Parents were outraged to learn this “time out” box was in a classroom at the St Regis Mohawk elementary school in Akwasesne.
Chrissy Jacobs
ALBANY — The revelations last week that a school district near the Canadian border was using wooden “timeout” boxes to confine children, Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday called for the state Education Department to take “swift action to investigate and rectify this situation.”
“The reporting coming out of the Salmon River Central School District is highly disturbing and raises serious questions regarding the safety of children at this school,” Hochul said. “As a mom, I know firsthand the trust parents place in our schools, and the teachers and administrators who work with our children. School should be a place where every child is safe, respected and supported.”
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Stanley Harper, superintendent of the Salmon River Central School District, spoke briefly at the school board meeting Wednesday about the “time out” boxes at elementary schools.
Sarah Konwahahawi Herne
The three boxes, which have padded walls and stand about about 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, were located at two elementary schools in the district in Franklin County. On Monday, pictures of one of the boxes were posted on Facebook, prompting the school district to publicly acknowledge their existence for the first time.
Subsequently, multiple parents have said after speaking with their children that they believe they may have been held inside the boxes. They included parents of autistic and non-verbal students. The district said this week the boxes had been removed and disassembled.
The state Education Department, which is an independent agency that does not fall under the governor’s authority, contacted the district Wednesday, directing it to immediately stop restraining students or placing them in “seclusion,” including using the wooden boxes. Education Department officials 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.”
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RELATED: See how many restraint, timeout incidents your school district had
Local authorities are also believed to be investigating the matter. One source told the Times Union at least one parent has filed a criminal complaint.
The interior of one of three “time out” boxes allegedly used in the Salmon River Central School District to isolate students this year.
Chrissy Jacobs
The school district said it retained a private law firm to conduct a review of the matter. The school board also 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 district also held remote learning on Thursday and Friday “to ensure the safety of students and staff.” Classes are expected to resume in January.
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The district announced those actions Thursday after furious parents packed a school board meeting Wednesday night demanding the resignation of the superintendent over the alleged use of the “timeout” boxes. For over an hour, community members recounted what students had told them about the boxes and described other alleged incidents of student mistreatment in the district. School board members admitted during the meeting they knew nothing about the boxes until photos emerged on Facebook.
When the photos were posted, Harper, the superintendent, issued a statement acknowledging the existence of one “timeout” box, but said it had never been used on students at the St. Regis Mohawk Elementary School. At the school board meeting Wednesday, he admitted there were three. Harper said he had learned of their existence only three weeks earlier.
Sixty percent of the district’s students are Native American and 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.
Gov. Kathy Hochul said “these allegations are alarming and entirely unacceptable and the state’s independent education department must take swift action to investigate and rectify this situation.” (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)
Lori Van Buren/Times Union
“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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Chrissy Jacobs, a former board member, posted photos of the “timeout” boxes on Facebook after receiving them from another source. At Wednesday’s board meeting, she called for accountability for anyone who approved the boxes and who saw them but did not speak out.
“You treated our kids like animals,” she said.
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.