More on Seclusion and Restraint

See this blog post on the Atlantic's website.  It begins:

Some schools call it the time-out room. Or the quiet room. But in Middletown, Conn., it's known to many as the "scream room." 

Students -- typically those with disabilities -- are put in the small, windowless room as a means of controlling their behavior. The room's cinderblock walls aren't thick enough to drown out the sounds from within, according to this story from the Hartford Courant. In order to be placed in the room, the student usually must have an Individualized Education Plan (known as an IEP) that allows for this type of isolation as a form of "treatment." I put treatment in quotes in this context, given that special education experts say "there was no evidence that secluding a child had any therapeutic value," according to the Courant story.