Scream Room Use Now Limited by School's New Plan
Farm Hill Elementary School, at the core of an educational and psychological debate over the use of so-called "scream rooms" has issued a memo to staff detailing new procedures and support for students who may need them. Scream rooms, which professionals call "restraint and seclusion" rooms and padded and cannot be locked; any student within the room must be fully supervised the entire time.
Parents were outraged when their children came home with stories of hearing other students' screams coming from padded rooms. After local media became involved, the debate became national, with experts weighing in both for and against the use of seclusion rooms. Pediatrician Dr. Harvey Knapp told CNN, "think it`s crazy that you lock kids in a room by themselves. You know, there are other ways to taken care of kids who have emotional problems or disruptive behaviors … you have to have strategies. Kids are going to be disruptive ... you have to have a strategy that`s acceptable."
Farm Hill has responded by adding additional support staff and new policies, including weekly social skill lessons led by a psychologist and social worker. Other forms of action include in-school suspension, after-school detention, the formation of a talking and learning center and in-house mentoring program as well as positive behavior support. Staff will attend meetings to keep abreast of students' behavior and needs.
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Parents initially told reporters that their children are afraid of being placed in the rooms. "If you start using a timeout room and other children are in the school, they are going to be traumatized. Parents are going to be traumatized," one mother told NBC Connecticut. Right now in Connecticut, timeout rooms can only be used if they are part of a student's Individualized Education Program (IEP); parents must be notified within 24 hours if their child is put into one.
Nancy Prescott of the Connecticut Parent Advocacy Center has stated, "To ensure that all these things are in place requires continuous and ongoing training. Occasionally, it may not be in the IEP, and yet the staff does it. Or they may overuse it."
Farm Hill's Superintendent, Michael Frechette told reporters, "Concurrently, we have been putting together a comprehensive plan to actively address the issues at Farm Hill. Recently, we have formalized our action plan for Farm Hill," which was released to the public on Jan. 13.
Connecticut is not the only state facing opposition to the use of timeout rooms. In 2002, Minnesota parents complained heavily about schools' use of the rooms. Sharon Nygren stated, "It's inhumane. We don't allow society to treat the elderly that way, or even animals. I couldn't believe our schools did anything like that to our children."
Proponents of the rooms state that they provide safety for teachers dealing with unruly children. "We have a critical need to balance safety and security for all students and staff with appropriate behavior intervention procedures," said Lorie Schulstad-Werk, president of the Minnesota Administrators for Special Education.
