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Time-out rooms used for children with behavior disorders
Sunday, October 19, 2008 | No comments posted.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After failing to finish a reading assignment, 8-year-old Isabel Loeffler was sent to the school’s time-out room — a converted storage area under a staircase — where she was left alone for three hours.
The autistic Iowa girl, now 12, wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave.
Appalled, her parents removed her from the school district and filed a lawsuit.
Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders. And the time outs are probably doing more harm than good, they add.
“It really is a form of abuse,” said Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. “It’s going to do nothing to change the behavior. You’re using it as an isolation booth.”
The autistic Iowa girl, now 12, wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave.
Appalled, her parents removed her from the school district and filed a lawsuit.
Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders. And the time outs are probably doing more harm than good, they add.
“It really is a form of abuse,” said Ken Merrell, head of the Department for Special Education and Clinical Sciences at the University of Oregon. “It’s going to do nothing to change the behavior. You’re using it as an isolation booth.”
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