Time Out!

I was very pleased to read that our education Minister, David Eggen, is about to ban school seclusion rooms or timeout rooms! In my more than 30 years in the classroom I found these timeout areas to be a necessary evil.

Unruly students or students with behavioral difficulties had to be placed in some kind of a isolated area to avoid their injuring themselves or others. In most cases isolation could be accomplished by erecting a cardboard screen around the student's desk on three sides. The teacher could see the student but the student could not see others in the classroom. I found this worked extremely well for elementary students, especially those who were distracted easily by the usual goings-on in the classroom. However some students required more aggressive means of isolation.

Isolation rooms were created for these few students. They were enclosed areas often locked from the outside and usually containing very little visual stimulation. Unruly students were placed in their for a brief time until they cooled down. Because of staff shortages in the classrooms supervision of these isolation rooms was often lacking, however these isolation areas must be supervised constantly while in use! 

I am pleased that the Minister of Education is banning these rooms because that means he is increasing the number of support staff in the schools to deal with these unruly children. There used to be some provincial money available to hire support staff to deal with specific children with behavioral issues however most children did not qualify for this funding. A teacher with 30 or more students in his or her classroom must have the tools to manage an unruly student!  One unruly student should not be able to affect the learning of the rest of his or her classmates!

What will be done with these students if supervisors are unavailable and isolation rooms are gone?  Teachers can't send them out to the hallway.  I know these students, without supervision might destroy any displays or art work on bulletin boards.  Many older schools still have coats on coat racks in hallways which could be vandalized.  Sending them to the office isn't always a good thing.  Most schools with a staff of around 18 teachers is only given one full teacher equivalent for administration split between the administrators.  There might be an administrator in the office but what if both administrators are teaching or in a meeting?  Unruly students do not misbehave on a schedule!  Do we expect the school secretary to manage these students' behavior?

I taught in classrooms for more than thirty years and I never met a bad kid!  I did meet a few students over the years who, for one reason or another needed help with modifying their behavior in school.  I look forward to reading the Minister's report on how he expects schools and classroom teachers to deal with these few unruly students now that isolation rooms are banned.