School's Padded Room Upsets
Parents Of Special Needs Students: Parents Confront School Board. CHERRY HILL,
N.J.
Some parents who are alarmed because they just learned about a special room with
padded walls and floor confronted members of the Cherry Hill School Board on
Tuesday night. The parents said they are concerned about the treatment of their
special needs children, NBC 10's Deanna Durante reported. "Instead of educating
them, they're going to throw them (in) to bash their heads against a padded wall
somewhere," said one parent at Tuesday's meeting. "Disgusting." "It is
absolutely wrong that each and every one of you can go to bed at night thinking
that this is OK to do to children," said another parent. Lisa Grams said she
wants people to see the images of the room with its walls padded inside A.
Russell Knight Elementary. She fears the room has been used for students who act
out. "The room smells. There's no ventilation. There's fluorescent lighting,"
Grams said. According to the district, the room was used last year for small
group instruction, or as a place kids could go for quiet time. The padding was
added this year, according to district officials, who said in a statement: "The
gym mats were placed in the room following an IEP (individualized education
plan) meeting, as part of a crisis plan. The room was used once in a crisis
situation with prior parental consent." "Putting a child in a padded room
because they don't know how to deal with their disability is not an option in my
book," said Grams, whose son is autistic and is a student at the school. Gram
believes the room, no matter how many times used, is unacceptable. "I think it's
frightening. It makes me sick to my stomach," said another parent, Lisa Scuoppo.
Parents said they just learned of the room's existence. "I have enough
confidence in the district to believe that, if there is a padded room, there's a
legitimate reason," said parent Christine Pawliczek. Some parents agree that
specially-designed rooms are sometimes needed to provide a safe place for
students whose actions put them at risk for self-injury. Their complaint is that
this specific room was poorly designed, and they're questioning its use. The
district said the room has been dismantled. It's now a book storage room. And
they pointed to a newer, bigger room -- also photographed by Grams -- as its new
place for small group instruction. The district said the room was only used
once, but to Grams that's not the point. "I would rather have education and
training for the staff than to just shuffle the kids into a room and let them
handle it all on their own," she said. NBC 10, 11/27/07.