Reason 819 to HomeSchool: Your Kid Won’t Pee Her Pants in the Time Out Room

School really hasn’t changed much since I was a kid or since my parents were a kid.  But the concept of a time-out room is something new.  On the one hand, it is an improvement over paddling by the principal.  But on the other, leaving little Sally or Johnny in a janitor’s closet is not only dangerous, but stupid and ineffective as punishment and a deterrent.

From the AP here:

After failing to finish a reading assignment, 8-year-old Isabel Loeffler was sent to the school’s time-out room – a converted storage area under a staircase – where she was left alone for three hours.

The autistic Iowa girl wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave.

Appalled, her parents removed her from the school district and filed a lawsuit.

Some educators say time-out rooms are being used with increased frequency to discipline children with behavioral disorders. And the time outs are probably doing more harm than good, they add.

“I once consulted with a school in another state and had a weekly appointment with a child to do some counseling and when I got there they told me he was in a time-out room,” he said. “He was in a janitor’s closet with no windows, no ventilation, open cans of paint, a mop bucket with disinfectant and he had been in there for over an hour.”

To make it safe, you would need a dedicated room and a dedicated staff member who is well trained to handle problem children.  Schools can’t afford this, so they should stop the practice until they can.