Mar 1, 2019, St. Louis, MO, NBC5: Mom blames school's use of isolation rooms after 8-year-old attempts suicide https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local/mom-blames-schools-use-of-isolation-rooms-after-8-year-old-attempts-suicide/63-d4b0a1cf-d28d-4be0-8fd7-72dfe2aa7474 EUREKA, Mo. — A Eureka mother is desperate for help after she says her eight-year-old son attempted suicide while in class. Amy Brummel said it happened after more than a year of regular confinement to a type of 'isolation room' at Eureka Elementary School…. Brummel said the difficulties began when she started getting reports from Jacob's special education teachers saying her son was being put in a isolation room over and over again. The school claimed the 8-year-old was throwing objects, hitting teachers in the stomach and threatening students…. "Teachers were restraining him hard, where he came home with marks," she said. Rockwood school district has another term for isolation rooms, calling them 'safe spaces' or 'sensory rooms. They're padded rooms where students go to de-escalate disruptive behavior. In a statement, a spokesperson for Rockwood School District told us: "In Rockwood, we have safe spaces, also known as calming or sensory rooms, for students. Many are located near the school counselor’s or school social worker’s office. It’s a low sensory room to provide a calm environment for students, and it is always supervised by at least one adult who is trained to help the child. Safe spaces do not serve the purpose of punishment for a child." But Brummel says the rooms were used to punish her son. "He was in isolation all the time," she said. Brummel said Jacob has obsessive control and attention deficit disorders and that he can be hard to handle. "He's very hyper, he does not want to do his school work most of the time," Brummel said. That's why Jacob is in a specialized class that has only five to seven students with about as many teachers.. Then last fall, Brummel got the call that Jacob had tried to hang himself in class with his shoe laces. … "How can all five teachers, not watch all five students. Where were they? Especially when my son tried to hang himself. Where were all five teachers?" Brummel said. …
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Childhood Lost
Children today are noticeably different from previous generations, and the proof is in the news coverage we see every day. This site shows you what’s happening in schools around the world. Children are increasingly disabled and chronically ill, and the education system has to accommodate them. Things we've long associated with autism, like sensory issues, repetitive behaviors, anxiety and lack of social skills, are now problems affecting mainstream students. Blame is predictably placed on bad parenting (otherwise known as trauma from home).
Addressing mental health needs is as important as academics for modern educators. This is an unrecognized disaster. The stories here are about children who can’t learn or behave like children have always been expected to. What childhood has become is a chilling portent for the future of mankind.
Anne Dachel, Media editor, Age of Autism
http://www.ageofautism.com/media/
(John Dachel, Tech. assist.)
What will happen in another 4 years? How can we go on like this? This is a national (and international) problem of monumental proportions. We have an entire new class of children who cannot be accommodated by the system: many are manifestly neurologically impaired. Meanwhile, the government and the medical profession sleep on regardless.
John Stone,
UK media editor, Age of Autism
The generation of American children born after 1990 are arguably the sickest generation in the history of our country.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
It seemed to me that with rising autism prevalence, you’d also see rising autism costs to society, and it turns out, the costs are catastrophic.
They calculated that in 2015 autism cost the United States $268 billion and they projected that if autism continues at its current rate, we’re looking at one trillion dollars a year in autism costs by 2025, so within five years.
Toby Rogers, PhD, Political economist
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