Nationwide reports are beginning to surface about Desert Sage Elementary School confining students to a 5x5 padded room as punishment for misbehavior. The scream room, as the Arizona school calls it, even features restraints for especially “difficult” children, including a 7-year-old with special needs. Thankfully, this second-grader was brave enough to share the story of his punishment with his parents.
The young boy described being “restrained” in the room and said he’s been kept in there anywhere from a few minutes to the majority of the day. He went into detail about being forced to eat lunch in the padded cell and not being allowed out to use the bathroom. The Deer Valley School District denies that this special-needs child has ever been detained in the room for an excess of 15 minutes, though they admit he’s received this punishment 17 times between October and February.
Many parents in the school district are outraged at this alternative form of discipline.
It goes without saying that putting a child in a padded room for mildly misbehaving is not the norm in schools. But the larger problem, in my opinion, is that many of the parents were unaware this room existed and was being utilized as a form of punishment; the rest were surprised to find it was more of a cell than a quiet place to cool off. If Desert Sage Elementary School truly thinks this is the most effective way to discipline a disruptive child, they should have presented it more openly to the parents. Another missing piece of the puzzle, I cannot seem to find an answer regarding the school district’s awareness (or lack thereof) of this practice. Were they kept in the dark, as well, and are now scrambling to save face by defending Desert Sage Elementary?
Regardless of whether this is an acceptable form of punishment or not, it is not acceptable for 7-year-olds to be punished in ways their parents have not been made aware of.
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