How do other parents feel about this article?

I have seen this happen once before. It's actually still before the courts. I am an Educational Assistant but I work on a supply basis (when I have a sitter or my husband is home). At one school there was a "life Skills" class (it's really just a nice name for a place to put the kids with disabilities so we can say they are included). One boy who was 11 at the time started to misbehave. His E.A removed him from the classroom but I was busy with my student and didn't realize where he had taken him. Quite often I have seen kids taken to other classrooms or to other E.A's, the break seems to help all involved. An hour and a half later when we were on our way to our gym class the teacher realized that the one student wasn't with us. She asked me to get him as I was standing next to a closed door. When I opened it I realized that it used to be a bathroom but the toilet and sink had been removed. the walls were cement and there was no window, the only things in the room were the boy and a gym mat. He was laying on the mat. I noticed that the door had no knob on the inside, the child couldn't have gotten out if he had wanted to. I was furious and flabbergasted at the same time. During gym the boy misbehaved again (he hit a classmate as she walked past) and his E.A actually grabbed him and hit him back! I volunteered to change kids with this E.A. At the end of the day, I wrote a message to his parents to please call me at home and after I put him on the bus I went to the principal. She had no idea this was happening. She didn't know that the E.A. had put a door knob on that room (it was supposed to be closed with no way to enter). She immediately called the police and told the E.A she wanted to see him, they listened to my story, saw the room and arrested the E.A on the spot. He has been charged with several things.

The child is non verbal so we may never know exactly what happened or how many times it happened. His parents didn't sue the school board because the police laid the charges for them and they figure the blame lies with the E.A. I have had to spend 3 days in court so far and it isn't finished yet.

I still wonder what will happen to the teacher though. She knew where he was because she told me where to get him. I think she deserves some of the blame as well. There is no excuse for treating any child this way.

I would understand a 'Time-Out' If the child got really angry and hit another student or something or was just being vile, violent and aggressive, even then 3 Hours?? That is appalling! There is no reason to leave a child alone for more than half an hour in a school, and there is NO WAY she should have been punished because she didn't finish a reading assignment they should have Helped her instead of turn their backs and punish her, now she would think there is something wrong with her because she cannot finish quick enough. I would have done exactly what the parents would have done in that situation.

Ugh! Our school uses a time out room. It's actually a break off from the principals office and it doesn't have a door. It has a desk and a chair and some pictures on the wall. I have seen it being used and thought it was sad. I told the principal once that it looked very lonely and she said that was the point. It is used for extreme behavior when the parents won't cooperate with the school to come to some form of discipline.

That said, if my kids were sent there- the teacher or principal would have their asses kicked. I'm pretty sure they know that about me and so far there haven't been any complaints about my children. I'm at the school everyday to pick up my kids and take them in. I often tell the teachers to CALL me , write me a note or let me know when I'm there if something (even little) is going on. I wish more parents would speak up about how the kids get punished. I can't do it alone.

How the school tries to justify locking an 8 year in a converted closet for three hours is beyond me. If that was done in a home that would be child abuse. That sounds like torture to me. If someone tried that with my kid for "disturbance", I would try not to harm them physically and sue them.Personally, I would have leaked this story years ago, when it happen. It saddens me to see how some have lost total patience with children, especially those with special needs or behavioral problems. I mean don't they need more understanding from adults and patience?

It reminds me of the chokey in Matilda too. That's child abuse if that was my child the school would get sued big time.

My Mother use to lock me in a closet for hours on end when I was a child... I feel for that little girl. I know how scared and lonely you feel and the physical pain you go threw trying not to wet yourself.

The fact a school did this, well you can be sure of a law suit! I have no problem with giving children time outs, but for a few minutes not a few hours!

That is just sickening. Very wrong indeed.

*smile* that room your talking about my school had one too it was used for detention and in school suspension no other reason. Your right about why the use it but they also use those rooms for the kids that get violent and start hitting teachers and other kids. The key factor that you are missing between these rooms and this article is one is child abuse the other is not because they are still aloud to go to the bathroom and eat lunch ect. In the article that poor little girl wasn't even aloud to do that.

God damn wtf were they thinking that's **** upset me i could kick the teachers *** if i was her mom for real i kill that bi*ch the kids will go insensate by them self for 3hours for real. The hole country should have a law that said u can not put kids in a room for 1 or more hours for a time out not even 1/2 hour the way i see it. Teachers supposed to be smart what happened I know what happened most teachers this days they don't think half of the time because they don't get paid enough so they don't care.

My son has Asperger's and had the same thing happen to him in the 3rd grade. Not under a staircase, but in a small closet.

I found out about it, after the school called and asked if I could bring him a change of clothes because he wet himself.

I feel their pain.

It proved too costly to sue the school district, hopefully they will have better success than we did, we got nothing. Only to have our son transfered to a different school and the teacher dismissed.

This is nothing new. I was locked in a closet two hours a day for five days in a row back in 1965 because - get this - I touched another child's art project.

Abuse is, and always has been, a part of the American school system.

All the best.