Isolating Schoolchildren

Quiet Rooms in Schools Are Being Used to Lock Difficult Children Away

In Illinois and other states quiet rooms are being used to keep children locked away alone and terrified despite it being against the law.

I was at a birthday party recently for one of my friends children here in Illinois. Standing around the punch bowl, I heard one of the mothers who had just moved to the area ask about whether it was normal for schools here to use seclusion rooms.

I figured she was referring to the practice of have a time out room where children who were out of control could be sent while a staff member stayed outside for however many minutes it took the child to calm down so they could then process the incident with the child.

The other mothers seemed to suggest that it was in fact normal in Illinois, but that hopefully this would change since in many cases it was being used inhumanely. One mother said she actually pulled her child out of a school and put him in a different one because he was frequently so upset by being put into one of those rooms.

Well, I thought, The practice might not be ideal, but in a school setting when a student starts acting out, they need to be…