District accused of ignoring abuse

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.