These words were written by a middle school special education assistant (SEA) who prefers to remain anonymous:
As adults, we head off to work everyday expecting each day to be similar to the others. Nothing out of the ordinary, just, pretty much, the same old, same old. But one day a difference occurs. A pounding against a wall starts somewhere down the hallway. It gets louder and more frequent. Then, the yelling begins. At first, one considers the possibilities for such commotion and none of them are pleasant. A fight amongst workers? A disgruntled customer or client? The yelling turns to screaming and it unnerves everyone around. The explanation is that there is a problem and to keep on working, to simply ignore the disruption. It eventually stops. The next day and after that, several days a week the same incident happens. The length of the disturbance can last from 10 to 45 minutes. It is obvious that whoever is in this situation is in severe emotional distress. Still, all those working on that same floor are told to ignore it, even if it is making one physically uncomfortable to listen to these episodes.
Now, imagine that this is not an adult environment, but the building where your child attends school. The problem is a special education student who loses control and is put into the safe room. The child is to remain in the room until they can quiet themselves, which sometimes means, until they exhaust themselves. Obviously the pattern is not the same for each individual. But, one individual may have a pattern. Their level of coping in a school environment may reach its threshold at about the same time each day, resulting in a safe room experience after four or five hours in school attendance. The pattern created for them will be to hit their wall of frustration, have a time out (a loss of control) in the safe room and return to their SEA for the rest of the day.
Is this the educational model that best serves the special student and those who are told to ignore this behavior? Despite all the rhetoric surrounding what special education envelopes, the reality is a much different picture. In a perfect world, the best intentions are always fulfilled. It is time to strip away the illusions and work with what truly happens to all these students every day.
Thank you, anonymous SEA (presumably in a Madison school) for having the courage to tell the truth.
I’m confused. What would anonymous like to see happen? And, why does it presumably take courage to tell the truth?
I think “anonymous” was trying to convey his or her frustration that many, if not most, community members don’t really know what happens with certain types of kids in our schools. I think it’s safe to say that in the MMSD, a “safe room” is utilized pretty often for a very small population of kids. And certainly not in the way that they did in Monroe last year, where a child was locked inside for hours with no adult supervision. SEA’s provide a very valuable service with special needs children. They truly are the front line!
I don’t think my post was as accurate as I’d have liked. Safe rooms are utilized for a small population of kids, but not necessarily “often”. The term “safe room” conjures up the image of a padded cell. I don’t think that’s really accurate either…every school has their own “safe haven” for kids that need the space for a timeout or a de-escalation.
Two reactions to this post:
1) Given that the “safe room” is frequently an administrator’s office, at least in the middle schools, there is a tremendous loss of productive work time as the administrator essentially becomes a high paid babysitter for the time the student is in the office.
2) These outbursts have negative consequences for the academic achievement of all of the other students in the school. This information comes from the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (http://www.cksd.wednet.edu/Business/RTF/Academic%20Outcomes.pdf): “Crandell et al. (1995) and Nabelek and Nabelek (1994) reviewed the literature linking the acoustical environment in a classroom to the academic achievement of children and have linked levels of classroom noise and reverberation to reading and spelling ability, behavior, attention, concentration, and academic achievement in children (also ASHA 1995, Crandell 1991, Crandell and Bess 1986, and Crandell et al. 1995).”
“It also is generally agreed (Fisher 2000) that high noise levels cause stress. Noise levels influence verbal interaction, reading comprehension, blood pressure, and cognitive task success and may induce feelings of helplessness, inability to concentrate, and lack of extended application to learning tasks.”
The question for me is whether it is fair for the needs of one student to supercede the needs of the rest of the student body and how do we balance those competing needs.
For more information, see also http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr011.shtml
I remember one a few years ago which did have padding around the room. I also remember kids being forced into this room when they where acting up and a board held the door closed. The SEA or special ed teacher would be standing outside of this room. This room was across the hall from classrooms, so kids would see this happening. Since this time, the room is still at this school, but the door is inside of a special ed room instead of the hallway now.
Jeff, I think it’s very rare to see a Disabled student in an administrator’s office for the purposes of being babysat or being safely placed.
It is very common for your average student who has a behavior problem to end up in an administrator’s office. Ditto on the noise=interruption scenario. Students who would have an SEA (like anonymous) would likely go to a special room when they decompensate, rather than be allowed to roam hallways yelling or crying etc. It’s been my experience that at all levels of MMSD, there are highly disruptive students. The majority are NOT safe room candidates; their disruptiveness is based more on behavior, stimuli such as other students, and personality, rather than some specific dysfunction such as ED or (in some cases) autism or siezure disorders etc. So, essentially what I’m saying is, not every kid comes to school to learn and behave, and disruption is part of public school life- disruptive kids, whether by the nature of their disability or by their rebellious behavioral patterns, aren’t allowed in private schools.
Students who have to be carried from a classroom and locked down in “safe rooms” will be in West’s English 10 core classes, I presume.
I’ve been reading the previously posted comments on The Safe Room with great interest. I am greatly saddened by two things. First, I believe that many people sometimes forget that public education is designed for all children, regardless of their learning styles, abilities, gifts and challenges. Secondly, I am intrigued that this anecdotal post has received many comments. The post illustrates an account from one special ed assistant. I fear that this single situational story, with incomplete information, is generating many presumptions, since we don’t know the entire story.
Regardless, I feel compelled to offer another perspective on what has already been posted. Based on the incomplete account of this story, I must question many of the assumptions readers are drawing. I find it interesting that this special ed assistant is looking forward to a work situation where every day is pretty much the same. The special ed assistants and regular education staff that I have been involved with at the middle school level over the past five years welcome the fact that every day is not a cookie cutter version of the previous. If so, I know that they would choose careers that focused on repetitive actions, rather than a career that focuses on individual people.
It’s also interesting that the version of inclusion portrayed in this account consists solely of assigning a student to a special ed assistant as a “baby sitter.” That is far from best practices for inclusion, and it is far from the experiences I have witnessed in the Madison schools. If indeed this child has great emotional and sensory needs, I wonder what other educational interventions have taken place and where the rest of the school team is to make sure that effective behavioral strategies are utilized.
If readers are so concerned about the perspective offered by this SEA, I ask what constructive dialogue we can engage in to support both students and the staff members who are working with them.
If a child is experiencing sensory overload and emotional distress to the extent that he or she winds up screaming in a “safe” room on a regular basis, then I doubt if his/her sensory needs have been adequately addressed. I also question how safe the “safe” room feels to the student.
Unfortunately, “safe” rooms, when not used appropriately, often wind up as safe in word only, and in reality, are a form of punishment.
A plan that includes positive behavioral support for students and addresses sensory needs can be an effective way of providing for the child’s educational needs. A trained professional can observe a student and do a functional behavioral assessment, which will help school staff understand what triggers and fuels the challenging behavior.
For information about positive behavioral support, I encourage readers to go to the following website:
http://www.dimagine.com/
As an elementary school counselor in Middleton, I was often the person called when a student (not just special ed.) had an emotional meltdown. Usually, the child would gain enough control so we could proceed to the counseling office or special ed. room. The exceptions stand out in my mind.
Some students quickly escalated to a point where they could not be calmed. In those situations they were carried to the safe room. (I have strong feeling against touching an upset individual, so I would not participate in the tranport…but that’s another issue.) Our safe rooms had soft stuffed animals ,pillows, blankets, soft lighting and personnel who spoke calmly and soothingly from outside of the door. In the classrooms I or the teachers would talk to the students how scarey it feels to be “out of control”. When students understand that staff is there to help, it can calm their fears.
Perhaps people forget that schools have become the “therapeutic institution” for many children who are seriously and at times dangerously disturbed. In recent years, we have seen an increase in very young children who are anti-social and violent with other children.
The situation is not going to get better. We need to be aware of the reality of today’s schools that educators (not therapists) are expected to work in.
I have rarely seen such safe rooms in Madison schools, but I assume they do exist in several of them. One problem with keeping one (even a well-designed and carefully used one) is the overcrowding in many schools (esp on the Western side of Madison at this spoint), which makes it necessary to use every room available for a classroom, leaving no real “resource” rooms for special education teachers to teach, much less to use as a quiet room.
These rooms can be a godsend. They can also be a nightmare when used callously or repeatedly in place of positive behavioral supports that make such meltdowns few and far between. My own son has used a “quiet room” at his school on many occasions in the past. It has become far less frequent that he needs such a space because we have been able to develop positive proactive supports that make it much less likely that he will become overstimulated and exhausted by dealing with what other people see as “normal” noise and light levels, and proximity to others, but which for him are sometimes torturous.
It’s a good thing we finally figured out ways to keep him away from those meltdowns more now, because that room is no longer available for use, because it is a small room off another room that is being used as a classroom.
At any rate, it was never a room kids had to be dragged to kicking and screaming, because it was not one where they were locked in and punished, alone and frightened. Sometimes kids would run to it kicking and screaming, because they knew it was a refuge where they would be allowed to calm until they could deal with life again. And make plans so that this does not happen again tomorrow. Our own son liked closing the door (which scared his in-school administrator) and being in there by himself, with the lights faded down to minimize outside stress. When he could calm, he could slowly work his way back to being able to be in class. Forcing him to stay in class when he is upset is much much worse. Leaving him no alternative for “escape” beyond running out of the building in a blind panic is unconscionable.
I also have to say that having an ED kid sent to the learning coordinator’s or principal’s office to chill out and calm is something I have seen happen many many times in schools too small to have a safe room available (anymore?). IN one school I have been in long-term, two kids in particular in the same grade regularly wander out of class and down to the office, and go ballistic if challenged in that behavior. It does limit the availability of those administrators for other work because no child can be left alone. With no other space available and keeping them in class not an option (without putting other students and adults at physical risk), that is what is left.
I get really ticked when people talk about “least restrictive environment” and “full inclusion” as though they always go together. For some kids, full inclusion 100% of the time is NOT the least restrictive environment for them. Some kids need to leave the classroom and run errands, take messages around, or help adults at times, so they don’t lose it being around other kids all the time. Someneed breaks to do pull ups, run around the building (outside) once or twice, or use sensory items elsewhere (so they don’t stick out as much in their class all the time). The availability of a potentially quiet room (prefrably with dimmer lights) is a saving grace for many kids, and having access to it when necessary makes emergency visits when already totally upset less likely. Using it as a prison and telling others to ignore the screaming from the same kids day after day is serving no one. Find some way to help the kid when they are begining to get stressed and upset before they “melt down”.
Dear Teacher and Parent:
Just because the schools in MMSD you have been involved in may not have had to have kids dragging and screaming to be placed in these rooms, I beg to differ. In the school where my kids where at in elementary school, I personnally saw on many occassions kids dragged (or even carried by 4 people -one on each arm and leg), taken pass classrooms and placed into this “safe room”. Often these kids were “locked” in this room – a board placed across the door and held by an adult, until the child stopped screaming. In the later years, the board was removed, but the door handle was held for some students. Every child down this hall heard the screaming and if it was during lunch time, everyone in the lunch room saw it also. I will say the kids that this happened to, were beyond control, hitting, screaming, or running away.
Now, I have not been in this school for 3 years, so I can not say it is currently happening nor if they have ED students who need this room. But I will say, up until 3 years ago, I saw this personnally happening for 7 years with different students in this same school.
Once again, I find it disturbing to see an anonymous posting about an anonymous school where there were seemingly ongoing inappropriate treatment of students. I ask several questions: Why was this treatment allowed to happen? Where was the child’s family? Where were the building administrators? Where were district administrators? Where were outside advocates, like the Wisconsin Coalition of Advocacy (the state’s Protection and Advocacy organization for individuals with disabilities, including children in special education programming)? Once again, I am reading an anyonymous posting of a reported situation where we don’t know the entire story. In my opinion, postings such as these serve merely to be inflammatory, and do absolutely nothing to improve the services and teaching of children in the Madison schools.
Is this web site available only to disgrace Madison Schools or will we be reading some of the positive advantages of sending our children to a school which prides itself on its diversity, excellence in education and strong staff? In my experience Madison is filled with schools such as these.
To Ms. Passman,
Indeed our children attending Cherokee school are having a good experience with a principal who goes way beyond what would be expected in her role leading the school. Your legacy remains at the school. I do see some postings that seem negative although they can serve to remind others to share the positive or work toward a positive outcome in the area of concern. I think that many parents are so supportive of mmsd that they want to do anything possible to maintain or improve the status of the schools. As resources are limited it may seem that a variety of groups are in a battle for funds. Perhaps the $100 budget process can help reduce that approach as it may take away the need for people to feel the need to “fight” for a program important to them, pitting themselves against another program of equal value to someone else. It is important that the needs of ALL children are met! I do think that many would love to help and be involved and are frustrated if they can’t make a difference. Thanks for reminding us that it’s important to be supportive of the positive. Thanks for your continued support of the schools!