Parents were outraged to learn this “timeout” box was in a classroom at the St Regis Mohawk elementary school in Akwasesne, New York.
Chrissy Jacobs
The Salmon River School District near the Canadian border on Thursday placed several top officials on leave, a move that came a day after an acrimonious school board meeting in which parents and other members of the small community lashed out after learning this week that some students may have been confined in wooden “timeout” boxes in elementary school classrooms.
Local and state authorities are investigating the situation. The district on Thursday also announced it has retained a private law firm to conduct a review of the matter. The actions by the school board came after enraged parents packed a school gymnasium Wednesday night, where for more than an hour they spoke about the alleged mistreatment of their children and demanded the resignation of school district leaders.
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The school board said it had reassigned Superintendent Stanley Harper to “home duties” pending the outcome of the internal investigation. The district’s special education director, an elementary school principal and an elementary school teacher were also placed on administrative leave. The board made the personnel decisions in executive session at the school board meeting Wednesday night.
The allegations are unfolding in a Franklin County school district where 60% of students are Native American. One of the schools where the boxes were allegedly used is located on the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Reservation. Members of that community said at the meeting the timeout boxes are a painful reminder of the trauma suffered by their relatives at Native American residential and day schools, some of which allegedly inflicted horrific abuse on their students.
“The Board of Education extends its sincere apology to our students, families, and community members who have been deeply affected by the ongoing situation,” said board President Jason Brockway. “We understand that for many in our community this incident has reopened historical wounds and trauma connected to the mistreatment of Native (American) children. We hear you. We are humbled by the public response, and we feel the pain and fear expressed by our community.”
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Meanwhile, the district decided to hold remote learning for students on Thursday and Friday “to ensure the safety of students and staff following recent allegations of mistreatment,” the district’s website said. Classes will resume in-person in January. One district official said the decision was due to “threats received.”
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The controversy began on Monday when a former school board member posted pictures of one of the “timeout” boxes on Facebook. The images showed a wooden structure lined with interior padding and a door on the front; the box appeared to be about 5 feet tall, 5 feet long and 3 feet wide, and was positioned in the corner of a classroom.
The interior of one of three “timeout” boxes allegedly used in the Salmon River Central School District to isolate students this year.
Chrissy Jacobs
In an initial statement Monday night, Harper, the superintendent, acknowledged the existence of one such box at the St Regis Mohawk elementary school, but said it was never used for any student at that school.
But Wednesday night, multiple parents told the school board they believed their children had been sent into one of the boxes. One family said they had learned that a box had been obtained by the school specifically for use on their 8-year-old autistic, non-verbal child.
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Facing dozens of parents and community members calling for his ouster, Harper told the emotionally charged crowd Wednesday night the district had three “timeout” boxes, two at the Salmon River Elementary School and one at the St Regis Mohawk Elementary School, which had “just been built” and never used. He said the boxes have been removed and disassembled.
“I found out about three weeks ago,” Harper said. “When I saw it, I said ‘remove it.’”
Stanley Harper, superintendent of the Salmon River Central School District, spoke briefly at the school board meeting Wednesday about the “timeout” boxes at elementary schools.
Sarah Konwahahawi Herne
Members of the school board admitted during the meeting that the first they’d learned of “timeout” boxes in the district was when they’d saw photos posted on social media this week.
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Parents and community members, who filled the school gym during the meeting, demanded the board hold district or school leaders accountable for the actions and report more information to the public. Addressing the board, they also described many other troubling incidents in the district, including allegations that a child was inappropriately touched, students were exposed to feces at school and that the district was illegally denying students’ educational support services.
RELATED: See how many restraint, timeout incidents your school district had
The state Education Department contacted the district Wednesday, directing it to immediately stop restraining students and placing them in “seclusion,” including using the wooden boxes. Department staff will visit the district this week “to confirm the removal of all boxes,” according to a letter obtained by the Times Union. The department said it would return later “to ensure alternative calming spaces are identified for students that comply with state regulations.”
The district said Thursday it would cooperate with the state investigation.
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“The board is fully committed to accountability and to implementing corrective actions as warranted by the findings,” Brockway said. “We will continue to keep the community informed throughout the investigation process, recognizing that rebuilding trust requires sustained action, not words alone.”
The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, which governs the reservation, said it has been “responding to requests for information from agencies investigating the allegation.” One source told the Times Union at least one parent has filed a criminal complaint.
The council sent a letter Wednesday to the board urging them to “immediately” issue a no-confidence vote in Harper.
“We have no faith in district leadership and the recent actions show gross mismanagement, and overarching, broad operational failures to address student and educator needs,” the council wrote. “It is clear what transpired should have never happened.”
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Assemblyman Michael Cashman, a Democrat from Plattsburgh who represents the area, said he was calling on the Education Department and state attorney general’s office to ask them to conduct independent investigations.
“Involvement of tribal authorities and law enforcement underscore the seriousness of this matter,” he said in a written statement. “I have spoken to both the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe and the Salmon River Central School District. There are more questions than answers. What is evident is the erosion of trust between the district and the public.”
Community members held signs during a fiery school board meeting Wednesday during which people decried the use of “timeout” boxes on students in the Salmon River Central School District.
Sarah Konwahahawi Herne
New York allows educators to confine students alone in “timeout” if they are in unlocked spaces, where they can be watched and can “move about and recline comfortably,” according to state regulations. Timeout is permitted to be used only when less restrictive measures would not prevent an imminent risk of serious physical harm or when it is a planned intervention for deescalation on a student’s behavioral intervention plan. The state bans “seclusion,” which is generally defined as isolating students in a locked room.
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The state Education Department updated the regulations in 2023 following a Times Union investigation that found widespread use of the controversial behavioral techniques and revealed the state’s rules were more regressive than many other states. Some students were held in timeout rooms in public schools in New York multiple times day and for hours at a time, the Times Union found.
The Education Department required school districts to report these incidents to the state for the first time last school year. More than 3,600 New York public school students were physically restrained or isolated in “timeouts” in at least 20,000 incidents last year, including some cases that violated state regulations, the Times Union found after obtaining those reports.
Last year, the Salmon River School District reported to the state that two male students, a second grader and a high schooler, had been physically restrained or placed in timeout. Both children were listed as “economically disadvantaged.” One was white and the other Hispanic. Due to the small number of incidents, the state suppressed further details on these cases.
The district did not respond to emailed questions from the Times Union Wednesday, including regarding how long the time out boxes had been in use.
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During this week’s school board meeting, parents shared how they’d come to learn their child were subjected to the “timeout” boxes.
Community members held signs during a fiery school board meeting Wednesday during which people decried the use of “timeout” boxes on students in the Salmon River Central School District.
Sarah Konwahahawi Herne
The Garrow family told the board that the Mohawk school principal, Alison Benedict, informed them that one of the boxes was built for their child. Mabel Garrow, a former teacher in the district, said their family has suspicions it was used on her grandson. She said the autistic, non-verbal elementary student had “never hurt anyone.” The family said they knew something had changed this year because the boy started acting out more and being sent home from school on a regular basis.
“I just learned about this the same way everyone else did: Through a picture on Facebook,” she said. “He goes to a school, and he’s corralled like an animal and put into a box. It broke my heart.”
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The boy’s parents brought him before the board and called for the termination of Benedict and the boy’s teacher.
T.J. Hathaway, the father of a minimally verbal third grader in the same class, said in an interview that his son looked at the photos of the box and told him, “if you are happy or if you are sad, this is the place you have to go to calm down.” The boy indicated he’d been inside the box and that he’d seen other children placed in there. Like his classmate, the child had also had unusual outbursts this year at school and apparently acted violently in a way never seen at home or in prior school years, Hathaway said.
Hathaway said the most upsetting part was learning the box was used on students who largely could not tell their parents what was happening. He said he’s received no communication from the school district this week about the box and how it may have been used with his child.
At the school board meeting, another mother alleged that the district made her agree to use the timeout box on her child in order for them to continue his education. She said she was forced to agree in order to have him in school so that she could keep her job at Walmart. She threatened to sue the district over her child’s treatment.
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“This box had been going on for three months, and I couldn’t even take a picture,” she said. “Our school district has failed us, and I’m upset.”
A third mother played a recording for the board of her questioning her child, a special education student, about the timeout box. The child said students were put inside if they were “tired.” The mother said the child would not tell if he was ever secluded in the box, but he said he’s seen the inside of it. She claimed her child had unexplained behavioral issues this school year, and she believes this was the cause.
A fourth mother alleged at the meeting that when she had picked her student up from school, he had been put in a “closet,” with concrete walls and flooring and a little window looking over the playground. She said this was part of the district’s plan for helping her son, who they’d “deemed a problem child,” adjust to the school.
Sarah Konwahahawi Herne grew up in the Akwesasne community, got her doctoral degree in education and is the parent of a first grader at the Mohawk school. She argued actions like these cause widespread trauma to the communities and evoke the numerous harms tribal people suffered at the hands of American colonizers.
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“Sixteen of my family members, at least, have gone to residential schools; it’s not generations removed,” she said in an interview. “This is not history. This contemporary times in our family.”
During the board meeting, she called for the replacement of the board’s members — which includes some Native American members — with individuals who “represent us as a people.”
“This isn’t the last you will see of us,” she told the board. “Your ears are going to be ringing with the voices us for years and years until you get it right.”
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