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.

Curly I'll homeschool if these are my options! Not my preferred course of action but I am aghast at the stuff I read on here, and I attended (and enjoyed) a pretty strict school myself. And I'm sticking with psychological torture. It's a bullshit, inhumane way to treat young people.

Actually one previous school I worked in didn’t have this - they put kids outside offices in corridors instead because they didn’t want to pay for a supervisor.

And I sympathise with the migraine. I also had my first as a teen and was taking to hospital by ambulance unable to see and numb down one side. I’ve suffered migraines for years though and have never heard of looking at a wall being a potential trigger just certain foods, low blood sugar, tiredness, smells etc. I was also advised by doctors to keep a diary for quite a while to try to identify things that might be triggers so I’m surprised a doctor would be happy to confidently say that your son looking at a wall definitely caused his migraine. I’m fact I didn’t think they actually diagnosed migraine until you have had more than one attack. Very odd.

Yes I am Scottish, however no longer live in Scotland.

I think some people are reading another thread and making up stuff, WHERE HAVE I SAID I DONT AGREE WITH THE SCHOOLS BEHAVIOUR POLICY?

I agree with the isolation, DS admitted fault and for that he will be punished according to the schools behaviour policies. I have never once argued against this, I have never once commented that DS punishment is unfair, and why only him punished... NOT ONCE have I complained about any of this.

Only that of DS treatment in the isolation room.

DS was not allowed to speak, not allowed to out his hand up, not allowed to say he had no course work, at one point when DS was taking unwell, he lay his head on his table and was told to sit up and look forward!

My complaint is that the school did not adhere to the schools own isolation policy. DS HOY has confirmed with the isolation supervisor that ALL of what DS has said is CORRECT!

Isolation manager however is avoiding my calls.

My DS is not a bad kid, far from it actually, however none of this is my complaint, my complaint is the isolation policy.

Thank you, for all your comments and opinions, I've taken most of them on board, taking a break as reading some of the comments is upsetting, some of you would think hes a vile badly behaved child, he is FAR FAR from this, he was just a silly kid.

My DS feels awful hes injured another child, it was not intentional.

I can’t believe so many nasty responses saying this is acceptable. 1) it was loads of kids throwing acorns and it was just bad luck that OP’s son thought it was his that hit the other child’s eye. 2) that they think it’s okay to sit in a small white room for a day and not think that could induce a migraine. Or even if not getting a migraine - that is just mean. 3) leaving the boy to his own devices for that long and not notice he’s doing no work. Come on- how did they not ask the boy where his work was?

he didn't even complain when he had his bloods taken or endured being in a big scary CT scanner while they took scans of his brain!!!

He's 12, why should be complain about having bloods taken or a CT scan which was a waste?
Plenty of children with lifelong illnesses endure much worse.

Considering the health issues caused, it isnt appropriate he be in isolation again.

Emailing the teacher may be better, explain the issues and in future have a days exclusion instead.

I hate isolation rooms. If you watched schools this week where they called it Ready to learn room however it worked for the well behaved children who now have huge fear but the children who struggled to behave in class still did . It was also a cheap way of removing the minority without really any specific support.

My own Ds has ADHD. I can tell you if he ever gets sent it will be impossible for him to sit still and be quiet all day so god knows what will happen to him

I think you should make a complaint.

1. No work was provided during his isolation time. He spent a whole day staring at a white wall for something even the teacher acknowledged was an unfair punishment. He has also lost a day's education as a reward for his honesty about owning up about the acorn incident. Did the school really want him to learn it would have been better to keep his mouth shut?

1. The nature of the punishment - staring at a white wall - is cruel and triggered a disability, namely migraine. Going forward you want it acknowledged that isolation will not be a suitable punishment for him due to the environment of isolation as it stands being incompatible with your son's disability.

1. They might wish to bear this in mind for other students with disabilities as migraine is common.

haudYerWheest I think you are being very reasonable. I have an 11year old ds and I can absolutely imagine him.being in this situation. He isn't a bad kid at all, but if other kids were throwing acorns I would not be surprised if he joined in. He would be very upset if he thought he'd hurt someone. I would be ok about him.being punished but not happy about the punishment you describe.

This is a typical isolation room with the walled booths. These ones are quite narrow - some are wider.

So you have heard it from the school that he wasn’t able to speak in any circumstances including a medical emergency? Rubbish!

triggered a disability, namely migraine. Going forward you want it acknowledged that isolation will not be a suitable punishment for him due to the environment of isolation as it stands being incompatible with your son's disability

Holy moly. Her son has had ONE possible migraine. He does not have “a disability”

ThePlatypusAlwaysTriumphs

how long is it since your mother taught?

So all this indecent has taught him is to lie.
All the kids were throwing acorns, even the kid that got hit. The kid that got hit wasn't assaulted what hyperbole.

All the kids throwing acorns should have got a detention, not one kid being singled out for a day in isolation.

You should absolutely complain about how the punishment was administered. Sitting upright in front of a white wall is absolute bollocks. That must have been awful.

You need to find out why your kid wasn't given work, or able to go to his locker, you need to find out why the supervisor didn't acknowledge your ds and see why he didn't get any work or give him work. You need to find out why their procedure wasn't followed. You need to know why your calls are being ignored.

Can you go to the head teacher? I get it, you're not necessarily complaining about the punishment its how it was handled.

Another reason to complain to the school (write to the governors if the Head isn't helpful) is that, if their behaviour policy allows for kids to be punished disproportionately and unfairly, then their policy needs amending. This was a bunch of kids messing about, throwing acorns, which is silly but entirely normal childhood behaviour . Nothing OP has said suggests that there was any malice or bullying in it, and they were in the playground so not 'disrupting others' learning'. OP's DS thought it might have been an acorn he threw which hit the other child, so he got this nasty punishment while the others got off scot free. A sensible school would have given them all a bollocking and left it at that. If the parents of the kid who got hurt have any sense, they will accept that this was an unfortunate accident caused by kids mucking about and their kid was as much to blame as the others.

Y'know, I do now have an answer to give to anyone I know who (understandably) objects to private, fee-paying schools and wants to know what is so much better about those than the state system.

Perhaps when you are paying a school, one of the things you are paying them for is not having this sort of punishment given to a child for messing about in free time with a lot of other children. I mean, sod the educational standards or the sports facilities or whatever that always get trotted out as reasons to want to go private, not wanting your child to be expected to spend a day doing nothing is a good reason for wanting to have some say in how the school punishes children. If nothing else, if the parent is paying through the nose for the child to be educated, the parent is entitled to ask for money's worth, not days with no teaching in them because of a punishment the child could get just as well free of charge at home. If any parent gave punishments like that these days, which I don't suppose many of them do.

What the fuck? Nobody should have been throwing acorns, but what kind of bullshit rules involve isolating kids and making them stare at a fucking wall all day? What's next, kneeling on dry peas? Detention would have sufficed.

Isolation rooms aren't new - they were around when I was in school 20 years ago. I think they were less prevalent than now, but they existed. (I have a cousin who used to boast of passing notes to others to avoid doing work in the isolation room.) The reality is that teachers simply have to be able to remove students who are disrupting the learning of others. Children in school have the right to be safe (obviously) but also the right to an education.

However, IMO the use of isolation rooms for the purpose of punishment (as opposed to the purpose of ensuring immediate safety / good learning of others) is more complicated and I must admit I'm not convinced it works. But if that is the system at the school you choose to send your child too you have to suck it up when he falls foul of the rules.

More importantly, the lack work is an issue. In some schools, the system for sending work to the isolation room is so onerous, or has such a short time frame, that teachers cannot do it. For example, on a full day I check emails before school at 8.30 and after school at 4 - if an isolation message appeared between those times I'd have no chance to send work to the student. OP it absolutely is worth raising the issue because the system needs reviewing. You aren't getting a response from the isolation manager so you should escalate it.

Iamrightok, yes I have seen the booths, while I was looking at our options for secondary schools.

Bumsex, they haven't diagnosed migraines, they advised he was experiencing a very bad one however.

DS has never shown any signs of headaches before that day, hes only ever had one course of antibiotics in his whole life. Hes very active, fit and healthy, he wasn't dehydrated either, and his bloods were fine, the only change he had was the isolation room, we seen 2 doctors, both believe the white wall was the cause of his symptoms.

What is this medical emergency that you describe? DS didn't tell anyone he was feeling unwell, until he seen his Granddad, even if he wanted to tell the teacher, he was given a set of rules to follow when entering the isolation room, nothing on it if he felt unwell, just told not to talk under any circumstances.

And this idea that you must always back up authority/other adults is absolutely poisonous. It's what leads women in abusive relationships to allow their partners to hurt the kids because 'you mustn't undermine the other parent'. It's what enables abusive teachers, religious leaders, youth workers etc to get away with it: 'you must always obey adults, and adults must always support other adults' 'discipline'.

I got an apology out of DS' school when they acted like a bunch of cunts, and they won't do it again. I demonstrated to DS that I will have his back when people are treating him unfairly, and that 'authority' isn't always right and can and should be challenged.

I'd be the first to come down hard on a DC of mine for dicking about which caused harm to another child but his owning up/honesty is to be respected I think and a day of staring at a white wall is an outdated unnecessary punishment in this scenario. Would it not have been better to withdraw a privilege from all those involved instead.

For me personally, that sort of punishment would have been pure torture. I find it very difficult to sit still (never been diagnosed with anything though am in my 40s so it just wasn't anything looked at at the time). I would have had to start to rock or hum, sing or recite prayers or something to keep myself on the right side of sane.
I think it's barbaric and I genuinely am utterly shocked that British schools do such a thing in this day and age? Have we learned nothing?
How on actual earth, could you force a child to look at a wall for a whole day?

Does anyone else not see the barbarity of it? The utter torture the lad endured?
Torture is designed to break people. I'm sure your poor son was somewhat broken after this.
As I said, a boxing class, shower, put your makeup on and go in and tell them you will be taking this through every channel available to you to escalate this through the ranks of the complaints procedure.
If someone did this to either me, or my sons, there would be massive hell to pay. The poor child had no way to defend himself. He wasn't allowed what adults are i.e. legal representative. He was subjected to a very cruel and tortuous punishment.

Words actually fail me. As for the posters piling on saying he deserved it? What century are you in?

So he obviously could raise his hand. There’s no way he could have been denied any form of communication in case there was an emergency so he could have raised his hand and asked for work but chose not to.
You can’t say that looking at a wall caused his migraine (which you now say hasn’t actually been diagnosed as migraine) on the basis of one attack. There has to be a pattern to identify triggers.
You are being overly dramatic. He had to sit in a booth and chose not to ask for any work as many kids would do if they thought they would get away with it.

I'll ask again, did he have a laptop ?