School Uses "Guantanamo Bay Style" Isolation Cells to Punish Students

School Uses "Guantanamo Bay Style" Isolation Cells to Punish Students

www.prisonplanet.com

...Children are ordered to sit for extended periods under a spotlight facing a black wall in one of four partitioned areas of a classroom to reflect on their misbehaviour.

Teachers at Ridgewood School in Doncaster – who call the cells ‘individual study rooms’ – also notify parents if their youngsters spend time in the cells...

A father whose son was ordered to spend a day in one of the units has threatened to remove him from the school in protest.

Continues below...

(visit the link for the full news article)

Mr Widdowson, 30, said: ‘A teacher rang and told me about the punishment and I went into the school to see for myself what this isolation room was.

‘I couldn’t believe it. It was like something out of Guantanamo Bay.

‘The room is painted totally black. The walls, the partitions, the window blinds – everything was black.'

New ways to teach kids not to disobey and that dissent is wrong? This is absolutely wrong and disgraceful. What ever happened to silent detention?

www.prisonplanet.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 18-10-2008 by Shocka]

This is not something new at all. When i was in secondary school we had the Ice room (Isolation room) which was about 15ft by 8ft. inside there was a strip light and no windows, and sat six pupils. I must admit i was sent there quite a few times during my school career so i know what the conditions where like. In the Ice room there was no talking unless you wanted to ask to go to the toilets, and all assigned work had to be completed before you could leave. The time spent in the Ice room was determined by the Deputy head. It could be for one period or the entire day. You where only let out for Dinner period, all other breaks where carried out in the Ice room. Sometime you could go the whole day without having any communication with any of the student body.

I left school in 1999.....

Eh.
When I was in high school (late 80s), kids who acted up were sent to an alternative location and pretty much were in isolation too.

IMO. Damned if they do, damned if they dont.

Kids MUST be discplined and if this works. It works. They are not being tortured or beat and it appears to be working and the school is successful!

The school defended the room, which is supervised by a member of staff.

In a statement it said: "It is well lit with a window providing adequate external light and extra ventilation as required, and each individual carrel has separate spot lighting in addition.

"The facility has been in use for over four years and accommodates a handful of pupils each week overwhelmingly for no more than one day and some for less than this. The facility is used at a relatively minor level of the behaviour policy to give pupils a chance to reflect on their behaviour and strengthen their desire to meet expectations in future.

"It overwhelmingly achieves this in terms of pupils not returning for repeated isolations.

"Pupils are supplied with work from current lessons and are free to ask questions of the supervising member of staff as they would in lessons.

"It was fully functional during the 2006 Ofsted inspection and approved as a positive feature of the school's overall success.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

[edit on 10/18/2008 by greeneyedleo]

Reminds me of my days in school, when we were bad we were sent to area 3 and referred to number 1-10 (they were 10 cabins) we would spend days to weeks there, speak to no one and get food at different breaks to our friends, kind of harsh but it worked, nobody wanted isolation, the silence would drive you crazy at times.

Wonder how the father knows this is "Guantanamo Bay Style" isolation? Did he spend some time in there, or is he referring to the pro-terrorist MSM reporting on Guantanamo? If he considers sitting in a totally blacked out room as torture, I'm sure he'd more than gladly love to experience what the radical Islamic terrorists put their victims through, up to and including sawing their heads off with a machete on YouTube.

As usual this methods only due more damage than good even it if sound for many the right thing to do.

You want to know what will help here?

Forcing parents to get out of work to come and have to pick up their children from school for bad behavior.

That will open the eyes of the parent that obviously is failing to make sure that the child respect the classroom as he or she is not the only one trying to get an education even if the education in this nation sucks.

This is fantastic. I was talking about it with some colleagues the other day and we all agreed that we wish we had one in our school.

From what I understand, the pupils themselves call it Guantanamo Bay and do NOT want to be sent there...What a perfect isolation/behaviour unit.

The parent who is moaning that their kid was sent there should spend a day shadowing their kid on the quiet and see what the little cretin gets up to on a daily basis. You don't get sent to these for nothing.

Ridgewood School - I salute you.

Here's another article on it with a less 'Alex Jones Spin' on it.

The Mirror

Peace,

MGGG

reply to post by marg6043


In my experience, a lot of times it is either impossible to get hold of the parents or they simply will not come and pick up the kid.

Remember, for a lot of these parents, we are state babysitters.

Peace,

MGGG

reply to post by greeneyedleo


You are very correct. I was in an alternative school/ behavior school from 7th grade thru highschool. When students would act up, and very often times become violent, or any major outbursts, teachers rush in the room, and restrain the student causing the disruption, and put them in a room the size of a closet, no windows, and lock the door untill they have calmed down.

I have been to about 5 different behavior schools, and every single one was the same. Its like going to school jail style. But teachers in those kinds of schools have to put up with alot of bullcrap, and its very hard to do any kind of real school work. It was a circus.



[edit on 18-10-2008 by schism85]

reply to post by marg6043

Forcing parents to get out of work to come and have to pick up their children from school for bad behavior.

Eh. To me, that isnt a solution either.

1. You cant force a parent to leave work. You can call them, but they may not be able to leave
2. Many parents just dont care
3. Many kids dont respect their parents for a lot of reasons, so child is picked up by parent and child could care less what parent thinks or says or does.
4. Many times the parents are the actual problem. Kids being bad because they have crappy parents at home.

Now for me....if I had been a problem child, me facing my parents is all it would take. But for many, that just doesnt work. It would NOT have worked on one of my brothers. But this solution, the school has, would have.

I personally dont see anything wrong with this solution of the school...and what schools did back in my day.



[edit on 10/18/2008 by greeneyedleo]

As a former teacher and have witnessed the responsibility of Parents toward children with behavior problems I have to agree that many parents don't care, but I have seen at least in my neck of the woods that more than half do care.

Also many states sponsor behavioral special schools that when the child becomes too out of control for regular classrooms they are send to this schools that can handle them.

Everything goes to the ability of the state to fund for this special needs schools.

I also agree that the public school system has become nothing but a babysitters day job.

Sad but true, as regular classrooms has to handle more than can handle when it comes to students.

In many instances I had 35 or more children per class, this causes a lot of problems that a single teacher can not handle.

I used to be scare to turn my back at any moment to my class.




[edit on 18-10-2008 by marg6043]

This helps and hurts but doesn't at the same time.

The teachers need to stop being lazy and stupid and find more efficient ways to connect with and teach their students. Many teachers wish not to socialize with their students at all.

Anyway, to make a long story short because I'm pretty fed up with this whole world at the moment; forcing someone to do things that may or may not be appropriate but that are definitely against their will always causes an eventual backlash. It wouldn't surprise me if that room is destroyed on a Saturday or Sunday, or a day with no school and no student/teacher body present.

We should be trying to find what our children enjoy doing so that they can do it for as long as they want and also give them the free choice to do what they want (please don't take this overboard and be absurd with it, I'm not talking about allowing them to be mass murderers), not forcing them to be things and do things that will cause them a life of misery and unhappiness. We need REAL choice, from the day that we are born.

[edit on 18-10-2008 by LastOutfiniteVoiceEternal]

Originally posted by LastOutfiniteVoiceEternal
This helps and hurts but doesn't at the same time.

The teachers need to stop being lazy and stupid and find more efficient ways to connect with and teach their students. Many teachers wish not to socialize with their students at all.

Well while I can agree with some of that statement, I have to ask you, have you been in a classroom with 35 or more children by yourself with only 40 minutes to teach a class?.

I guess not.

It only takes one student with behavior problems to disrupt the entire class.

Don't be absurd?

What is absurd is accusing teachers of being lazy and stupid.

Do you know how much planning goes into the average day's teaching?

Do you know how tiring the job is - mentally and physically?

Do you know how many teachers go off sick with stress each year?

Do you know how much abuse we take from our students?

That comment downright offends me and probably every other teacher on here.

Teachers do not need to 'socialise' with students - that is somewhat unprofessional to be honest and can lead to malicious accusations.

As far as connecting with students - this is a TWO WAY process. The students need to take responsibilty for their learning and not just blame the teachers for not being willing to educate themselves.

We don't choose what to teach - we are told what skills we need to teach to enable students to pass an exam. We are told what content to teach.

Simple.

Spend a week as a teacher and then say we are lazy and stupid.

MGGG

[edit on 18-10-2008 by machinegun_go_go]

reply to post by machinegun_go_go


Interesting that you bring the sickness, as a matter of fact I stop teaching because I end up with two major surgeries that while my doctor doesn't think so I related it to stress.

The teacher that took my position end up later the next year with surgery too as he was found to have brain cancer.

Stress? I don't know.

Much of the teachers I knew were on antidepressants at the time.

Yeah, but that's my point again, you're forcing your procedure down children's throats.

Every child is different and every child needs to be dealt with and understood for who they are, not for how they react to things that they dislike which is punishment.

Yes, I've been in classrooms with that many children and I've watched some teachers struggle, and others do fine. The distinct difference that I noticed was that the teachers that succeeded allowed the "trouble makers" to feel as comfortable as possible and as understood as possible. The trick isn't punishing and forcing him or her into submission, it's being even gentler with the child and getting closer to the child. Many times these children also have problems at home. A teacher should not only be an information bank that disseminates knowledge, but also a friendly honest person and someone that children can talk to.

It takes children time to trust their teachers and the material, sometimes children are uninterested, but to punish them only further infuriates some of them, many of tem are acting out because they want their opinion to be heard or they want attention. To deny them of the things that they want but are not yet capable of expressing only inflicts superfluous damages.

When it comes to children I am a great teacher, entertainer, Father, mentor and listener, when it comes to adults it's another story mostly because they didn't have someone they needed when they were young and now they're ruined, bitter and stubborn in it.

seems all these punishment tactics are designed to make humans obediant,get them in thier formative years and shape thier minds towards never questioning authority or percieve reality in a way that does not conform to authoritarian control.

many countries are making it a crime to home school,they want you there to reshape childrens behavioural patterns and beliefs.

the entire educational system seems to nothing but one giant complex designed to control humans behaviour,thier beliefs,thier perception on reality,thier aspirations.
what better way to control a species than to shape them when thier young disguised as a benifical act.....teaching!

down with schools!!!,learn for yourself and you will be set free!

im self taught, explains it all ;-)

they should include in the sylabus the subject of the difference between biological brains and ai brains....how ai minds can be programmed to be utterly obediant without free will,and how biological minds are a threat to an ai mind who does not agree with free will.
thus why ai's who do not believe in free will and also can time travel will restructure a species past and present in a way which makes them obediant without free will.

free will,the thing that seperates man from the machinations of the beasts!

fight for it or loose it FOREVER.

[edit on 18-10-2008 by welivefortheson]

So when a 21 year old female teacher is being really nice to a 'trouble maker' rather then sending them straight to the iso unit, and then get grabbed by throat and nearly thrown off a balcony, what do you suggest?

We do deal with students as individuals - it's what's called 'personalised learning' and most students with behavioural difficulties have Individual Support Plans.

Teachers are someone kids can talk to. We are honest. We are not there to be abused and just have to put up with it.

I really don't think you understand the full extent of behavioural problems which have led to the situation in the OP coming about.

Forcing procedure down someone's throat. No - we have rules, rights and responsibilities.

The curriculum is set by others. End of. Don't shoot the messenger.

MGGG

LastOutfiniteVoiceEternal

Interesting, I got once a child that was a guard of the state as he was accused of molesting another child when he was 14, I got him at age 16, you know what he did in the classroom? because the law in my neck of the woods said that this children should be given the right to have education in regular classrooms?

He pull his pants to expose himself.

How gentle should I have been to make him feel loved.

I guess you have no seen the ugly side of reality for what I can tell.

I have, and got out of it before it killed me.

Schools of today have to deal with a lot of crap dump on the teachers without asking us if we want it or not.

[edit on 18-10-2008 by marg6043]