Video: Alleged abuse of padded rooms

Vermont educators are allowed to use padded rooms to stop students who are a danger to themselves or others. But some may be misusing the practice. One of the schools being looked into is Elm Hill school in Springfield. http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/upper-valley-wnne/Focus-5-Alleged-abuse-of-padded-rooms-in-Vermont-schools/-/9277648/12142064/-/wb19w8/-/

Focus 5: Alleged abuse of padded rooms in Vermont schools Bridget Shanahan investigate UPDATED 11:22 AM EDT Apr 27, 2012 Springfield, Vt. - Padded rooms are being used to handle out of control kids in schools. Vermont educators are allowed to use the method to stop students who are a danger to themselves or others. But some may be misusing the practice. Several school districts across the state of Vermont have been or are currently being looked into by the Vermont Department of Education. Schools are being accused by parents of either improperly restraining their children or in some instances of putting their kids in small padded rooms. One of the schools being looked into is elm hill school in Springfield which says there have been padded rooms in the district for more than thirty years. Now at least one family alleges abuse by teachers and other school officials. “It sickens me. It shocks me to think of the mindset that allowed this to happen,” Trish Laplante said. She has a hard time talking about the day last May, when she went to get her five-year-old grandson from elm hill school in Springfield. “I was in shock. I was in absolute shock. I just wanted to hug him and tell him I was sorry. We got outside, and he said, ‘Nanny I'm sorry.’ And I said, ‘You don't have anything to be sorry for. We'll talk about it later,’” Laplante added. She says someone from school called and said the kindergartener was out of control, so she went to pick him up. That's when she found out he was put inside of this padded room, no bigger than a walk in closet. “He said it was dark, and he said he was scared. He said, ‘I wanted my momma and he said no.’ He said that he doesn't ever want to go in there again,’” Laplante explained. There were no laws governing the rooms use at the time of the incident. But this past august, Vermont passed a law allowing school officials to place your children in these padded rooms and restrain them if necessary. According to the state's rules, these measures are to be used only as a last resort and only when a child is a danger to himself or others. It also includes special requirements for kids with disabilities, and the rooms should never be used for discipline. According to a report Trish Laplante says the school gave her, there are no indications that her grandson presented "major" behavioral problems on the day he was placed in the padded room or sensory room. In that report, under the comment section, it is says her grandson, "does anything he can to make noises and when asked to stop, the noises increase and are louder." He was taken out of class, into another room , and when he continued to act up, eventually put into a padded room. “That room became a punishment. If you can't calm down, if you can't follow the rules, then you need to go in that room,” Laplante said. His family says he should have never been placed inside that padded room inside this school in the first place that's because he has ADHD and school officials should have had a plan to handle him if he was acting out. Something they say they've been asking for a year and a half. Something they say they still don't have. “Instead of walking with him and giving him an energy outlet, she told him to sit quietly and not make any noise. So she brought him from the frying pan into the fire and escalated the situation,” Laplante said. “I cannot comprehend a child needing to be placed in one of those rooms at this age level for their safety or for others safety,” Elm Hill Principal Becky Read said. Read is new to the job, and the allegations of misuse happened before she got to the school. She says she can't say much because of the ongoing investigation and the holes in the school's records. She admitted the school did not keep any documentation of when the seclusion room was used even though records were supposed to be kept. The doors to the room were recently removed, and Principal Read is adamant the seclusion room will never be used again. “I would tell you that that would not happen here under my watch,” she said. But Laplante says that's not good enough. Her grandson went through a traumatic experience, and the school should be held accountable. “It's heart wrenching. There's the devastation. There's the sadness. You just want to fix it. You just want to make it better. And then comes the anger towards the people who allowed it to happen, and it just didn't happen once,” Laplante explained. Springfield’s superintendent says their investigation is still ongoing, but says he doesn't suspect he'll find any systematic wrongdoing. Adding he doesn't really know if the rooms were used improperly and if they were it was probably not frequent. He also says because adequate records were not kept he doesn't know how many students may have been put in the padded room and remember he said the rooms have been in the district for thirty plus years. The Department of Education has been working with those at Elm Hill to make sure they're properly trained in using Rule 4500. The state law has not even been in effect for a full school year. Newschannel 5 filed a request for documents from the department of education and found three other schools have had complaints filed against them. In one case, the complaint was dismissed against a school in Chittenden County. In another case in Windsor, the State Department of Education found the room was used properly and did not break the law. No word from the state on where the third complaint stands.