Posted on 12/15/2025 1:43:24 PM PST by Morgana
Four teachers at a Wisconsin school have been accused of locking children in a pitch-black 'dungeon' as a cruel punishment tactic.
A lawsuit launched by the furious parents of three children at Thurston Woods Public School in Milwaukee accuses the staff members of traumatizing their children.
Filed on December 8, the legal document alleges that between 2022 and 2024 the teachers would routinely place young children in a boiler room to scare them.
'When asked about 'the dungeon' by their parents, some students would become so scared, stressed and upset that they would begin to cry,' the lawsuit reads.
'Students experienced sleep issues, nightmares and waking up crying during the night because of fear of 'the dungeon,'' the complaint seen by the Daily Mail said.
Parents Monica Webb, Korettea Cooper, Porsche Cosey and Vedonte Olden Sr. have named four teachers in the lawsuit - Terrence Graham, Darlene Lucas, Carolyn Watson, and Joann Johnson - along with leadership staff members.
Represented by Milwaukee attorney Drew DeVinney, the parents allege that teachers at the pre-K-8 school sent their children to the boiler room for misbehaving.
Video shows one male staffer, a former male paraprofessional, locking three different students in the 'dungeon' several times, according to the lawsuit.
Images from inside the basement show a room full of heavy-duty machinery, ladders, boilers, buckets, and dirty rags strewn across hard cement flooring.
The room smelled strongly of harsh chemicals, and was used for storing cleaning agents, according to the lawsuit.
Children were allegedly locked inside 'with the lights turned off so that it would be pitch black,' according to the lawsuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“You don’t have the whole story.”
What else is there.
I’m beginning to believe that you have a psychiatric disorder. There is nothing that would justify this treatment of children: if the kid has a discussion with his/her teacher concerning that kid’s behavior and the kid doesn’t respond well, it’s escalated to the principal who gets in contact with the kid’s parents.
No teacher anywhere can resort to weird “punishments” like putting them in the “dungeon”.
You don’t have kids yourself, do you?
I have already read those posts.
My son behaves in class because he knows better than to act up.
There is still no reason to lock a child into a pitch black boiler room. If the parents did this, the state would charge them. Teachers and administrators should know better.
Of course, I’m assuming that this article is correct, which is probably foolish on my part.
You are, of course, free to believe anything you want to believe. That doesn't make it true ... or even reasonable.
You responded to my post #9. Have you read the article? No?
Go ahead and do that. I'll wait ...
[ a few moments later ]
OK ... now that you have read the article, you know that my Post #9 is an objectively true statement.
Ponder that fact for a moment.
We don't know the whole story. Obviously. We don't know what sort of classroom misbehavior drove the teachers to employ this sort of inappropriate punishment. Since we don't know all the facts, we can't properly assess or solve the actual problem.
if the kid has a discussion with his/her teacher concerning that kid’s behavior and the kid doesn’t respond well, it’s escalated to the principal who gets in contact with the kid’s parents.
BWAHAHAHAHAHahahahahahahaha!!! Yeah. Right. The apple seldom falls far from the tree ... the real problem kids have real problem parents. You can't discipline them, you can't get any help from the parents, you can't expel them, and you can't teach the children who actually want to learn.
I'm not going to make this personal. I ask the same courtesy from you.
I said that we DON’T treat serial murderers this way.
That is not a comparison, that is a contrast.
When is the last time you were in a prison?
When you put a cup of pure water in with a barrel of sewage, you have a barrel of sewage.
When you put a cup of sewage in with a barrel of pure water, you have a barrel of sewage.
One disruptive jerk in a classroom full of actual students can turn the whole affair into chaos. The school system (whether public or private) owes you and your son an academic environment in which he can actually learn. That necessarily means removing disruptors.
When the system refuses to provide officially sanctioned means of removing and disciplining disruptors, it is absolutely inevitable and predictable that unofficial means will be employed. And you won’t like them.
If you really want to clean up this mess, start with enabling real, meaningful, appropriate classroom discipline.
Yes. We treat serial murderers worse.
Are you me?
Find an example of a serial murderer in modern times locked in a pitch black room.
Oh ... do you think that being locked in a pitch black room for a few hours is worse than being locked up with a bunch of racist gang members who continue their criminal activities while on the inside for several years?
You’ve picked a ridiculous comparison/contrast to hang your hat on ...
and IMHO, you’re drastically missing the point. If you don’t like ad-hoc inappropriate discipline then enable real, meaningful, appropriate discipline. Or enable the simple removal from the classroom of incorrigible troublemakers.
I seriously doubt the that children who got locked in the boiler room were perfect, innocent little angels.
I’m a parent. There is nothing any kid would do that justifies that punishment. It is just plain perverted.
You can laugh all you want to, but my kids knew that I would take action if they did anything that disrupted their classes. It’s part of a parent’s duties.
If the student’s parents don’t take action, then suspend/expel and let the parents figure how they’ll educate him.
Mrs. Hill, 6th-8th grades, 1970s. Constant threats, ridicule, and scorn. Her so-called aide called me a b____in front of the 8th grade class while they both laughed. All because I could not understand the math and a piece of filth kept stealing my work.
Had a crazy band director that threw everything at us at the drop of a hat. Learned to duck.
Yes, unfortunately the parent can be even more of a jerk than their kid. I found that to be particularly true in one demographic sector, the perpetual victim class.
,,, the teachers were simply extending learning opportunities in an industrial environment.
Oh, yes: You have beautifully described one of a parent's (particularly a father's) duties. I have no trouble believing that you did so diligently and successfully, and that your grown children are a credit to you and your wife. I say that with all sincerity.
Furthermore, based on direct experience, I believe that you are not as rare as some people might suggest.
HOWEVER ...
Based on entirely too much direct experience I KNOW beyond a shadow of doubt that a critical mass of "parents" absolutely refuse the duty of raising their children properly. Even one of these ill-bred, brought up wrong and trained to do worse, little junior-grade thugs can and will turn a classroom into chaos. Calling the little wretch's parent (frequently only one) is useless ... worse than useless, in fact. Little Suzy/Johnny can do no wrong ... (s)he is a perfect angel.
If the student’s parents don’t take action, then suspend/expel
I'm laughing again. That's great in theory. In practice, it doesn't happen.
Like many other institutions in this Great Republic, formal education needs a thorough top-to bottom overhaul. Classrooms should be the domain of students who want to learn and teacher who have something useful to convey. Compulsory education laws should be repealed as part of that overhaul.
There is no excuse for putting young children in a pitch black boiler room. If the child is too unruly for school, then send the child home.
My grandson was accidentally locked in a closet at about age 3. To this day he is really afraid of the dark and closed in spaces. Incidents such as that can be severely traumatizing.
Im not sure I’m ME sometimes …
I’m not even going to list all of the logical fallacies you just committed.
Instead, let me ask you: What would an 8 year old boy have to do in order for you to lock him in the dungeon?
ψ
You're not reading what I'm writing. Attempting to have any kind of rational conversation with you is futile until you actually READ WHAT I'M WRITING. ALL of it. Go up to the top of the thread and read all of my posts.
Then come back and ask a question that isn't ignorant.
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