Boy hangs self in seclusion room

My son was placed in a seclusion room several times in kindergarten. These rooms are still used heavily in our school district, and they are being used for behavior modification and "punishment" much more so than the rationalized use of "imminent danger."

And please don't jump to the conclusion that "this boy must have had serious issues to take his own life." You would "have issues" too if you were put in a prison-cell like room for hours at a time. And like these parents, we were lead to believe this room would only be used in an emergency and that "time out" was nothing more than some time to cool down.

Please pray for this family and all of the children, adults, and families going through seclusion room experiences.

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[Cross posted at http://nomoseclusion.blogspot.com/]

Children forced into cell-like school seclusion rooms
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/seclusion.rooms/index.html#cnnSTCVideo (Click on the link and then click on the word video under the title of the article to see the interview with Jonathan's parents)

The story
A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out."

"We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes," Tina King said, tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called "our baby ... a good kid."

But time-out in the boy's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell -- a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper. Read the full story here.