http://www.wptz.com/news/vermont-new-york/upper-valley-wnne/Springfield-Vt-parents-raise-concern-over-seclusion-room/-/9277648/9721364/-/hu240b/-/index.html
Springfield, Vt., parents raise concern over seclusion room
By David Charns WPTZ
Padded-room meant for emergencies per Vt. rule, meeting called
UPDATED 11:46 PM EDT Mar 27, 2012
Parent: Child improperly put into seclusion at school
SPRINGFIELD, Vt. -
Parents of children who attend the Springfield Public Schools have raised concerns about a padded-room in the district's primary school.
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The School Board called a special meeting about the issue for Tuesday night.
Parents became concerned after word spread about the seclusion room at the Elm Hill Primary School. Students in kindergarten to second-grade attend the school.
The padded-room, about the size of a large closet, is meant to house a student if he or she presents an imminent threat of danger to themselves or others, and there is no other viable option, according to a Vermont State rule.
“If the situation doesn't deescalate quickly, the idea of a seclusion place would be to eliminate the need for a physical restraint by placing the student in a location where they are safe and where others would be safe,” said Mark Oettinger in an interview earlier this month. Oettinger is the general counsel for the Vermont Department of Education.
A group of parents, some whose children have been put in the room, came forward and said the school used the room as a form of punishment, rather than for safety purposes.
The rooms are meant to be a last resort if a student presents a safety danger, said Becky Read, the school’s interim principal. Read is also the principal at the middle school while the district looks to fill the vacant primary school principal position.
“Restraint and seclusion are never to be used as a form of punishment,” Read said. “If an employee violates our policy, and we know about it, we will initiate an investigation, and we will report it to the appropriate outside agencies.”
100 laps around the track would be a better option..
ReplyDeleteGet them so tired they can't cause trouble and get their endorphins going so they might WANT to better themselves!
These rooms will just make them fat AND stupid.
The problem appears to have been not the existence of the room which is clearly justified as modern American school systems are having to deal with children who previously would have been institutionalized, but with its "alleged" prior uses. Unfortunately, because of applicable statutory constraints and legal considerations, the administration, involved teachers, and board are probably not in a position to discuss specific incidents at public meeings. As a result, we don't really know what kind of heck these children maybe raising in the classroom. We are also living in an era where most parents, if they can find jobs, are forced to work in order to make ends meet. As a result, they cannot immediately be brought into the situation. Teachers do not receive combat pay and should not be expected to put up with physical violence. If there was an innappropriate use of the seclusion room, I would expect the State is currently making life miserable for everyone even remotely involved. On the other hand, I hope we are not triggering a bunch of witch hunts regarding teachers and administrators who are having to make split second judgments as to whether a student constitutes a danger to others or him or herself. One of the grandparents who spoke at one of the meetings said that the child was so upset he was throwing his shoes and beating on the door, which opens the question as to whether what really happened before the use of the room seclusion was just tapping the pencil -- this we will probably never know because of the legal constraints on the administration.
ReplyDeletePlease do not confuse my grandson with the students at Elm Hill who are having Violent Outbursts. I think something needs to be cleared up. First of all it was not a Teacher that placed him in that room, it was infact an, "Uneducated Paraeducator". My grandson has ADHD and at that time was having a hard time sitting still in class. On this particular day it did start with "Tapping His Pencil". He never was a danger to himself or anyone else. His "out of control", action, (throwing his shoes), was after the fact of being forced into the "Padded Room". I personally spoke with the individual that put him there on that perticular day within minutes of the event. I know what I was shown and told happened. The information given to me that day is different than the report given. I can not go into further detail but please know my grandson does not come from a home where he is not held accountable for his actions. This is not a witch hunt for teachers, there were no "Teachers", involved. However, certain administrators were involved over a year ago and allowed it to happen again. That is the issue here. Elm Hill has many Amazing, Loving and Caring Teachers. It is a shame this was allowed to happen again and cast a dark shadow over the school. I do think it is time the Administration is held accountable, not the Teachers.
DeleteWhat does "uneducated" para-educator mean? Does this mean they don't have a high school degree? A bachelors degree? Or that they just can't spell?
DeleteIf a kid is throwing shoes he is out of control.
Seriously? did you read that the kid threw his shoes AFTER being dragged, then locked in the room?? I believe the term "Uneducated Paraeducator" is someone who is not trained to handle situations that may arise in the Planning Room itself. They need to be trained and certified for the job they've taken on.
DeleteWould you go to a Dr that had no specific schooling in a particular area that you would need him/her for? No... neither would I.
OMG Alpin, I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteOh, that's scary..
Delete"Teachers do not receive combat pay and should not be expected to put up with physical violence." Good point AP! Perhaps the administration should put a new line item in the proposed budget: combat pay for paras and teachers.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear why the sons of farmers decide to become Ed.D.'s. Every school district in America is a potential employer, and the extremely well paid jobs can't be shipped to China.
No matter how often the administration is asked for the figures related to Park St. School expenses, the public is stone walled. When will the administration do its homework? The question is, after all, an open book, take home test. Perhaps, despite all the assistants in the Central Office, no one knows how to look it up? Or is the administration revealing blatant disdain for the public? If so, why does the public tolerate such from employees making over 100 grand plus benefits a year? It is too bad the Board did not tell the Superintendent to send his uninformed staff member to Park St. School to find and return with his "homework".
Well actually we have been trying to come up with a way of shipping the farmers and their sons to China, but I have not quite figured out how to offshore the profits yet. But the good news is we have just about figured out how to ship the schools and children to China, and if elected I intend to ship most of the graduates of our fine schools to Iran. So keep up the fight. Then we can pay our school administrators at the same rate as they pay the peasants in China which should improve the educational experience of any schools we do not manage to ship overseas. Then my wife will be able to afford three Cadilacs.
DeleteI am troubled by the report of physical violence towards school staff members. What if there was reluctance to place this out-of-control and dangerous child in a seclusion room because of all the negative attention recently? What if the administrator was more seriously injured?
ReplyDeleteMy hope is that this child, regardless of age, is removed from the school system and forced to be educated elsewhere. Perhaps the child and parents will learn that poor behavior has consequences.
Yes, well they took the doors off all of the seclusion rooms so, guess they ain't very secluded anymore. Perhaps the Town should just budget a police officer to be permanently stationed at each school to take violent kids into custody immediately after they whack somebody who wasn't expecting to get whacked...you see they can't seclude a kid on just the suspicion that they are going to whack somebody, they need proof in the form of "Yep, he whacked somebody," before they could put them in the seclusion room else they might lose their license or get sued, or at the very least get investigated for about two or three years. Better to bleed than say you're sorry.
Deleteyou quit bad mouthin my Johnny ee was jus makin a pint wid dat techer jus lik me boyfrend makes pint wid em at ome dos techers jus ned to udderstan dat Johnny as a small mind dat needs to bee pertected it may not geet any bigger but wat leetle es der needs pertectin
DeletePeople, I think we are losing the big picture here! Yes a principal was injured, but what about the students who were mistreated in these rooms? Do we forget about them, the silent victims! Is it OK to mistreat our children and then place the blame on them? I’m sorry the principal got injured, my question is, was she trained to restrain this student? It doesn’t appear so. What caused this student to become upset in the first place? I have been in all of our schools and they are not a war zone as some people would like us to believe. The powers to be are attempting to divert the original issue of mistreatment of our children to the poor principal getting attacked. Two different issues here!
ReplyDeleteUhm, sounds like potential two faces of the same issue. Are the administrators and teachers supposed to be able to read minds and know oh hey that kid is gonna whack me with a computer part...well yes I guess they should just assume that all six year olds are violent and treat them all with that assumption...oh wait, that is what got people denouncing the administration over "cloud rooms"...I am so confused...but I am sure the Special Ed Director will sort it all out and restore the handball courts...
DeleteThe "big picture" is not centered on placating parents who believe their children were improperly placed in seclusion at Elm Hill. The big picture should be centered on preventing violence directed at either students or teachers and other staff, and creating an environment in class rooms conducive to the education of the students attempting to learn. Elm Hill School is not intended to be day care for the disturbed; it is a school. Any child who disrupts a class must be removed, or the wages paid the teacher are wasted.
DeleteSince the seclusion rooms have become the root of controversey, and have been essentially dismantled, disruptive students have no place to go but home or the police station. Perhaps placing them in a small strait jacket and leaving them in their usual classroom ,until their parents or police arrive to remove them from the school, would enable the budget committee to eliminate the jobs of those assigned to watch disruptive students. Such a policy change would save the jobs of 4 paras.
I like that idea from "A Non Imus" we used a similar idea when vacationing with our family. We just put the dog in this pet carrier on the roof. Everybody was just happy and fine and we cruised right down the highway at 80 mph. Heck the dog even liked it, since it blew the fleas right off him. They might want to put duct tape on the kids mouth though as I expect he might get a little noisy in that straitjacket.
Deletekid have out burst teachers need to find out why they act out and try to have someone at the school there for just that reason that can talk to the kid add is what some kids have but so many things will show the same thingthat will tell u your kid has add but will not be aDD i am there for the kids and think a padded room is not the way to go
DeleteWOW All that bitterness....The issue remains the same.It is not about the necessity of the seclusion rooms but rather did the staff misuse their power and the rooms. It is pretty straight forward however we have the contingent that as par usual wants to do the "springfield spin" to divert the focus.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that yes, if children are violent, then they HAVE to be removed not only from the class but from the school. However, giving a green light for the staff to "decide" what is legally appropriate or deem necessary is where the problem began. This is not to be used as punishment, it is ONLY to be used when a child is harming themself or others. There is a difference between a temper tantrum or ill behaved child and one who is grabbing for a knife to stab you and you would have to be an idiot not to be able to define the two. Never mind the obvious that these are k-2 kids.
What has been presented, and is at the heart of this debate, truth or not, are licensed professionals, who should be trained and know the difference, but rather may have chosen to use their authority and position to re-train or punish children who, as it was presented to the community, were not in need of a safety procedure but rather a time out! That is what has the district under scrutiny. As par usual, let's play the blame game instead of dealing with the problem.
I agree. We should under no circumstances give educational professionals the green light to do anything. Things work much better if we have plenty of red lights which cause them to hesitate to do anything. We expect our soldiers to bleed for their country, we should expect our teachers to do the same for their school system. This is the land of the free and the brave.
DeleteMittens is right on message as usual. We need to keep these children right in the school system. Otherwise, we might have to fund care for them elsewhere on income tax funded programs. Remember schools are there to protect small minds. And they use those rooms for exercise rooms, at least I think that is what the Special Education Director said.
DeleteWhile the behavior at Union and Riverside ARE are staffed by licensed professionals, the room at Elm WAS NOT (until recently). Undoubtably, it should have been.
DeleteMake sure I got this right, previously with unlicensed professionals the kids wound up in "the room", now with a licensed professional the professional wound up in the emergency room. Now, that's the spirit...giving blood in defense of "small minds." Did the professional get a purple heart?
DeleteWhen did it become okay for students to hit, kick, spit on, bite, and pee on school staff. Children as young as five telling school staff to "f" off and using the "c" and "b" word to staff simple because they are not getting their own way.
ReplyDeleteMost students are great kids and go to school to learn but each year there are students and parents who think it is okay to verbally and physically abuse school staff nation wide. It is very difficult to remove a disruptive or violent student from a regular school setting so each year hours of learning is lost by well behaved students because teachers have to deal with out of control students and in many cases parents who blame the school for their child's behavior. Some parents expect schools to raise their children.
The rooms may have been miss used and that is something that needs to be investigated, but do we pay school staff to teach or just to be abused.
Apparently so, but never fear we sent in new cannon fodder and we are keeping things busy with the teachers and administrators going to the emergency room. They need some additional combat training it would appear, and that only comes with licensed professionals who know how to duck and dodge. It wouldn't hurt if they were partially deaf as well. But at least they are learning three of the letters of the alphabet, and the surrounding children are getting vocabulary enhancement. Its important for them to understand this vocabulary up on the hill. Whether they are there as guests or guards. We should look upon this as employment training.
DeleteHow would parents of disruptive children react if they were billed for the class room instructional time lost when their children disrupt classes? Each student instructional hour costs Springfield tax payers $16.00 to provide. Each hour of class room time for 20 students costs $320.00.
ReplyDeleteSome parents think the primary responsibility of the School District is to baby-sit their ill behaved children. It isn't. It is to educate students. Parents who send disobedient, disruptive, and violent children to school should be assessed the costs, after the first instance in which a child is sent home. Tax payers should not permit educational funds to be wasted.
The last School Board Meeting was supposed to be a discussion of budget issues. The time was spent discussing issues related to seclusion space and its use. The School Board ordered the doors removed from the seclusion or "cloud" rooms. The problem should have been solved for parents of children who were sent there, but apparently some want to rehash the issue again. People who think of themselves as victims never tire of repeating their individual grievances, but tax payers have many other issues to discuss.
It is high time to move on and discuss the new budget proposal. Voters must do everything possible to keep school staff members from being sent home.
Well, but if these children get sent home then the problems they generate might have to be resolved by programs supported by income taxes. It is much better to have the schools try to deal with them because everybody loves to complain about teachers, school administrators, and the public schools. Things could get problematical if we had to start addressing mental health issues outside of the school or the prisons, and these kids are not old enough to graduate to the prisons, yet.
DeleteThe school system should get violent disruptive children used to a highly controlled environment, lots of time in 5 X 10 foot spaces, securely fenced in exercise areas, and no control of their lives. That is where their future lies, unless parents work with educators to make children accountable for their behavior.
DeleteAs we cut more para from our school budget more of these problems will continue. i am sadden with the blame game that I have been reading on this blog. These are children not adults. What i don't see is why these children are acting out. Children don't act out without a reason and there is where you will find your solution. Unless you just want to complain and blame everyone.
ReplyDeleteFinding the reason, does not necessarily instantly bring a solution to mind. The process of finding the reason also inevitable involves assigning blame. Currently, the vocal attacks at the school board level are assigning the blame to the school administration, faculty and staff. That may or may not be deserved -- since the administration, faculty and staff are not in a legal position to verbally defend themselves in the public meetings, you get the type of conversations that are occurring on this blogspot. Unfortunately, some have used this blogspot as a resource to trigger even more investigations by the State. As a practical matter, we have dumped treating all kinds of symptoms generated by our socio-economic problems on the schools. The schools, in general, have done a remarkable job in shouldering this burden -- but given the heaviness of the burden being carried coupled with ever tightening budgets, there are going to be occasional misfires. Unfortunately, these misfires normally result in knee-jerk reactions in the community and the in the regulatory environment which saddle the school personnel with even more mandates and restrictions. Springfield is no longer a middle-class community, its people and families are under stress -- it would be a miracle if its school system was not under stress. The best we can hope for at this point, I believe has been achieved: the School Board knows that there is a perceived problem at Elm Hill and is trying to address it. The community now needs to move on.
DeleteParents of difficult to manage children should look in the mirror and ask themselves a few questions:
ReplyDelete1. How much violent TV and video entertainment has my child viewed since his birth, including unlimited assaults, rapes and murders etc..
2. How many violent video games has he played?
3. What have I done to train him to express his feelings with violence?
4. What have I exposed him to that has shortened his attention span to nearly zero?
5. Did I ever spend time teaching him his numbers or letters, and have I even attempted to?
6. Did I ever read to my child, how often, and what did I read?
7. What did I ever do to help him to develop and satisfy his curiosity?
8. Have I ever trained him to behave properly in public, or even at home?
9. Have I trained him to think that he should expect the world to treat him as if he is the center of it?
10. Am I relieved when he goes to school, because he will be someone else's problem for seven hours?
Very young children reflect and express in school what they have seen, been subjected to (or not), and learned at home. An able psychologist can learn worlds about a child's homelife with a few questions and tests. A brat may be just that, or there could be very serious problems at home that must be addressed, before a child and his future can be saved.
The Springfield School District has a psychologist assigned to Special Ed.. It is high time the School Board gets a report from him, and then informs the public whether Elm Hill School is attempting to educate children who belong in another facility.
I would rather doubt the legality of having a psychologist report to "the public whether Elm Hill is attempting to educate children who belong in another facility." At this point, I am fairly confident that the State either already has, or is launching an investigation which will not only get to the bottom of the whole matter, but will prove to be a major distraction for the whole faculty, administration and staff at Elm Hill. Hopefully, that investigation doesn't turn into a fullblown witch hunt with the staff walking on egg shells for fear of inadvertently offending a parent or grandparent. Hopefully, the administration will find some way to stop the music.
DeleteIt is depressing to read comments by people who apparently are challenged in reading comprehension. A Non Imus wrote, "It is high time the School Board gets a report from him (the psychologist), and then informs the public whether Elm Hill School is attempting to educate children who belong in another facility." He did not suggest the psychologist report to the public, or identify individual children. Certainly the Board is wise enough not to release students' names to the public. However, it has a duty to administer transparent policy and identify challenges faced by the District.
DeleteThe state investigation is focused on past events, not present and future challenges encountered by Elm Hill staff who deal with disruptive students. The state expects all employees of the District will obey the law; it does not conduct investigations in anticipation District staff will break the law. Exactly what would be investigated?
This blog has jumped the shark...my new guilty pleasure is reading the comments on the Springfield Police Department Facebook Page. The comments there make this blog look like the local MENSA chapter.
ReplyDelete