I posted the story above on my face book page yesterday but
last night when I was up late watching the news this segment came on. I have to
say as a parent of an autistic child after the segment aired it wasn’t the
padded room that had me fuming anymore. Ok, well a little but the things I
heard coming out of the women’s mouth in the interview were so much worse to
me.
Couple
of things grabbed me and for a moment I wanted to throw my TV outside and give
up on society completely. They mention in the segment this room is intended for
children with an IEP. The IEP is instilled when a child has special needs, in
my mind this means not main stream education and that’s that. Individual
Education Plan and I have to wonder what kind of padded room has anything to do
with a room only a prison would use for inmates. What does a padded room have
to do with education? Nothing, unless the educators have no idea what to do. If
that is the case my son, who is not main stream, would never have his name on this
IEP. I would hope all parents are carefully reading and considering this. If
you don’t have a padded room at home, you don’t need one at school.
Then we
have this little dandy from the district spokeswoman who should be fired on the
spot just for talking. “District
spokesperson Sandy Catt defended the practice, but admitted the district
launched an investigation after receiving allegations from another parent
Wednesday.
"It is not for discipline for regular education students," Catt said.”
"It is not for discipline for regular education students," Catt said.”
“Regular” education students…..that is what a person in authority and
control over IEP’s has said publicly to defend a padded room. At this point I
was mortified and completely in shock. The comments, the defense of the tactic
and after all was said and done I had the feeling no one minded this tactic as
long as it wasn’t used on “regular” kids. If little Johnny who is a mainstream
child is put in this room then this child was treated like an animal. If little
Jimmy who has autism is put in this room, it is part of his Individual
Education Plan. Anyone else see the major problem with this?
Special needs does not mean broken, animal like, a problem, or a nuisance.
Special needs means and I think we all know this, a different approach and when
you look at the way our education system is heading I think it’s safe to say
most American children fall into this category.
I am going to end this blog by simply saying Sandy Catt, you clearly are in
need of your own Individual Education Plan and you do not understand the
meaning of special needs. Maybe you need to lock yourself in your therapeutic
padded room for a few hours and see if this helps. May God have mercy on anyone’s
soul who closed the door on that room to any child, regular or not.
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