To raise a formal complaint regarding school isolation

[HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend]

Last week a group of 20-30 kids were throwing acorns at each other in the school playing field, a child who also throwing the acorns, got hit in the eye which I've been led to believe required medical treatment, teacher asked who hit the child and DS said he believed it was his acorn, and that he was sorry, and did not mean to cause anyone harm.

He was given a days isolation plus after school detention, however on the day with only 10 mins notice.

His head of year called and said as he admitted it was him, they had no choice to follow the isolation process, however admitted they thought it was harsh, however rules and rules which we will adhere to and support the school with.

DS has NEVER been in isolation.

My AIBU is, Ds was made to sit in a 2 by 4 booth, being made to sit upright and face a white wall for the whole of the school day. NO SCHOOL WORK WAS GIVEN AT ALL

He could not tell the supervisor he had no course work as he isn't allowed to talk while in isolation, and tbh nor should even have to ask for course work, its the supervisors role to ensure DS has course work, which is the policy in DS school.

Only one teacher called the isolation supervisor to ask if DS was present, however did not send course work, not one of his other 4 teachers called to ask if he was present.

The isolation supervisor has confirmed all of the above is true his HOY has advised us that they have passed it on to the isolation manager who will be calling me, however even after chasing it up everyday for the past week and leaving messages for them to call me I am still awaiting the phone call.

My own DS ended up requiring medical treatment as he endured a headache with sickness and sensitivity to light, ds has never had a migraine before isolation, which the A&E doctors advised was the cause.

You're being generous to allow them time to respond. What are you expecting them to say? What do you want to hear?
I genuinely would be seeking legal advice (if you can afford it).
That a school punishment injured my child enough to require medical attention, you bet your bottom dollar I would.
Fuck their complaints procedure. I'd be going legal.

Glad to see that a few more reasonable posters joined the discussion today.

They don't have a isolation room at my DC's grammar school but do at the local 'comprehensive'. I'm very glad we don't have to deal with such insanity.

I'm sorry but actions have consequences and just because your child is usually really well behaved and apologised doesn't mean that he should get away with no punishment, but I do think all of the kids should have had the same treatment and not just your son.

smile hopefully even mundane tasks/reading books, if the school makes a policy then they should adhere to it, what DS was subjected to also goes against GOV guidelines

Thedukes I have family who live in Norway, the educational system is exceptional. Honestly at this point I just want an explanation and why the supervisor did not notice or care ds had no course work, but cared enough to force him to face front and upright, when he tried to rest his head.

SparklesAndUnicorns Do read the whole thread! The op has already said that she is not debating the punishment, just the way it was carried out. Which is not inline with the schools own policy.

They don't have a isolation room at my DC's grammar school but do at the local 'comprehensive'. I'm very glad we don't have to deal with such insanity

Wow.

Just...

I’m out.

Bach I given up with explaining why Im upset, if posters choose to be selective in there reading, then im being selective in choosing to not bang my head against a brick wall - My dh is currently reading these posts, he is open-mouthed at the treatment of your child

In you case, I would not be threatening legal action, my lawyer would already be serving the legal action, your poor boy.

SmileEachDay Why? I don't think any school should have a isolation room. I don't know what I can do about another local school having one though, if I don't have a child at that school. I just feel lucky that my child's school doesn't.

I work in a school and I think you should complain even if it's because they haven't followed their own policies. He was punished in accordance with their policies and because he didn't followed the rules ,fair enough. Then they failed to follow the rules themselves. How does that work and what does it teach children?

Tbh I wouldn't be happy with their method of isolation and the fact that he was the only one punished either.

“ I don't know what I can do about another local school having one though, if I don't have a child at that school. I just feel lucky that my child's school doesn't.”

There just aren’t the same behavioural issues in grammars as there are in comps. The difference is stark. Yes, you should feel lucky that your children go to a school where the behaviour is good enough that it doesn’t NEED an isolation room.

Comps who have one are trying to do their best for their children in this climate of severe funding cuts. The support for kids that need more specialist provision in mainstream is no longer there. Isolation units are a last ditch attempt to instill some order into schools where it sadly no longer exists, for all sorts of reasons, often wider societal ones which the school has no control over.

Whether they are running the isolation room system as it is designed to be run is another matter. Maybe there is a training issue in some schools.

Lessons to learn from this incident:

1. Always take your school bag with you to isolation.
2. Carry sunglasses to protect from bright lights.

Cachailleacha

Your response seemed dripping with derision for non grammar schools. Particularly your use of air quotes.

Grammar schools don’t need isolation rooms because the cohort of students is massively different. They have interested, involved parents and carers. They are academically at least solid, with a larger proportion of high achieving students.

I have my own views on the impact not having those students and families has on the other schools in grammar areas, but that’s for another thread.

Local comps are struggling to keep their heads above water.

Particularly your use of air quotes. The quotation marks were because it is not a true comprehensive, because of the grammar school. No derision here. My child is no different to his friends at the comp (how I know about the isolation room).

HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend

Your ds learned a valuable lesson that day.

Don't own up to anything and if you get caught DENY DENY DENY

Schools are very good at teaching you to lie

Thedukes
FFS- bringing a lawyer in?
Would you sue the school?
Want compensation?

OP, in your shoes I would be extremely angry and I found reading about your poor DS's experience very troubling.

A short while ago I started reading Roald Dahl's autobiography Boy to my (younger) children but had to stop as it was just so upsetting, full of extreme punishments for minor disgressions. I thought we lived in a kinder more enlightened age, but clearly not. For those saying this sort of extreme discipline is necessary to keep order in secondaries - something is extremely wrong with society if this is the case and we should all be up in arms demanding change.

I know you said you do not propose to complain about the decision to put him in isolation but to my mind that decision was also wrong. In normal everyday society, if one makes an error of judgment, realises one's mistake and apologises/makes amends, that is usually the end of the matter and one can move on. A detention alone was surely sufficient. Disproportionate punishment is not, in my view, constructive as it is likely to leave many children extremely anxious about being punished and I fail to see how isolation actually helps disruptive and troubled children - surely it does not tackle the root of the behaviour.

It is even more out of order for the school to then force your DS to sit facing a wall with nothing to do all day. As a PP said it sends the wrong messages if they are allowed to breach their own policies with impunity. Even more than that, what sort of sadistic person could have overseen this? I would be questioning whether the supervisor should be in their job at all - certainly not exercising absolute power over vulnerable children. So YADNBU to complain.

The words that spring to my mind when reflecting on what you wrote are "inhuman treatment or punishment". This is absolutely forbidden under Article 3 of the European Charter of Human Rights (ECHR). Under the Human Rights Act public authorities including schools must comply with the ECHR and can be sued if they don't. There may therefore be a claim against the school/LEA - either for compensation or to stop them doing this again. Probably not a route you have the time or money to go down but it is worth being aware of this remedy as it gives some teeth to your complaint.

Your son may also have a personal injury claim against the school for causing his migraine, if you can prove (a) it was reasonably foreseeable that being forced to stare at the white wall all day might cause a migraine and (b) this was in fact the cause of his migraine. Again not a route that you probably have the time or money to go down but again worth being aware as it provides context to your discussions with the school.

You are also entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to ask public bodies (such as the LEA and school) for information which might provide useful ammunition as well. This only requires you to write to them asking for the information you want and you do not have to follow any special formalities (it is best though to mention the Act to ensure they realise they have a duty to provide the information). They have to answer within 21 days and provide the information unless an exemption applies.

In your shoes I think I would complain in writing to the school about their treatment of your son during his isolation. If possible get them to confirm the facts first in writing. I would demand to know how this came to happen, demand that the supervisor be disciplined, ask for details of how they will change their policies and also oversee their implementation to avoid anything like this happening again, and demand an explanation as to the policy behind use of isolation - i.e. how they envisage it can be used as constructive and effective use as a tool to manage behaviour (which will include constructive use of the time in isolation) rather than as an anxiety-inducing over the top disproportionate punishment.

If appropriate I would also note that their treatment of your son breached his rights under Article 3 of the ECHR and reserve your position to take this further if you do not get satisfactory answers. It seems to me that, especially given their strict view on following policies, it would also be appropriate for the supervisor of the isolation room to apologise to your son for the way your son was treated. You might say that if the decent thing is done you will not pursue any formal legal action but if not you reserve all your rights.

You might also write to the LEA and the school to ask what psychological advice they have taken on use of isolation as a behaviour management tool and how to implement isolation correctly and what risk management they have undertaken. I know you say you are not challenging the policy itself but I do question whether it is correct. I would not do this to my own children. For a parent to lock a child in their room all day with nothing to do and only a single meal and toilet trip would likely be regarded as neglect.

Best of luck.

And by the way - this is for Iamrightok - I am not suggesting that OP should actually pursue compensation. The point here that needs addressing is the principle. However this is shocking treatment and the school should realise that they too have legal responsibilities and duties. They can't just treat a poor defenceless 12 year old as they please in some sadistic manner - they have a duty of care and the supervisor must act within the law.

Iamrightok

At least theduke is no longer charging up to the school in true keyboard warrior fashion.

The OP was aware of the isolation room and the school policy before enrolling her child at the school. The problem was that her ds was not provided with work while in the isolation room. So if she wishes to complain about that then fair enough.

But to bring in lawyers etc is madness.

A colleague of mine had a 15 year old student shit in a crisp packet and throw it at her. Seriously- this is what we are dealing with in some schools. Where are the defenders of teachers human rights?

Biologi

You would really be more cross with OPs DS than with the other children doing the same thing?

Whilst it is the right thing to do/polite to apologise when something you've accidentally done has caused injury to someone else (and I understand from a later post from OP that her son has apologised), I just don't think I'd be more cross with OPs DS than my own in this situation, given that my child had been injured whilst also taking part in the acorn throwing. I'd think they were both as bad as each other, and it was equally possible that my child could have injured someone so it was only "luck" that they had not. I'd be having words with my own child about silly behaviour.

I think it is bit odd to be cross with one boy, when really it could have been any of them- it was just "bad luck" for OPs DS that the acorn he threw was the acorn that hit another child. They were all at fault, all equally guilty of same offence (including the injured child) and be punished equally. I think a days isolation is totally OTT for what happened. A firm talking to from the head, maybe a detention , for all involved and then left there.

In my school this incident would have lead to all the children involved in throwing acorns being spoken to. If they all confirmed that it was an accident and OP's ds seemed appropriately apologetic then nobody would have been punished as it was an accidental injury.

We do have an isolation room. It's used for serious incidents like physical fights, theft, swearing at staff, etc. There has to be some malicious intent for punishments to escalate to isolation.

Once in isolation the pupils are definitely given work to do. There is a selection of worksheets and textbooks from each subject, so the supervisor can give a maths sheet for that yeargroup even if nothing specific has been sent (because we aren't even informed where they are most of the time). The isolation supervisor completes the register for those pupils, putting a note to say "in isolation" so teachers know where they are.

So op in answer to your question, I would be writing a formal complaint. I would be complaining specifically that your ds was not given anything to do all day, and that the isolation supervisor has refused to engage with your questions. I wouldn't muddy the waters with stuff about teachers not knowing where he was, they probably asked the class who will have told them. And your ds developing a migraine is an unfortunate side effect from not being given any work to complete (as he would not then have been staring at the wall). So your complaint needs to stay focused on the main issue, which is no work being provided, and at the same time say you have only escalated to a formal complaint because you have not had any communication from the isolation manager who would have been able to answer the questions you have about their policy.

It's terrifying how many people blindly believes that rules is rules.

I remember going to adult evening classes and none of the other adults there was capable of telling the teacher they didn't understand, because that was always punished when they were children.

Yes schools have to teach children facts and techniques but they should not be instilling vices, such as not owning up when you have done something wrong, with these OTT punishments.

Do the people saying “torture” think fixed term exclusions are better? Because that is what schools used to do, a lot more, and it caused massive issues in local communities.

For my DS, yes absolutely, if he had the same isolation OPs DS did. But then, I would be hard on him and make him do a full day of home learning. I realise other parents would not.

If schools want good behaviour, they need to model it. That doesn't mean they can't be strict, but it does mean that if students have to stick to rules and policies then so do the staff.

These are the courses of action I would have felt reasonable in this scenario, or what I would want done (as people have asked):

1. Detention for ALL involved in acorn throwing. Including injured child. (I suffered an eye injury in a similar incident at school. Although I admitted joining in, school chose to punish everyone else. I did not win friends and influence people.)

1. If isolation is appropriate then it needs to be administered correctly. Correct notice period, full list of what child is expected to arrive with and rules in advance. Instead, OPs DS was dragged out of PE and not given the chance to retrieve his bag from his locker, immediately putting him at a disadvantage.

1. Isolation should have books, revision guides or other learning resources. If it is too much for teachers to provide tailored work then there must be generic work. Generic work is better than no work. At DS school they have an 'extended curriculum' which is an online resource they can use to do work which is related to the curriculum but not a specific part of their curriculum learning. DS school makes it quite clear that if a student is ever at a loose end when they should be learning then they should access this - including in isolation.

1. Isolation room should be painted in a matte neutral colour. I suffer with migraines, and cannot sit facing windows or anywhere where light coming in causes glare from the white walls. There is even a cream building outside one half of my office. When the sun hits it I cannot even look at it because it causes pain. My employers have always been fine with me needing to sit in certain places in the office, as a reasonable adjustment. DS has migraines too. Ours are largely caused by scotopic sensitivity, so a white wall (or computer screen, or paper) sets them off. White walls in rooms with fluorescent lighting should be a breach of H&S imo.

DS school has levels of punishment from 1-6. Levels 1 and 2 are warnings, 3 is detention, 4 Isolation, 5 fixed term exclusion and 6 is expulsion.

DS is the same age as OPs DS. In his first term at secondary, he has been threatened with isolation for the following things;

• Incorrect PE shirt (despite ordering in advance, the shop still didn't have it after 8 weeks.) There was nowhere else to buy it. DS was too small for a regular size, so they'd ordered it in. DS had a second PE top, but that was the "outdoor" one and deemed inappropriate.

• Not wearing correct footwear when he had a broken toe. This was despite him having a letter from the fracture clinic consultant clearly stating he must wear comfortable shoes. He was not wearing flashy trainers, just plain black leather sneakers, which I had checked were ok with SLT before sending him in.

• "Refusing to participate in PE".

DS was called out of the lesson, with the PE teacher's knowledge, to attend a school mandated counselling session as DS has SEN. He did not refuse to participate - he was asked to leave and go elsewhere!

• A teacher walked into DS in the lunch hall, causing him to drop his lunch. DS was told he would be put in isolation the next day for "littering". £5 of food wasted. DS was only absolved when he was sent to register for isolation for the following day, protested his innocence and the isolation manager checked the CCTV. The teacher was not looking where they were going, and did not see DS, who is small for his age.

Don't get me wrong, DS has his share of misdemeanors, but he accepts when he has cocked up and will accept punishment, knowing I will back the school up and tell him to suck it up and behave better in future. But when you try and follow every rule whilst they cock up and expect you to just go along with it? No. I don't accept that at all. I write policies for the NHS - to look after patients AND staff. We would not get away with cocking up a patients care and then just saying "budget cuts/we're too busy/we've got thousands of other patients/patients abuse us!" People can and do lose their jobs for that attitude. Teachers should be held to the same standard.

OP please follow Biscuitless advice to the letter, but only if you promise to report back on how it goes.

Riots in Paris, terrorist attacks in Germany and sex trafficking in Poland but I'm sure the European Court of Human Rights will be fascinated to learn that your child sat in a room doing sweet FA because he left his bag in his locker for the grand total of 6 hours. Fuck me. Stop the world I want to get off. Also I can imagine the hilarity in the solicitors office when they get this hot potato of an enquiry.

And lastly its an isolation room, not an opportunity to have a fucking nap, thats why no heads on desk policy. If he was seriously unwell he would have been sent to a medical room. Exactly the same behaviour standards as everyone else in lessons.

Honestly I want to send this thread to Amanda Spielmen titled "Batshit parents; The teacher recruitment crisis explained".