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Lawmaker: Stop putting kids in 'scream rooms'
The Hill ^

Posted on 02/17/2014 4:47:27 PM PST by Sub-Driver

February 17, 2014, 01:55 pm Lawmaker: Stop putting kids in 'scream rooms'

By Kristina Wong

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is calling for an end to the use of “scream rooms” to discipline children in U.S. schools.

The Connecticut senator has proposed legislation that would end the practice of physically restraining students or secluding them in padded rooms, after learning that there were more than 30,000 such instances every year in schools across the state.

“That way to deal with behavior just does not work. Actually kids don’t respond to that,” Murphy said in an interview with local news station WTIC.

“There are just better ways to deal with behavioral issues than just locking kids up in padded rooms,” he said.

The rooms are as small as 4’x4’ or 6’x6’, he said.

Murphy said an overuse of restraint or seclusion could lead to mental and physical injury to children as well as to other children witnessing the practice.

Although some children are violent and could be threat to others, many of the children suffer from other conditions that would be best address via mental health programs, school counselors, and psychologists, Murphy said.

Forty percent of the kids that have been restrained or secluded in Connecticut have autism, and a disproportionate number of them have been Latino and black, he added.

“There’s very limited instances in which you have to restrain a kid, but there is absolutely no instance in which you have to lock a kid up in a room by himself,” Murphy said.

Earlier this month, a Senate Education Committee report called the rooms potentially unsafe and abusive.

A 2012 ABC News investigation found that “thousands of autistic and disabled schoolchildren had been injured and dozens died after being restrained by poorly trained teachers and school aides.”

In some cases, children were handcuffed, electrically shocked, or locked in padded rooms for hours. A 14-year-old Georgia boy who committed suicide after being repeatedly left alone for hours in a room comparable to a prison cell, ABC News reported.

According to ABC, some teacher and school advocacy groups oppose legislation to regulate the use of restraint, saying it limits their ability to subdue a child who may harm others.

“This deserves not only attention from the state legislature, but this is an issue all across the country, and it deserves attention from Congress as well,” Murphy said.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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Arrest the parents........put them in the scream rooms...
1 posted on 02/17/2014 4:47:27 PM PST by Sub-Driver
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To: Sub-Driver

what is a scream room? I have never heard of it


2 posted on 02/17/2014 4:50:09 PM PST by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: GeronL

Me neither. Our backwards circle still spanks.


3 posted on 02/17/2014 4:52:09 PM PST by mrsmel (One Who Can See)
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To: GeronL

Give him a roomful of kindergarten agec kids for a day. Bet you he changes his mind within the first hour...:)


4 posted on 02/17/2014 4:53:16 PM PST by jsanders2001
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To: Sub-Driver

The government has no business in education.

But parents have abdicated that responsibility.

When the meet God and He asks them what they did with the children he gave them, there just won’t be any big groups of government officials standing next to them giving them cover, as much as the parents in this country think (feel) that the government is God.

Any entity that thinks it’s a good idea to teach pre pubescent kids about sex, much less, perverted sex, is not to be trusted with any bit of their care nor education.

Anyone put in seclusion for any length of time, I don’t care how old they are, will not come out of it intact.


5 posted on 02/17/2014 4:54:01 PM PST by stanne
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To: jsanders2001

You’re one of those people who love to hate kids, forgetting that this country is grooming them to take care of you (or not) in your old age, aren’t you?


6 posted on 02/17/2014 4:56:25 PM PST by stanne
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To: Sub-Driver

My mom used to work in a ‘blow-off room’ in an elementary school, where the kids who just could not handle school were sent when they were disruptive. She was a Teachers’ Aide to the school psychologist. This was during busing in Los Angeles, and most of the kids were black who ended up there - for very good reasons. She didn’t last long.


7 posted on 02/17/2014 4:58:36 PM PST by bboop (does not suffer fools gladly)
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To: Sub-Driver

“In some cases, children were handcuffed, electrically shocked, or locked in padded rooms for hours.”

They can handcuff and shock them, but not expel them? wth?

Get rid of the troublemakers and mentally ill. They’re denying other kids their education.


8 posted on 02/17/2014 5:00:56 PM PST by Owl558 (Those who remember George Santayana are doomed to repeat him)
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To: stanne
The government has no business in education.

Actually the states have the right to control education, according to our constitution. The federal government took that right from he states. Nowhere in our constitution does it say the federal government should control constitution.

9 posted on 02/17/2014 5:02:04 PM PST by ladyjane
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To: Sub-Driver

I’ve taught for 9 years. My mother-in-law taught for 30. Neither of us has heard of a “scream room.”


10 posted on 02/17/2014 5:02:51 PM PST by gop4lyf (Are we no longer in that awkward time? Or is it still too early?)
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To: stanne

So, just to be clear, are you saying that parents who send their children to public school (anywhere) are facing eternal damnation for that choice?


11 posted on 02/17/2014 5:03:58 PM PST by workerbee (The President of the United States is DOMESTIC ENEMY #1!)
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To: Sub-Driver
Arrest the parents........put them in the scream rooms...

That is correct. Both the kids and their parents will respond to having a little corporate punishment.

12 posted on 02/17/2014 5:04:53 PM PST by elkfersupper
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To: Sub-Driver

Killing them in the womb is okay though.


13 posted on 02/17/2014 5:05:33 PM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: GeronL

bring back the ruler you get disciplined with the board of education


14 posted on 02/17/2014 5:05:49 PM PST by bigheadfred
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To: Owl558

“Get rid of the troublemakers and mentally ill. They’re denying other kids their education.”

I have asked my principal whether or not parents of children who actually were there to learn would have legal standing to sue a school or school district over that fact that their child’s education was being hindered on a daily basis because of the time that us teachers have to spend on discipline. She didn’t have an answer for me.


15 posted on 02/17/2014 5:06:37 PM PST by gop4lyf (Are we no longer in that awkward time? Or is it still too early?)
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To: Sub-Driver

Was there a movie about this.Cookoos Nest???
Maloy is nurse rachet


16 posted on 02/17/2014 5:07:15 PM PST by CGASMIA68
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To: gop4lyf

Welcome to the liberal North east


17 posted on 02/17/2014 5:08:28 PM PST by CGASMIA68
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To: Sub-Driver

18 posted on 02/17/2014 5:09:07 PM PST by Interesting Times (WinterSoldier.com. SwiftVets.com. ToSetTheRecordStraight.com.)
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To: Owl558
They’re denying other kids their education.

They PTB know this and that is exactly their intention. The last thing the denizens of Mordor on the Potomac want is educated voters.

19 posted on 02/17/2014 5:10:08 PM PST by Count of Monte Fisto (The foundation of modern society is the denial of reality.)
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To: workerbee

I’m saying that parents have primary responsibility for the education of their children.

If a public school works for the education of their children why would that be a problem? Any more than homeschooling a child and not providing proper formation for him in the process.


20 posted on 02/17/2014 5:10:57 PM PST by stanne
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