Padded rooms piss me off and they should piss you off to.

               Recently I learned in my state and I can imagine many others isolation rooms, padded rooms, and restraints are not a tactic that needs to be mentioned to parents. I was under the impression this is something a parent needs to agree to and that is not so. They don't even have to know.  I am going to put this as simple as possible…padded rooms piss me off.

                Not just padded rooms, isolation and restraints but the unethical and need I say abusive approach schools are taking. There is no reason under the sun any child should be put through this treatment and sent home at the end of the day as though this is what getting an education is all about. Many times unable to talk about what was done during the day or often times it’s not understood. Autism learns social behavior from the behavior of others. If mom drops her child off for the day and part of the day means being dragged into a padded room then that child might believe this is part of the day and that is that. The wrong factor doesn’t click and if anyone is working near autism they know this, or had better know this. 

                Anyone who works with autism must know what happens during the day will affect home life and the days ahead at school. If they don’t know this, get out of the special education system please.  The use of these padded rooms always follows a typical abuse pattern meaning, the room is given a name like jail or naughty room. Quiet room is my favorite one because it sounds completely harmless, it’s not. All of these titles sound similar to a time out which is a basic discipline tactic used everywhere so it doesn’t sound as bad as it is. The school does not have to notify a parent and most of the time will not. A recent story I read was a boy who had been placed in a padded room for four years beginning at the age of 6. Mom never knew because the school never told her, didn’t have to. If this was not abusive why would it not be known to a parent? Why would it be ok to do a child who can’t speak without knowledge to anyone outside of the system? If there is any kind of understanding of autism at all, it would be known this tactic could cause a huge number of problems. I find it very hard to believe schools don't know this and keeping this treatment secret until a child is able to talk about it, if ever, is abuse.

                If you research padded rooms you will also find prisons use them and most are in better shape with more space than the schools are using. Lets repeat that…PRISONS USE THEM. Now let that sink in, schools and prisons. How does a prison put an inmate in a padded room? Force. How does a school put a child in a padded room? Force.

                Maybe padded rooms in prisons are a bit nicer because we put more money into our prisons than our schools, which brings to the point of why schools would put money into something like this to begin with. You don’t have to be an autism parent to get pissed off about this and this is why, there is no limit to who can be put in these rooms. Nothing says a parent needs to be notified therefore nothing says these rooms are only for a certain group of kids. They might say that, but legally there is no limit. After all the only reason a padded room in Longview Washington was discovered and its use was stopped was because a mainstream boy was being put in it. A neurotypical boy who was able to speak and tell his mom long after the treatment began. It was only then the outrage began and something was done. Even then some people felt it was ok for special needs but not kids who don’t have “problems”.

                To end this, anyone who is working with autism or creating autism programs in our schools and feels the use of a padded room is a form of education or treatment is a damn fool. They have no business being anywhere near our children. We cannot fight everyday at home to understand our children in a way that creates progress and in a way no one else does only to send them to school and have this happen. It completely defeats the all we work for and what school systems are supposed to be working for. Progress, social development, care, independence, education, trust, faith, and love. None of which are found in isolation.