Parents are outraged at one elementary school’s use of what have been termed as “scream rooms” on their children with special needs and behavioral problems. Teachers and staff at Farm Hill Elementary School in Middletown, CT, reportedly used the rooms, which are no more than 6-by-4-foot closets, to isolate students with special needs who were being disruptive in class. Janitorial staff at the school reported having to clean up blood and urine from the floors and concrete walls.
One father says his 10-year-old daughter is fearful of the rooms. “She doesn’t want to go to school. She’s constantly in the nurse’s office trying to get out of there,” he tells FoxNews.com.
Board of Education Chairman Gene Nocera says he learned last week about the rooms. “Closet is pretty much what it is,” a mother of two students at the school says. She claims that her children often are subjected to “screaming” coming from the rooms.
Nocera acknowledged to FoxNews.com that the reports he was hearing were “disturbing” and that school officials were looking into the use of the rooms. He stressed that school policy states that no child should be left alone at any time. Nocera presented a plan to parents at a Board of Education meeting earlier in the week, which included the school district hiring full-time psychologists and giving more special needs training to faculty members.
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