A Long Island mom is speaking out after learning the so-called “time-out room” her special-needs son would be taken to during school more closely resembled a jail cell, saying the realization left her feeling “betrayed by the system.”
Nicole Miller’s 10-year-old son, Cooper, would often be taken to what he referred to as “the room” — a time-out room at his former school, North Ridge Elementary in Commack, due to his behavioral issues.
While Cooper would question why he had to be sent to the de-escalation room, drawings he made of the ominous space featuring jail cell-like bars over the door left his mother even more perplexed.
“I was under the impression that they took him to a separate classroom, a sensory room. Maybe there’s a beanbag,” she told NBC New York.
The school had warned Miller that her son was “very behavioral” and that he would need to utilize the room to help him self-regulate.
“They told me, you know, he’s very behavioral. Like he will rip up his papers or they were concerned about him being a danger to himself or to other kids,” she said. “They said he has to stay in the room until he regulates and calms down. I didn’t know any better at the time. I listened to what they said.”
But while visiting the school one day Miller asked to see the time-out room — and was left horrified.
“A jail cell. It looked like a jail cell and I felt so betrayed by the system,” she said.
State law explains time-out rooms should “only be used in a situation that poses an immediate concern for the physical safety of the student or others” or as a last resort. Children must also be monitored and the doors cannot be locked, according to the law.
Miller, who has since moved Cooper to a school that does not use time-out rooms, says she believes the excessive seclusion made her son’s behavioral issues worse.
“He would have nightmares that he was in a building and all the windows were boarded and mommy was outside and he couldn’t get to mommy,” she recalled. “I don’t think it’s that difficult to translate what that dream meant. And it was reoccurring.”
She also said her son questioned why he was singled out. “Mommy, why do they, why do they force me to go to the room?” Miller said he asked her.
Michael Wilson, the director of the Education Discipline and Justice Group, agreed, saying, “Seclusion essentially exacerbates the issues that bring kids to the point where someone is trying to seclude them and then it further causes anxieties and traumatic response.”
According to records obtained by NBC New York, Commack School District used time-out rooms 199 times over the course of eight months.
In a statement to the outlet, the district defended the use of the rooms, writing, “These interventions are outlined in the behavior improvement plan which is crafted by a team and discussed with a parent.”
“When a student is in the space for a more extended period of time, it is because the student has requested to remain in that place, working with a known and trusted adult,” the district added.
It was not immediately clear how many districts in New York state utilize seclusion rooms as reporting requirements only became law this academic year, according to the outlet.