School puts troubled kids in 'scream room'

[Playinghardball]

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Parents, many of whom have children at Farm Hill Elementary School in Middletown, Conn., are outraged about the way the school is dealing with misbehaving students.

Teachers and staff put the children, including those with special needs, in what parents call "scream rooms."

"My 1st grader is there and is not learning because there are so many behavioral problems at that school,” Tricia Belin said.

One parent described the rooms as, “scream closets, where kids bang their heads off of concrete walls.”

“The building custodians had to go in and clean blood off the walls and clean urination off the floors,” the parent said.

More: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/11/10113042-school-puts-troubled-kids-in-scream-room

[Arctic Dave]

1. It almost seems like the school system is becoming the new "sanatorium".

Hard to blame the school when they are most likely not prepared for these type of cases. Most likely not funded for these type of special needs children.

Frustrating.

[jwirr]

12. Yes, they have finally found a way to bring the institutions into community service. They need to

be stopped.

[Neoma]

2. WHAT!??!!?

[roguevalley]

9. in the old days they were screened and placed in small classes to learn how

to behave and learn in a controlled environment with expert teachers. This is the result of mainstreaming everyone into one class no matter what they are like and spending the money on other things. Don't blame the teachers. they aren't trained for this and spending your ENTIRE FREAKING DAY trying to manage one to FIVE kids like this at the expense of everyone else is also not teaching. Been there and freaking done that.

I got all the 'bad' boys and girls. God love them. God help us all.

[Kellerfeller]

24. +100

[HopeHoops]

3. We called that "the locker room" - well, mostly because of the wedgies.

[hedgehog]

4. We expect our schools to take care of and educate every kid,

but we've been unwilling to give them the money to do this. It's not enough to set up a classroom for special needs kids because each kid has different special needs!

In addition to kids with physical special needs, we have to face the fact that the kids come from all sorts of homes with all kinds of different expectations. A kid coming from a home with a caretaker who hated school and distrusts any sort of government interference is not going to do as well as the kid who had someone who read to him or her every day and kept the television turned off!

[jwirr]

13. This may not be true in your school system but each special ed student has government money

earmarked for his or her education beyond the school taxation programs. I think this school is misusing that money and the parents should ask that this money be taken out of the school budget so they can find better education for their children.

You know - start their own system. That is how we started bringing our children home to the community.

[FarCenter]

5. The cells need more padding.

[RC]

6. They suck off the cream of the crop and tax our money for Charter Schools and this is what is left.

Kansas City Mo. school system is not now accredited because of bad management and now at least some of some of the surrounding school systems will not take any of the kids because they suddenly want... surprise, surprise! More money from Kansas City!

Da'ell wit da kids, money whats more important here. Everyone knew last summer unaccreditation was coming and they wait till it happened to say they want more money to take these kids into their system?

More dumbing down of the coming generations.

[Snake Alchemist]

7. I don't know Middletown, CT personally, but here are the demographics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middletown,_Connecticut#Demographics

[Cleita]

8. An acquaintance of mine used to be a first grade teacher. She quit because she had to have special

needs children in her classroom, including one kid who was psychotic and wanted to kill or hurt anything or anyone in the classroom. They did not give her extra help or tools to deal with these children. Because she spent all her time with those children, meeting their needs and keeping them from hurting themselves or others, she had no time to really teach the other children. She finally gave up in frustration and works at something else. I really don't know what to think of her decision because I'm neither a parent nor a teacher, but it seems to me that something needs to be done.

[roguevalley]

10. mainstreaming is the culprit. I feel her pain. Until you have to do this with four or five of them

there sucking your life force out and you can't turn your back on them because they will stab you you haven't lived.

[Cleita]

16. Seems like you've been down that slippery road.n/t

[roguevalley]

18. yes and its lose-lose for eveeryone.

[jwirr]

14. I can see why she quit. As a parent and a social worker for these kids I believe someone forgot to

do an individual service plan for that child. If they had there would have been a 1-1 who would have attended to him/her while the teacher did her job. The money of a 1-1 comes from each clients own social services programs. However, maybe this client was from a family that did not qualify for government programs. Who knows - there is probably much more to this story. Also many teachers who try out special needs classrooms find they are just not cut out for it. No shame in that - it is good that they cared enough to try.

[Cleita]

15. This wasn't a special needs classroom. Our school district,

or the state, I'm not sure which, decided that all the kids should be together in the same classroom both special needs and ordinary kids. She had no choice, but there was no 1-1 or other aids to help out with these children. It was all up to her. I'm sure that if there had been, it would have made a big difference.

[jwirr]

19. All the kids in one classroom is called mainstreaming and I have mixed feelings regarding that

practice. My own daughter would have no help in that kind of classroom as she has never advanced to talking or much further than a child who is one year old. However, I have also seen many of my clients advance from being in a mixed situation.

One of the biggest bonuses I have seen from this practice is that the other children learn to understand disabilities. Of course I come from a small rural area that once had country schools where everyone was in one school room and everyone learned to help each other.

[Cleita]

20. But shouldn't there be classroom nannies, if you will, who would look after those kids

on a closer ratio or even 1-1 so the teacher could teach to the WHOLE class? I mean they could be in the class with other kids but the teacher also needs help it seems.

[jwirr]

21. There should be and are in my state. As I said in my first post some one did not write an individual

service plan which would have detailed how this child would be handled and if there was going to be help. In my state this is the job of a social services worker and/or the school social worker.

[Cleita]

22. That makes sense.

My state is cutting funding at schools because of our budget mess.

[Are_grits_groceries]

11. How did they get all the teachers out? nt

[Initech]

17. Why don't they just have one of those camera rooms like reality tv shows do?

[Odin2005]

23. OMG!

[mainer]

25. Is that what we used to call "time out" rooms?

When my kids were in pre-school, that's what they did with kids having tantrums. They were put in time out until they got themselves under control.