Summary
Joanne Juhnke, Disability Rights Wisconsin advocacy specialist, talked to TMJ4 last week about the Hartland Lakeside School District building "seclusion room". She also talks about how restraint and seclusion hurts students with disabilities. Restraint is when someone uses their own body or a device to stop a student from moving their body. Seclusion is when staff puts a student alone in a room or area against their will.
Joanne Juhnke, Disability Rights Wisconsin advocacy specialist, spoke with TMJ4 last week about the traumatic overuse of restraint and seclusion in schools. She gave insight into why parents are concerned about “seclusion rooms” being built by the Hartland Lakeside School District.
Restraint and seclusion affect young students with disabilities much more. Statewide data from the Department of Public Instruction shows that eighty-eight percent of cases where the school used seclusion were in elementary schools. Instead of using seclusion, school districts should pay attention to and meet students’ needs to prevent dysregulation.
Read about the rooms being built by Hartland Lakeside School District and about restraint and seclusion in schools here: ‘It’s inhumane’: Parent calls on Hartland Lakeside School District to stop building ‘seclusion rooms,” by Ben Jordan