I just finished reading the article on safe rooms at schools here in New West. It is something our family has had issues with as well over the past couple of years. Our experience has not been the picture painted by Michael Ewen in the article. For us, our son (who has Down syndrome) was placed in an isolation room at his elementary school without our knowledge or consent from the age of six. It was not part of his IEP, then or now. This past year, we made it clear to school administration and staff that we do not want them using the room, and then towards the end of the year we found out our son was forcibly confined there again on several occasions by his special education assistant. What makes the use of these rooms so dangerous is that the district and schools have no formal policy around how they are to be used, there is no training for staff on how they are to be used, they do not keep records of who is put in them and for how long, and there seems to be no requirement to inform parents of their use.
I completely agree with Ms. Bodnar's comments that there needs to be a profound level of training around behaviour support for children with special needs at schools. Putting children in these rooms when they are upset is disrespectful to the child, reactive and ineffective. It does not address the root cause of the behaviour. I also share Wendy Harris' "silly" concern that the district cutbacks to support staff will result in increased use of isolation rooms and less positive behaviour support for kids.
Tiffany Paul,
New Westminster
