Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Misc.

Jesus.

This kind of thing? Seriously messed up. Locking kids in a "seclusion room" when they misbehave? Particularly disabled kids? What the fuck, people. How is that productive? How can educational professionals reach a collective agreement that the best way to handle a problem - any problem - is to lock a kid in a room with little light or space?

From the article:

Michigan requires that a child held in seclusion have constant supervision from an instructor trained specifically in special education, and that confinement not exceed 15 minutes.

Connecticut education spokesman Tom Murphy said "time-out rooms" were used sparingly and were "usually small rooms with padding on the walls."

Only Vermont tracks how many children are kept in seclusion from year to year, though two other states, Minnesota and New Mexico, say they have been using the rooms less frequently in recent years.

Doesn't that seem like the kind of thing we should be monitoring, like, constantly? How often we're locking our children in boxes? Even if I'm willing to allow that there's some sort of educational/psychological reasoning for it. But to do it an not monitor them?

Let me tell you - when I was a kid in South Africa, I went to a school where we were beaten with canes for misbehaving. Part of me thinks that's actually more humane than this bullshit.

Mr. Duncan
, sir, you have got your work cut out for you.


Well, that was just incredibly depressing.

In more upbeat news, 5:00 today is new release Wednesday at Pajiba Music. Please read, listen, have fun. We're also running a series on our favorite music releases of the year and our favorite discoveries of the year. Find all of it here.

And in even more upbeat news, we are leaving on Friday for Philadelphia to see friends and Mrs. TK's family. As an added bonus, we will be seeing none other than Ms. Litelysalted herself, Ms. Stacey Nosek.

No good can come of that.

6 comments:

dmbmeg said...

Minnesota has them? Jesus.

What's next? We start waterboarding kids too?

Jeremy Feist said...

Jeebus H. Christopus, what the crap is wrong with people? Yeesh. If you need me, I'll be in the kitchen drinking a drain-o-tini.

Anonymous said...

As a former Minnesotan, I never saw these rooms. However, being home schooled on the prairie while fighting off injuns may have been the difference...
Head (yes, that guy from Madtown)

Julie said...

You're going to be in my neck of the woods? I KNEW I could sense trouble brewing.

litelysalted said...

I have a saying I normally reserve for these types of gatherings:

"Call your public defender and get yer bail money ready!"

Philippe de St-Denis said...

I'm surprised that Minnesota has these "seclusion rooms", since texas removed them a few years ago from schools, saying that it was a form of "unlawful confinement". And, although I am Canadian, Texas does not generally strike me as a progressive and liberal place.

That being said, my ADHD/ODD stepson spent some time in Behavioural Disorder classrooms, and during outbursts, he was sent to the "time out room". The walls were carpeted and there was no doorknob on the inside of the door. There was a window, so he did not need to be monitored.

Uh-huh.