By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – Leaders from District 87 and the Bloomington-Normal NAACP say they each got a chance to learn from each other about seclusion room policy Monday night.
The NAACP chapter president, Linda Foster, says some people have reached out to her with concerns that the rooms in Bloomington might lead to abuse.
“The safety concern was first and foremost, and we talked about some ideas to address that,” Dr. Carla Campbell-Jackson, the chapter’s vice president, said.
District 87 superintendent Barry Reilly says a Pro Publica report last year that raised concerns about misuse of the rooms cast a long shadow. “That gave a bad name to just about everybody in the state,” Reilly said. “There were assumptions, some of those assumptions were that these were used for any kids that might act out in any way, and that’s just simply not the case.”
In February, the state board of education banned the use of locked seclusion rooms. State lawmakers are also considering bills that would ban mechanical restraints.
Dr. Campbell-Jackson says her group wanted to make sure students were not locked away in a concrete room indiscriminately.
Reilly says the room, which his district calls a “calming room,” is only in one elementary school. He says only “12-15” students, with parental consent at the beginning of the school year, are eligible to end up in there.
“These rooms are therapeutic in nature,” Reilly said. “They’re used to really help kids self-regulate and de-escalate to get them back in the learning environment as quickly as possible. Sometimes we have learning that’s actually going on while they may be in there.”
He added that they don’t use a calming room at higher levels of school because, by then, students are more mature and are able to de-escalate themselves easier.
We asked to see the room, but Reilly said it could not be arranged Monday night. He did say he would work with us to see it at a different time.
There’s no word on if the NAACP and District 87 plan to meet again, but both sides said Monday night was productive.
“It was a good opportunity to have a good dialogue about what’s entailed in it and our steps to address these issues as time goes on,” Reilly said.
“We were very appreciative that they were receptive to some of the ideas we brought up,” Dr. Campbell-Jackson added.
Heart of Illinois ABC can be reached at News@WJBC.com.
