Former teacher says she was told to ‘not record’ use of seclusion rooms [video]

A disability rights activist says that she received instructions not to record the use of so-called “seclusion rooms” when she was a public school teacher.

“My old district used to tell us to not record the use of [seclusion rooms],” said Shelley Petit, chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities. “I refused to use them… I just didn’t think they were right… I’m not even sure if that was a mandate from above or just from the administrator,” she added.

But Anglophone School District-South, where Petit was teaching at the time, says that a policy against recording the use of seclusion rooms never existed.

The practice is under scrutiny following the publication of a report from Kelly Lamrock, New Brunswick’s Child, Youth and Seniors’ Advocate, which states that seclusion in New Brunswick public schools may violate children’s human rights.

A growing body of evidence has highlighted “the disproportionate use of seclusion rooms on students from marginalized communities, primarily students with disabilities,” the report states.

Data about the use of seclusion rooms is “apparently almost non-existent,” and the Education Department itself “has no data,” according to the report, which noted that “most districts don’t track data.”

Also called time-out or isolation rooms, their intended purpose is to “provide a safe and calm environment for students” and as a last resort to ensure safety, but critics argue the experience of seclusion can traumatize students.

Following the publication of the report, Education Minister Claire Johnson stated that more information is needed on how seclusion rooms are being used in New Brunswick’s school system.

In an email, Petit said she was a teacher at Beaconsfield Middle School in Saint John, part of the Anglophone School District-South (ASD-S) around 2017, when she allegedly received instructions not to record the use of seclusion rooms. Petit said she left the school district in 2019.

The NB Media Co-op reached out to Beaconsfield Middle School, ASD-S, and the Department of Education for comment. The school district didn’t acknowledge a request for an interview with the current district superintendent, Derek O’Brien, but provided a detailed response by email.

“There has never been a mandate to not document use of seclusion,” ASD-S director of communications Jessica Hanlon said, in part. “We ask that staff complete the incident report within one school day of the incident.” (You can read the full statement here.)

The statement called seclusion an “accepted, evidence-based practice to help students de-escalate and regulate their emotions,” while also noting that the district is reviewing Lamrock’s report.

Language in the statement mirrored the Department of Education’s official guidelines for restraint and seclusion, as quoted in Lamrock’s report.

For example, it stated that seclusion is used if it will help diminish “intense violent behaviour that presents substantial risk to the student or others,” and that it’s only used as part of a support plan and with parental consent.

In an interview with the NB Media Co-op, Petit said that she’s been hearing about the practice of seclusion from parents since the NB Coalition for Persons with Disabilities formed in 2020.

Seclusion is not being used as intended, Petit said. She argues that teachers and educational assistants aren’t trained in how to deal with disabilities such as Tourette syndrome and autism, so they resort to seclusion in rooms that she likened to closets. “Then they wonder why behaviours are getting worse… we’re causing trauma in kids.”

She called for the Department of Education to stop using seclusion rooms until staff are “properly trained” in supporting children with disabilities. She stressed that she’s not blaming teachers. “There is no training,” she said.

The Department of Education provided a brief statement saying it takes Lamrock’s report on seclusion rooms seriously “and will be taking the necessary steps to respond to his recommendations.”

The statement added that the department “has already reached out to stakeholders (parents, school principals and people at the district level) to begin understanding when and how these seclusion rooms are being used.”

This report was updated at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 20. 

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).