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.
They used to put these children in special schools instead of integrating them.
I know what you mean :)
Kid is throwing desks, attacking other children, spitting, biting, punching everybody. Kid goes into padded room. Yells, hollars, swears, kicks the walls. Kid starts crying, begging to be forgiven. Teacher talks to kid, when kid is settled down, and teacher feels he is OK, he comes back into classroom. Imagine a 250-300 lb grade schooler acting out this way. Happens every day in our public schools.
Classical Education consisted of teaching the Socratic Method and Euclidian Geometry and Aristotelian Logic and Rhetoric (how to transmit ideas to others) plus memorizing at the appropriate age when memorizing was easy. Memorization is an exercise of the brain and necessary discipline needed for building on Knowledge.
Without the above, people are like the 3rd world cultures where they believe everything the State tells them. They can’t analyze anything to discern the Truth.
They are brainwashed and easily manipulated by emotions—like our schools now do, since they don’t teach anything classical (Reason) anymore.
Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.[
That phrase “to the people” is where children belong—which includes the education of their own offspring. The Natural Law (embedded into our Constitution) states that the Duty of raising children belongs to the parents ONLY....never the State.
Guess someone put Chris Murphy Jr. into a padded room when they really meant to put Chris Murphy Sr. into that room.
Socratic method. Kids who can do that are lonely creatures with nothing but boredom and disappointment at college.
Ted Cruz probably feels that in congress.
Neither of us has heard of a “scream room.”
That’s because you were hard of hearing from all the screaming.
We have to get away from education being a right, its not. Some kids are not able to go to school and be productive learners.
My wife, subbed at a “special class”, which had a scream room. 6 students(?). There were two male “assistants”. These kids were violent, and had no control over themselves. they would attack teachers, throw things, and scream obsentities. What would you do if a 8 - 9 year old came after you violently and screaming. It gets the other nut cases going. The “Assisatants” would place them in the “cage” where they would bang their heads on the wall.
What to do? Strip them naked and drop them off in the Congo?
Actually I think a “scream room” is a great idea — I’d probably get more out of it than a “break room” at work if we had one.
My nephew lives in Middletown Ct. He claims that his school has put him in a scream room. I am not sure I believe his claim, because he is a prolific liar, like his mother. He is also failing every class, including gym.
“...whether or not parents of children who...were there to learn would have legal standing to sue a..school district over that fact that their child’s education was being hindered...because of the time that us teachers have to spend on discipline.”
I’ve had teachers tell me that “mainstreaming” of the mentally ill and dicipline eat up 60-70% of resources. Is that your experience as well?
Every day.
Oh—exactly. When I went back to get a college degree, I was appalled at how ignorant the students were. Just empty of all Knowledge of any importance, with no work ethic. But they were nice and tolerant of every idea and had no drive for truth.
I later read “The Closing of the American Mind” by Bloom, who noticed this dumbing down of students in 1985 and warned about it. But it has actually been written about for decades-—by Flesch and others-—”Why Johnny Can’t Read”.
John Dewey, Father of Modern Education, was the beginning of the end of true education in America. Even with the “Prussian” system of Horace Mann, we didn’t discard Classical Education.
When I was in school, there was a boy in my class that used to be taken to the “cloak room” by the teacher. The teacher had permission from the boy’s parents to hit him with a yard stick on the butt. It was appalling. Everyone in the class was appalled. The kid went to my church, so I knew him. He was bad, but not the kind of bad that we think of today. He did unforgivable things like answering, yeah, to the teacher, talking back and not paying attention.
One day Harvey broke out of the cloak room and ran all the way home, a couple of miles. That was the last time anyone was ever put in the cloak room, let alone hit. (The teacher was a former marine who thought tough discipline was the answer) I have often wondered whatever became of Harvey.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.