Mom visits school to see her 4-year-old in isolation, and can't get answers

[Jilly_in_VA]

Jhaniyah Holland was excited to visit West Haven Elementary School on Oct. 30 to see her 4-year-old son presented with an award for perfect attendance. Her happiness turned to horror, however, when she arrived at the school and found the little boy isolated in a small room. He was distraught, sitting on the floor in tears and pressing his back to the wall.

The offense that landed him in isolation? He broke pencils and crayons.

The room, with a small, high window that can be closed off, looks like a prison cell, Holland told Knox News. It's only big enough to fit a twin-sized bed, she said.

After two meetings with the school principal, Carl Whipple, her son's teacher and a behavior therapist at the school, Holland is still seeking answers to why the boy was punished with isolation. Chief among her concerns: how long was her son put in isolation, what was done to de-escalate the situation before school authorities decided to isolate him and had this happened before?

"Nothing he did can justify putting him in there," Holland said.

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/education/2023/12/07/knox-county-schools-puts-4-year-old-pre-k-student-in-isolation/71757086007/

This is so wrong on so many levels I don't know where to start.

[Mopar151]

1. 30 days in the hole......

Steve Marriot

[kimbutgar]

2. Wow I had a kid the last two years at a school I subbed in who was out of control

Broke Clayton’s, tore posters off the wall, threw pillow chairs in the class library and took all the books off the shelves. And his parents are in denial and refuse an IEP. There has to be an aide in the classroom with him at all times or he goes beserk! Only a few time he is quiet and obedient. The Kindergarten was almost ready to quit but she has only 3 more years until she can retire. The first grade teacher is a young man who also has trouble with him. He’s not autistic but I hate to say he’s something worst. That said we would be fired and sued if we put him in an isolation room and his being 4 years old is cruel punishment. And this boy in our school is white.

[PatSeg]

4. 4 years old is so terribly young

for a regular school environment. Children at that age are not ready to sit still for long periods of time. Maybe when they are older, a time-out could be done using isolation if a child was very unruly. At 4 years old, it seem awfully cruel.

[kimbutgar]

5. I agree He should be in a preschool at that age!

[PatSeg]

7. I remember my grandsons at four

and they were still in a creative, play mode. Same with my children. It is no wonder that there is a huge drop in creativity when children attend mainstream school.

[BaronChocula]

3. I admit I don't know enough about this situation

But it brings to mind (especially considering Kimbutgar's comments above) that in spite of passage of civil rights laws, there is still a feeling of permissiveness among authority figures (and often average citizens) that they can exact cruel and unusual punishment on people, even kids of color. They think that the Old White American Order will look the other way. Often they are correct. Still. Today.

[rubbersole]

6. Don't tell desantis!

He'll model Florida's K-12 curriculum around it.