Pembina Hills Public Schools is among the school divisions that have utilized “seclusion rooms” in cases where students posed a danger to themselves, or others, although only as part of a crisis-management plan approved by parents and monitored by administration.
But with the province now banning the use of rooms starting this fall, PHPS will now have to look at other options for those situations, said PHPS director of student services Rob McGarva.
Within PHPS, Administrative Procedure 50-18 governs the use of seclusion rooms. It prohibits the use of chemical restraint (medication) or mechanical restraints to control a student’s behaviour, but physical restraint — limiting a child’s movements — is allowed.
Education minister David Eggen signed an order March 1 forbidding the use of seclusion rooms for the start of the 2019-2020 school year and Alberta Education will conduct on-site inspections.
School divisions will still have the ability to apply for exemptions based on individual students if they can demonstrate support from their parents.
The ban comes months after a Sherwood Park couple allege that their 12-year-old autistic son was locked in the Clover Bar School’s isolation room for at least 45 minutes and had been stripped of his clothes and was covered in feces.
The family filed a lawsuit against Elk Island Public Schools claiming the boy’s Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms were violated. The suit seeks $250,000 for emotional and psychological damages and $25,000 for physical injuries.
Responding to the incident, Eggen formed a working group to come up with new recommendations around the use of timeouts and seclusion rooms. However, he decided to ban seclusion rooms entirely after hearing the group’s draft recommendations.
McGarva said that some local schools have utilized seclusion rooms in the past and there are currently four students within the division that have been placed in them.
“It’s meant as part of crisis management,” he said.
“It’s for when things escalate to the point where the child, or other kids, or staff are in danger.”
McGarva said he believes that Pembina Hills uses some guidelines that may not be in place in other divisions. For instance, the use of seclusion rooms are one component within a written crisis-management plan that have to be agreed to by parents. As well, every time a child is placed in a room, both he and the parents are notified.
When asked how often a child might be placed in a seclusion room, McGarva said it depends on the child.
“Most of the time, we’re able to work with kids to help them act in a safe way,” he said.
“It’s not meant to be a discipline process, or a punishment. It’s just meant to keep everybody safe until the student can calm down.”
It should be noted that PHPS schools don’t have designated seclusion rooms and they’ve only been created when there was a need.
McGarva said that when the student’s behaviour improves, or when they move on from that school, the rooms are phased out and not used again.
With the ban starting for this August, McGarva said they would have to look at other options to deal with a student who may harm themselves, or others. That could mean physically restraining the child, calling in the parents, or even the RCMP.
“Seclusion rooms are a bad thing. I do believe that they traumatize kids and they’re not good. But then it’s also not good if a child’s trying to hurt other people,” McGarva said.
“So now we’re potentially left trying to physically restrain the child to keep everybody safe while we wait for them to calm down, or we wait for police, or parents.”
