Quiet Room - Illinois Public School System

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

I am appalled, disgusted, dumbfounded...

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.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-quiet-rooms/ar-BBWZw1d

[billisonboard]

Ever been assaulted by a student?  I have been twice.  I have no doubt that the rooms are not always used appropriately and better monitoring of their use is necessary.  But I do understand why they exist.

[Tennesseer]

Nov 19, 2019 16:47:28 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

I am appalled, disgusted, dumbfounded...

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.

www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-quiet-rooms/ar-BBWZw1d

Better to isolate them (rather than pinning them down and calling the police) and wait until a parent arrives. I am sure it is very hard to watch. But it sounds like they are safe inside these rooms until family and help arrives.

[Cheesy FL-Vol]

Seriously? These are special needs kids.

[billisonboard]

Nov 19, 2019 20:13:39 GMT -5 Cheesy FL-Vol said:

Seriously? These are special needs kids.

Yes, they have needs different than others.

[tskeeter]

While this situation sounds horrible, it is important to understand that special needs students assault teachers and other school staff every day.  And we’re not talking about a first grader lashing out here.  These students may be young men who weigh in at 200 pounds.  Many of the assaults are so violent that the teacher suffers serious injury.  A local special needs middle school student assaulted a school nurse friend of ours.  Our friend suffered a concussion that was serious enough that it kept her out of work a week.  How do you propose that schools deal with violent students?  More importantly, do you want your child in a classroom with a child who has a history of violence against school staff and other students?

[dondub]

Dubette #2 was decked last Thursday by a 17 year old who was unaware his mom was checking him into the inpatient facility she works at for kids with ‘issues’. Stuff happens there all the time and she has been hit before and even punched in the vagina by a 12 year old.

[Deleted]

My mom worked as an aide for special needs children in an elementary school for almost 30 years and some of the stories of what some of the students could do would shock you. It’s just something those of us without special needs kids or not working with special needs kids do not see and frankly have a difficult time understanding.

That being said there should be rules and guidelines about when the padded rooms should be used. I completely understand how it should be used for an out of control student with behavior that is harming themselves or staff but it shouldn’t be a default punishment for a minor infraction when nobody is in danger.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I understand why you’re having that reaction. Please know that you don’t understand what some of us work with in a daily basis.
Know that the article was written in a way to make you mad at those of us who actually work with emotionally disturbed students.


For one student, just this school year,
He has spent several minutes on two occasions punching and kicking me. He has run away from the school/me and into traffic.
He has lost mental control in his classroom and in six minutes destroyed the room.
I second what someone said (Ten,I think; but I’m on my phone so I can post the picture and cannot see the other posts right now about sometimes people use safe rooms inappropriately. Not all of us do though; in fact most of us don’t use them in appropriately.

This is half of the room. Six minutes. I was in there for the last five minutes of it. Just me and one aide who gets paid $14/hour.
Wouldn’t it have been safer for everyone if I had a quiet, non-furnished room to keep all of us safer? The bruise on the top of my left foot from where he hit me with a chair he threw at me lasted two weeks.

He also brought me a cupcake the other day.

[busymom]

Wow!  If you have an idea of what solitary confinement does to someone in prison, can you even imagine what being locked in a room alone does to a child?  Instead of putting them into a room, and locking them inside, alone, how about giving staff sufficient training to deal with a situation that goes badly?  I don't believe locking a child, alone, in a room should become the "go to" response to behaving badly.  Especially if they have special needs.



I get it.  I went to church for years with a woman whose specialty was teaching EBD kids.  She told me she chose to work with these kids.  In our district, violent kids were sent to the "EBD" school.  But, she said someone had to work with them.


Just as an example:  how about teaching these students how to calm themselves?  Introduce them to yoga.  There are a variety of different options out there, if districts would put the money into it, rather than funding "padded cells".  

[billisonboard]

Nov 19, 2019 23:08:01 GMT -5 busymom said:

...

Just as an example:  how about teaching these students how to calm themselves? ...

Oh My God, why have people never thought of doing that?

[Tiny]

I don't know what the right answer is.   Yes, teaching kids coping skills is important - but it doesn't happen over a couple of weekday classes or a "retreat" weekend.  What do you do during the years it sometimes takes?   What do you do when those skills will NEVER be learned?     You do the best you can.   

I don't know what the right answer is.  

[billisonboard]

Nov 20, 2019 0:42:26 GMT -5 Tiny said:

I don't know what the right answer is. ... You do the best you can.   

I don't know what the right answer is.  

Yes, you do know what the right answer is. As you say, you do the best you can for each unique individual each moment.

[hoops902]

Nov 19, 2019 23:08:01 GMT -5 busymom said:

Wow!  If you have an idea of what solitary confinement does to someone in prison, can you even imagine what being locked in a room alone does to a child?  Instead of putting them into a room, and locking them inside, alone, how about giving staff sufficient training to deal with a situation that goes badly?  I don't believe locking a child, alone, in a room should become the "go to" response to behaving badly.  Especially if they have special needs.



I get it.  I went to church for years with a woman whose specialty was teaching EBD kids.  She told me she chose to work with these kids.  In our district, violent kids were sent to the "EBD" school.  But, she said someone had to work with them.


Just as an example:  how about teaching these students how to calm themselves?  Introduce them to yoga.  There are a variety of different options out there, if districts would put the money into it, rather than funding "padded cells".  

Do you understand why solitary confinement does what it does to people?  Solitary confinement in a prison system and putting a tantrum-throwing child in a room by themselves for a few hours are about as comparable as the electric chair and a joy buzzer.

It shouldn't be the go-to response for behaving badly.  I didn't see anywhere that the article said a child who behaves badly goes there...you can behave badly by talking too much in class...the answer to "What do you do with a student who is being violent" is not "well just tell them to not be violent".

[Wisconsin Beth]

Nov 19, 2019 23:08:01 GMT -5 busymom said:

Wow!  If you have an idea of what solitary confinement does to someone in prison, can you even imagine what being locked in a room alone does to a child?  Instead of putting them into a room, and locking them inside, alone, how about giving staff sufficient training to deal with a situation that goes badly?  I don't believe locking a child, alone, in a room should become the "go to" response to behaving badly.  Especially if they have special needs.



I get it.  I went to church for years with a woman whose specialty was teaching EBD kids.  She told me she chose to work with these kids.  In our district, violent kids were sent to the "EBD" school.  But, she said someone had to work with them.


Just as an example:  how about teaching these students how to calm themselves?  Introduce them to yoga.  There are a variety of different options out there, if districts would put the money into it, rather than funding "padded cells".  

I know several teacher at my kid's school have tents/space set up in their classrooms, at least for the younger grades.  It's a space they can go to, to get themselves back in hand, as I understand it.  I know for the older kids there's a system of escalation that starts with a reminder and ends with parents being told to come and get their kid for the rest of the day but it takes at least 5 occurrences in a single day to get there.  When it gets physical between kids, I know there's a different set of criteria used. 

I actually handed over my daughter's old Tinkerbell tent (3x3 feet maybe?  with a roof) to a teacher from a different school, who was in the office when I was asking if any of the teachers at my school needed/wanted any of the stuff I was dumping. She was really happy to have the tent and told me it would be the quiet space for her kids to use when they needed space to settle down.  I had assumed it would be used as a playtime toy.  She said she had a couple of kids that she knew would use it.  She was thrilled I was giving it away because she'd been planning on buying one in the near future.  I'd paid $5 for it at a resale shop so no, I didn't want her money; I wanted it out of my house. 

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2019 22:39:38 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

I understand why you’re having that reaction. Please know that you don’t understand what some of us work with in a daily basis.
Know that the article was written in a way to make you mad at those of us who actually work with emotionally disturbed students.


For one student, just this school year,
He has spent several minutes on two occasions punching and kicking me. He has run away from the school/me and into traffic.
He has lost mental control in his classroom and in six minutes destroyed the room.
I second what someone said (Ten,I think; but I’m on my phone so I can post the picture and cannot see the other posts right now about sometimes people use safe rooms inappropriately. Not all of us do though; in fact most of us don’t use them in appropriately.

This is half of the room. Six minutes. I was in there for the last five minutes of it. Just me and one aide who gets paid $14/hour.
Wouldn’t it have been safer for everyone if I had a quiet, non-furnished room to keep all of us safer? The bruise on the top of my left foot from where he hit me with a chair he threw at me lasted two weeks.

He also brought me a cupcake the other day.

I have a niece who has a Masters in Education and has approximately the same amount of classroom time that you do (5th grade). 

She has similar stories as you are delivering here.    

She is small in stature and cannot handle even the larger 5th graders.  

I think she would give up on teaching if it wasn't for those rooms.