Student misbehavior is a part of every classroom. However, there are times when student misbehavior is so volatile, violent students need to be separated from the rest of the class for their own sake and the sake of other learners. Students who are this volatile are often placed in classrooms for students who have difficulty managing their behavior or who may have one or more disabilities that manifest in anger or aggression. Within these classrooms there may be a much smaller room, perhaps the size of a large walk-in closet, designated as a “cool down” area for students who need a place to pull themselves together after an angry outburst.
When students are in these rooms, typically, they are supervised by a teacher and their behavior while in the room is documented. According to recent media reports, many of these students are not being sufficiently supervised and are left traumatized, injured or in some particularly sad cases, dead. Lawmakers are taking steps to limit and in some cases, forbid the use of seclusion rooms in schools altogether.
As a behavior teacher, I know why schools use seclusion rooms. I also believe we should be able to have schools that don’t need to have seclusion rooms. Unfortunately, the way schools and Special Education services are currently set up, removal of the rooms may prolong classroom disruptions in Special Education and in mainstream classrooms. We must consider other options to reduce and manage these outbursts.
The one thing we have yet to try is effectively meeting students’ needs.
When we fail to follow students’ IEPs, ignore the trauma students may have experienced in their lives, continue to teach academically behind learners well above their functional levels, and keep parents at a distance, we will likely see a continuance of volatile student behavior.
It’s time for educators, administrators and policymakers to commit to effectively serving the social, emotional and academic needs of our students. What we are doing now isn’t working for some of our most fragile students. Effectively meeting these students’ needs is one option we haven’t tried.
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