A former school board member in upstate New York sounded the alarm by posting disturbing images of a wooden box in an elementary school classroom allegedly used as a “timeout box” for students with disabilities, the New York Times reports.
The images from a classroom in the Salmon River Central School District–comprising 1,300 students, 60% of whom are of Native American descent–showed a large wooden box in the corner, tall and wide enough for one to two small children to fit in. Inside, the walls are bare with a padded floor. Chrissy Onientatahse Jacobs, who posted the images, says she was in shock; it is still unconfirmed if children were ever placed inside. “I was in shock,” said Jacobs, who is also a district parent.
“I was shaking. Because I know a lot of people throw around the words ‘intergenerational trauma.’ But our DNA has memory.”
Since the school is on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, community members likened the incident to the historic trauma Native American children faced in boarding schools.
Following the days after the uproar, the school board hired attorneys for a formal investigation, resulting in the district’s superintendent being reassigned to “home duties” and other leaders, including a principal and the district’s special education director, being placed on leave. The investigation also revealed the posted box wasn’t the only one — two others were installed in schools and have since been removed.
Classes
within the school district were held remotely on Dec. 19 “out of an abundance of caution for student and staff safety.” Parents were outraged by the images and even challenged the district’s theory that the boxes had never been used. T.J. Hathaway, who has a special needs third grader in the district, said “this is not OK” and said his mostly nonverbal son told him he “felt bad for one of his friends that had to go in there.”While Hathaway called for “new, fresh blood in our administration,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sympathized with affected parents and 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 in a statement, according to Olean Times Herald.
“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.”
State law prohibits seclusion in public schools, and state education officials have promised to visit local schools to reassure parents and community members that all timeout boxes were removed. However, some of the damage may not be so easy to clean up as the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council, which presides over the reservation, says it has lost faith in the school board and district’s “gross mismanagement” and leadership.
The council has pushed for “everyone involved in the decision to construct and install these inhumane devices” to face accountability. “It is clear what transpired should have never happened, and our children deserve better from those in charge of their care,” the council wrote in a statement.
“Trust has been broken.”
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