09:22 AM EDT on Thursday, August 21, 2008
By Katie Mulvaney
Journal Staff Writer
Read the New Shoreham Facility Report: http://www.projo.com/news/2008/pdf/new_shoreham_school_facility_report.pdf
BLOCK ISLAND — An isolation room set up in the basement of the Block Island School for students who needed to “chill out” violated state education regulations and the state fire code, according to a report by independent consultants.
The room violated regulations because its door had two sliding bolts on the outside, and also because staff members were unable to observe a student at all times through the small window in the door, the consultants concluded.
If a time-out room is needed for students in crisis, it should be a smaller, padded room that can be clearly observed, and equipped with a lock that disengages immediately when the person monitoring from the outside takes his or her hand away, the consultants said. The district should also develop clear policies for dealing with students who need crisis intervention, and all staff in the 150-student school should be trained in “de-escalation strategies.”
The School Committee called for the consultants’ review in June after the existence of the room –– referred to by some students as the “freak-out room” –– became public.
The Journal began asking questions about Room 20 after receiving an anonymous letter wondering whether it was being used for “unruly students.” In a DVD accompanying the letter, a camera slowly pans the corridor leading to Room 20 and shows a door with two bolts and a hole where a doorknob should be. The video also shows pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint, and fingerprints smudging the walls. One window is boarded up with plywood.
The locks were removed June 10, the same day the Journal first asked to see the room and was refused.
The consultants said a lever door handle was on the door to Room 20 the day they toured the school later the same month.
The School Committee was briefed on the consultants’ findings at a meeting Monday, after which Chairman William Padien said, “As you stated, Room 20 will now be used for something else.”
Referring to the report as “phase 1,” Padien said the board would continue its investigation into “the matters that led to us having to get this report.” He could not be reached yesterday to elaborate.
Supt. Leslie A. Ryan, who doubles as the special-education director, did not comment on the findings at the meeting.
According to the report, Room 20 was initially set up as a brightly painted space where teachers could work with students individually. It also served periodically as a place for students to go voluntarily to “chill out,” or de-escalate, in a controlled, low-sensory environment, sometimes with staff interacting with them. At some point, its use became “more restrictive” to handle an overly aggressive boy.
“[T]heir intent was to reduce the impact of the student’s behavior on other students and at the same time, prevent other students from watching him when he was having a difficult time,” the report reads. It also said the boy was placed in the room a few times when he became so aggressive that he couldn’t be safely held and staff members were being hurt.
Ryan told the consultants that she called the student’s mother on each occasion that “the room was used in a restrictive manner.”
Another parent told the consultants that her daughter was also sent to the room as a consequence of an “undesired behavior.”
The consultants were Susan Stevenson, director of autism spectrum disorder services with Gateway Healthcare, and Christopher Suchmann, maintenance director at The Groden Center. Their work included conversations with staff and the parents of two children.
The report states that the parents were concerned about the use of restrictive procedures and expressed a desire to be involved in decision making and informed about interventions. State regulations require parental consent before these approaches are used.
Other districts use time-out rooms, but not ones that can be bolted from the outside, Stevenson said yesterday. “You don’t expect, because of fire-safety regulations, to see locks on doors.”
The report says that state regulations differentiate between “seclusion restraint” and “time-out procedures.” Seclusion restraint is confining a student alone in a room without access to school staff. This is prohibited in Rhode Island’s public schools. Time-out is allowable because a staff member remains “accessible to the student.”
The consultants did not indicate whether the use of Room 20 was ever considered “seclusion restraint.”
After The Journal’s story, the state Department of Education asked Block Island officials to report on any student who had been physically restrained. All districts are supposed to detail any time a school uses restraints, and the department had not received such reports from the district.
The district filed a restraint report with the state Aug. 4 in which Ryan detailed one incident that occurred last Nov. 30. In a letter accompanying that report, school lawyer Denise Myers referred to the event as one that “required temporary use of a latch” because a student was “attacking staff and trying to punch through a glass door” and continued to push and kick to get out of the room.
Myers said in the letter that “we are not acknowledging that a physical restraint occurred, as defined by the regulations.”
Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the state did not agree with or dispute Myers’ representations. State education officials plan to visit the school for an on-site investigation this fall, he said.
In addition, state police detectives and Assistant Attorney General Susan Urso, chief of the juvenile division, are conducting their own investigation into the room after visiting the school in June in response to the DVD.
The attorney general’s office is still waiting for the district’s lawyer to get documents to corroborate the school’s official explanations about the room’s use, said Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general.
“The only thing we’re waiting for is documents to confirm what we heard out there,” Healey said.
Myers did not return two phone calls yesterday afternoon or respond to several questions posed by e-mail.
Healey and state police Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell said they did not think anything criminal had occurred.
kmulvane@projo.com
http://www.projo.com/education/content/ROOM_20_08-21-08_34B9VAH_v23.3e83332.html
Showing posts with label Rhode Island. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhode Island. Show all posts
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Questions linger over school’s room
07:39 AM EDT on Monday, July 7, 2008
By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer
School officials created a room in the basement of the Block Island School as a last resort for a student with mental health and behavioral problems who needed a place to calm down, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The room was used four or five times with one or two school staff accompanying the student, two during more violent episodes, in which he was observed through a small window on the door,
Michael Healey said during a recent interview.
“Appearances notwithstanding, it seems to be a good-faith effort to try to deal with a young boy with special needs,” he said.
Working with the boy’s mother, the school created the room because options are limited on the island, he said.
“I don’t know if it was ever locked or not,” Healey said.
“We don’t see anything criminal about the conduct of anybody so far,” Healey said, adding it appeared staff never used the room to punish that child or any other.
The student occasionally asked to go to the room to “chill out;” another student liked to read there, he said.
Healey offered these preliminary observations when asked for the outcome of a visit to the school June 12 by state police detectives and Assistant Attorney General Susan Urso, chief of the juvenile division. They are working with the school district’s lawyer, Denise Myers, to get documents to corroborate the school’s official explanations about the room’s use and have interviewed staff and probably will speak with parents, he said.
The Journal first reported on the existence of the room, which until recently could be bolted shut from the outside, after receiving an anonymous letter raising questions about whether unruly students might have been sent there. In a DVD accompanying the letter, a camera slowly pans Room 20 showing door locks, pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint, and fingerprints smudging the walls. Plywood covers one window. The doorknob is missing.
The state police were very concerned by the letter and the DVD, said Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell. “Our concerns are greatly diminished” upon visiting the school, he said late last week.
Still, fire, building and education officials find news of such a room troubling.
“There should be no lock on the outside that someone could accidentally lock,” said William Howe, chief of inspections for the state fire marshal’s office.
Seclusion rooms at Butler Hospital and the school at Bradley Hospital, he said, have fail-safe designs using magnetic locks that can only be latched from the outside when someone presses a button. Once the button is released, the door unlocks.
“I’ve never seen one where they lock the kid in,” said Howe, who had not heard of the room at the Block Island School. Fire-safety inspections are done locally, he said.
Block Island’s building official, Marc Tillson, said he does a cursory inspection of the island’s only school every year. He did not notice exterior locks on the basement room during his inspection last August, but could have missed them, he said.
“If and when somebody put locks on that exterior, I have no knowledge of it,” he said. But, he would consider pursuing criminal charges against the person who placed the locks on the door, he said, if he learned who it was.
“I hope whoever put the locks on the exterior of the door learned their lesson and never does it again,” he said.
The locks were removed June 10, the same day a Journal reporter inquired about the room’s existence, according to Police Chief Vincent Carlone. The Journal’s request to see the room that
day was refused.
In response to a question about the locks on the door, Myers, the district’s lawyer, said by e-mail last Thursday, “It is unknown when the doorknob was removed and it is unknown when the slides were installed.” It remains unclear how long the room has been in place. Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, has said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Supt. Leslie Ryan, who doubles as the special-education director, took over in August 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”
Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, has said she had been told the room was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.”
Bradley has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Someone from Bradley consulted with the school in early 2007 about the educational and behavioral needs of a student, but “did not provide clinical recommendations on the design or development of a specific behavioral room” at the Block Island School, Jessica Grimes, spokeswoman at Bradley Hospital, reiterated late last week.
Asked for the name of the Bradley consultant who reportedly helped develop the room, Myers said: “At this time, the School Department will not comment further as to consultations regarding the room.”
Officials from the state Department of Education’s office for equality and access plan to visit the school, possibly in the fall, according to Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the department.
“From what we’ve heard, we’re very concerned,” Krieger said.
While locked time-out rooms are debated nationwide, they are not allowed in Rhode Island.
Schools may have designated areas to isolate violent or disturbed students, but cannot have rooms only for time-outs, he said.
State regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.
Krieger said he was not aware of any similar rooms in the state.
The department is awaiting reports from Block Island about students being physically restrained at the school, Krieger said. All districts are supposed to detail any time a school uses restraints, he said, and the department has not received such reports from the district.
“We’ll take a very close look at that when we get it,” Krieger said. The absence of reports from the district, he said, “is another reason why the [office for equality and access] wants to talk to the superintendent.”
A district would not have to file a report if restraint was not used, he said.
When reached last week, Superintendent Ryan said the letter and DVD and subsequent news reports have caused a great deal of anxiety on the island and have been harmful to staff and teachers.
“We have never nor would we ever take any action that in any way would be harmful to students,” she said.
She hoped the person who sent the anonymous letter and DVD would be “brought to some type of justice.”
Meanwhile, the district’s School Committee met June 16 and voted to assess the overall safety at the Block Island School in light of the controversy about the basement room.
The School Committee has agreed to hire one or two consultants to ensure that the school meets all state fire-safety codes and regulations, Myers said.
“The priority is to make sure going forward it is safe,” Myers said. Their findings, which will be made public, will not address use of the room before the date of their review, she said.
School Committee Chairman William Padien did not return a phone call seeking comment.
http://www.projo.com/ri/newshoreham/content/ROOM_20_folo_07-07-08_7SANU7O_v30.403cda2.html
kmulvane@projo.com
By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer
School officials created a room in the basement of the Block Island School as a last resort for a student with mental health and behavioral problems who needed a place to calm down, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The room was used four or five times with one or two school staff accompanying the student, two during more violent episodes, in which he was observed through a small window on the door,
Michael Healey said during a recent interview.
“Appearances notwithstanding, it seems to be a good-faith effort to try to deal with a young boy with special needs,” he said.
Working with the boy’s mother, the school created the room because options are limited on the island, he said.
“I don’t know if it was ever locked or not,” Healey said.
“We don’t see anything criminal about the conduct of anybody so far,” Healey said, adding it appeared staff never used the room to punish that child or any other.
The student occasionally asked to go to the room to “chill out;” another student liked to read there, he said.
Healey offered these preliminary observations when asked for the outcome of a visit to the school June 12 by state police detectives and Assistant Attorney General Susan Urso, chief of the juvenile division. They are working with the school district’s lawyer, Denise Myers, to get documents to corroborate the school’s official explanations about the room’s use and have interviewed staff and probably will speak with parents, he said.
The Journal first reported on the existence of the room, which until recently could be bolted shut from the outside, after receiving an anonymous letter raising questions about whether unruly students might have been sent there. In a DVD accompanying the letter, a camera slowly pans Room 20 showing door locks, pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint, and fingerprints smudging the walls. Plywood covers one window. The doorknob is missing.
The state police were very concerned by the letter and the DVD, said Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell. “Our concerns are greatly diminished” upon visiting the school, he said late last week.
Still, fire, building and education officials find news of such a room troubling.
“There should be no lock on the outside that someone could accidentally lock,” said William Howe, chief of inspections for the state fire marshal’s office.
Seclusion rooms at Butler Hospital and the school at Bradley Hospital, he said, have fail-safe designs using magnetic locks that can only be latched from the outside when someone presses a button. Once the button is released, the door unlocks.
“I’ve never seen one where they lock the kid in,” said Howe, who had not heard of the room at the Block Island School. Fire-safety inspections are done locally, he said.
Block Island’s building official, Marc Tillson, said he does a cursory inspection of the island’s only school every year. He did not notice exterior locks on the basement room during his inspection last August, but could have missed them, he said.
“If and when somebody put locks on that exterior, I have no knowledge of it,” he said. But, he would consider pursuing criminal charges against the person who placed the locks on the door, he said, if he learned who it was.
“I hope whoever put the locks on the exterior of the door learned their lesson and never does it again,” he said.
The locks were removed June 10, the same day a Journal reporter inquired about the room’s existence, according to Police Chief Vincent Carlone. The Journal’s request to see the room that
day was refused.
In response to a question about the locks on the door, Myers, the district’s lawyer, said by e-mail last Thursday, “It is unknown when the doorknob was removed and it is unknown when the slides were installed.” It remains unclear how long the room has been in place. Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, has said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Supt. Leslie Ryan, who doubles as the special-education director, took over in August 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”
Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, has said she had been told the room was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.”
Bradley has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Someone from Bradley consulted with the school in early 2007 about the educational and behavioral needs of a student, but “did not provide clinical recommendations on the design or development of a specific behavioral room” at the Block Island School, Jessica Grimes, spokeswoman at Bradley Hospital, reiterated late last week.
Asked for the name of the Bradley consultant who reportedly helped develop the room, Myers said: “At this time, the School Department will not comment further as to consultations regarding the room.”
Officials from the state Department of Education’s office for equality and access plan to visit the school, possibly in the fall, according to Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the department.
“From what we’ve heard, we’re very concerned,” Krieger said.
While locked time-out rooms are debated nationwide, they are not allowed in Rhode Island.
Schools may have designated areas to isolate violent or disturbed students, but cannot have rooms only for time-outs, he said.
State regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.
Krieger said he was not aware of any similar rooms in the state.
The department is awaiting reports from Block Island about students being physically restrained at the school, Krieger said. All districts are supposed to detail any time a school uses restraints, he said, and the department has not received such reports from the district.
“We’ll take a very close look at that when we get it,” Krieger said. The absence of reports from the district, he said, “is another reason why the [office for equality and access] wants to talk to the superintendent.”
A district would not have to file a report if restraint was not used, he said.
When reached last week, Superintendent Ryan said the letter and DVD and subsequent news reports have caused a great deal of anxiety on the island and have been harmful to staff and teachers.
“We have never nor would we ever take any action that in any way would be harmful to students,” she said.
She hoped the person who sent the anonymous letter and DVD would be “brought to some type of justice.”
Meanwhile, the district’s School Committee met June 16 and voted to assess the overall safety at the Block Island School in light of the controversy about the basement room.
The School Committee has agreed to hire one or two consultants to ensure that the school meets all state fire-safety codes and regulations, Myers said.
“The priority is to make sure going forward it is safe,” Myers said. Their findings, which will be made public, will not address use of the room before the date of their review, she said.
School Committee Chairman William Padien did not return a phone call seeking comment.
http://www.projo.com/ri/newshoreham/content/ROOM_20_folo_07-07-08_7SANU7O_v30.403cda2.html
kmulvane@projo.com
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Block Island officials defend room in school basement
10:23 AM EDT on Saturday, June 14, 2008
By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer
NEW SHOREHAM — Room 20 in the basement of the Block Island School is small and bare. Its concrete floor is painted green, its ceiling sky blue with white clouds, its main window covered with plywood. And, until earlier this week, its knob-less door had double bolts on the outside.
An anonymous letter raising questions about the room and a DVD showing it arrived at The Providence Journal, three television stations, and the attorney general’s office last week. In the brief video, a camera silently pans the room, showing the locks. It also shows pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint and fingerprints smudging the walls. The letter makes no allegations, but raises questions about whether unruly children might have been sent there.
On Tuesday, Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, acknowledged that there might be such a room, but didn’t know its location. She said she had been told it was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.” Asked if there were external locks, she went to look, returning perplexed. “I’ve never seen a student locked in there since I’ve been here,” she said.
During the interview, she placed a call to Supt. Leslie A. Ryan, who was off island. Ryan told her not to let a reporter see the room.
When the superintendent, who doubles as special-education director, returned on the 3 p.m. ferry, she said the school lawyer would issue a statement the next day as she stormed to her car.
Calls that evening to all five School Committee members were not returned. Teachers reached for comment said they knew nothing of the room, or were reluctant to talk. One said it was a special-education issue and she didn’t have the authority to discuss it.
Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Ryan took over in 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”
An official at Bradley Hospital denied any involvement. “There is not a chance. Nobody would have worked on a room like that,” said Dr. Dale Radka, director of Bradley School who oversees all consultation with school districts. “Bradley doesn’t consult anybody about these kinds of locked facilities.”
It is common, he said, to have focus rooms in which students can quietly calm down, but a locked seclusion room would only be used as a last resort to prevent a very disturbed child from endangering him or herself or others. But, he added, there should be stringent policies and a highly trained staff in place first.
He speculated that more districts would turn to such approaches as budget cutbacks sway them to integrate high-needs children into public schools.
The Journal returned to the Block Island school Wednesday morning, and Ryan again rebuffed attempts to view the room, saying she had to protect students. She handed out a statement that read:
The Block Island School excels in providing support and appropriate education to all of its students. We have never taken punitive action involving locked doors or any other archaic practice. Specifics of behavior plans designed for special-needs students are confidential and, on this island, can prompt immediate identification of the student. We have a team of qualified and caring teachers and therapists who advocate every single day for every single child.”
Ryan refused to answer questions. “I’ve given you a statement and that’s the end.”
She referred the reporter to Vincent Carlone, the island’s chief of police.
In his office looking out on Old Harbor, where the ferries come in, Carlone said that he investigated the room Tuesday after a television reporter asked about it. He concluded there were no safety concerns, adding that the two outside locks had already been removed.
The district created the room, he said, as a way to keep a specific child with violent tendencies on the island, instead of being sent to a residential facility away from family. A difficulty of living on an island is having limited access to services readily available on the mainland, he said.
Asked why a police chief was talking about an education matter, he said school officials were restricted by “confidentiality laws.”
The superintendent told him, he said, that one or two aides always accompanied the child. The room was used “infrequently” and had not been used “recently,” he said. He was unable to be more specific. He said he had heard nothing about any other children being placed in the room.
“I don’t know if they locked that lock,” he said. But, he said, the child enjoys the room.
“No one’s in danger,” the chief said. School officials “go out of their way to help the kids.”
He emphasized that the superintendent told him the room had been set up in consultation with Bradley, an East Providence hospital specializing in children facing emotional, mental and behavioral challenges.
Told that Bradley denied any involvement with the room, the chief said, “They [school officials] wouldn’t lie to me.”
Repeated efforts to get the name of the Bradley contact were denied. School lawyer Denise Myers said, through the chief, that such disclosure would violate a federal law that protects the privacy of personal health information.
After getting clearance from Myers, Carlone took The Journal to see the room. A Journal photographer, however, was barred from taking pictures.
A thin floor mat lay in one corner with a pile of fabric resembling a blanket on top. The plywood on the window is there to prevent a student from striking the glass, Carlone said. The door has a small rectangular window and holes where the locks had been removed.
“If they made a mistake, they made a mistake with the locks,” the chief said. “But they certainly didn’t do it to hurt anyone.”
The wife of a School Committee member reprimanded the reporter, saying it was a private matter.
The state police and a prosecutor from the attorney general’s office visited the school Thursday. They will discuss their evaluation with state education officials, Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell said later.
The investigation is expected to conclude in the next few weeks, according to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general.
“It looks like the room was used as some sort of time-out space,” Healey said. “I really doubt we’re talking about anything of a criminal nature.”
After The Journal inquired about regulations involving locked isolation rooms, Marvin Abney, the assistant to the education commissioner for equality and access, called school officials Thursday. He was assured that the locks had been taken off the room, Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the Department of Education, said.
Rhode Island regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or rooms used solely for time-outs. They also do not allow a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.
“Any kid in a locked room would concern the state — period,” Krieger said. “That seems to be a safety problem.”
Yesterday afternoon, the School Committee met in closed session to discuss the issue. Chairman Bill Padien could not be reached for comment.
The individual behind the DVD and the letter sought anonymity yesterday, saying he feared there would be retribution against his family for blowing the whistle on the locked room in the basement.
kmulvane@projo.com
By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer
NEW SHOREHAM — Room 20 in the basement of the Block Island School is small and bare. Its concrete floor is painted green, its ceiling sky blue with white clouds, its main window covered with plywood. And, until earlier this week, its knob-less door had double bolts on the outside.
An anonymous letter raising questions about the room and a DVD showing it arrived at The Providence Journal, three television stations, and the attorney general’s office last week. In the brief video, a camera silently pans the room, showing the locks. It also shows pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint and fingerprints smudging the walls. The letter makes no allegations, but raises questions about whether unruly children might have been sent there.
On Tuesday, Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, acknowledged that there might be such a room, but didn’t know its location. She said she had been told it was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.” Asked if there were external locks, she went to look, returning perplexed. “I’ve never seen a student locked in there since I’ve been here,” she said.
During the interview, she placed a call to Supt. Leslie A. Ryan, who was off island. Ryan told her not to let a reporter see the room.
When the superintendent, who doubles as special-education director, returned on the 3 p.m. ferry, she said the school lawyer would issue a statement the next day as she stormed to her car.
Calls that evening to all five School Committee members were not returned. Teachers reached for comment said they knew nothing of the room, or were reluctant to talk. One said it was a special-education issue and she didn’t have the authority to discuss it.
Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Ryan took over in 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”
An official at Bradley Hospital denied any involvement. “There is not a chance. Nobody would have worked on a room like that,” said Dr. Dale Radka, director of Bradley School who oversees all consultation with school districts. “Bradley doesn’t consult anybody about these kinds of locked facilities.”
It is common, he said, to have focus rooms in which students can quietly calm down, but a locked seclusion room would only be used as a last resort to prevent a very disturbed child from endangering him or herself or others. But, he added, there should be stringent policies and a highly trained staff in place first.
He speculated that more districts would turn to such approaches as budget cutbacks sway them to integrate high-needs children into public schools.
The Journal returned to the Block Island school Wednesday morning, and Ryan again rebuffed attempts to view the room, saying she had to protect students. She handed out a statement that read:
The Block Island School excels in providing support and appropriate education to all of its students. We have never taken punitive action involving locked doors or any other archaic practice. Specifics of behavior plans designed for special-needs students are confidential and, on this island, can prompt immediate identification of the student. We have a team of qualified and caring teachers and therapists who advocate every single day for every single child.”
Ryan refused to answer questions. “I’ve given you a statement and that’s the end.”
She referred the reporter to Vincent Carlone, the island’s chief of police.
In his office looking out on Old Harbor, where the ferries come in, Carlone said that he investigated the room Tuesday after a television reporter asked about it. He concluded there were no safety concerns, adding that the two outside locks had already been removed.
The district created the room, he said, as a way to keep a specific child with violent tendencies on the island, instead of being sent to a residential facility away from family. A difficulty of living on an island is having limited access to services readily available on the mainland, he said.
Asked why a police chief was talking about an education matter, he said school officials were restricted by “confidentiality laws.”
The superintendent told him, he said, that one or two aides always accompanied the child. The room was used “infrequently” and had not been used “recently,” he said. He was unable to be more specific. He said he had heard nothing about any other children being placed in the room.
“I don’t know if they locked that lock,” he said. But, he said, the child enjoys the room.
“No one’s in danger,” the chief said. School officials “go out of their way to help the kids.”
He emphasized that the superintendent told him the room had been set up in consultation with Bradley, an East Providence hospital specializing in children facing emotional, mental and behavioral challenges.
Told that Bradley denied any involvement with the room, the chief said, “They [school officials] wouldn’t lie to me.”
Repeated efforts to get the name of the Bradley contact were denied. School lawyer Denise Myers said, through the chief, that such disclosure would violate a federal law that protects the privacy of personal health information.
After getting clearance from Myers, Carlone took The Journal to see the room. A Journal photographer, however, was barred from taking pictures.
A thin floor mat lay in one corner with a pile of fabric resembling a blanket on top. The plywood on the window is there to prevent a student from striking the glass, Carlone said. The door has a small rectangular window and holes where the locks had been removed.
“If they made a mistake, they made a mistake with the locks,” the chief said. “But they certainly didn’t do it to hurt anyone.”
The wife of a School Committee member reprimanded the reporter, saying it was a private matter.
The state police and a prosecutor from the attorney general’s office visited the school Thursday. They will discuss their evaluation with state education officials, Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell said later.
The investigation is expected to conclude in the next few weeks, according to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general.
“It looks like the room was used as some sort of time-out space,” Healey said. “I really doubt we’re talking about anything of a criminal nature.”
After The Journal inquired about regulations involving locked isolation rooms, Marvin Abney, the assistant to the education commissioner for equality and access, called school officials Thursday. He was assured that the locks had been taken off the room, Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the Department of Education, said.
Rhode Island regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or rooms used solely for time-outs. They also do not allow a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.
“Any kid in a locked room would concern the state — period,” Krieger said. “That seems to be a safety problem.”
Yesterday afternoon, the School Committee met in closed session to discuss the issue. Chairman Bill Padien could not be reached for comment.
The individual behind the DVD and the letter sought anonymity yesterday, saying he feared there would be retribution against his family for blowing the whistle on the locked room in the basement.
kmulvane@projo.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)