio Schools Misuse Seclusion Rooms | StateImpact Ohio

In Akron, the limit is 12 minutes, and there can never be a closed door. The policy specifies that isolation isn’t supposed to be used to punish students or “as an act of retribution or respite for the teachers.”

The quote above is talking about the use of padded rooms separated from the classroom to allow children to chill out without disturbing other students. They can cuss, yell, scream, kick, hit and whatever else and get it out of their system. The idea is that they get a few minutes to work off some of this energy, and then they get their asses back into class and behave themselves.

Unfortunately, Akron seems to be in the extremely small minority. The following quote hurt when I read it:

A 2012 American Association of School Administrators national survey of about 400 school superintendents found that nearly 20 percent thought seclusion was a good way to punish children.

I've spent a little while reading about this, and it seems like it's a potentially useful tool that can be abused very easily.

 

[negro2k]

the problem is the teachers arent allowed to even touch the kids so if they are being brats they have to lock them in a box like this. if you think back to years ago if you were being a little shit in school they would just beat your ass