Colorado Springs – Allegations that disabled elementary students were forced to sit in their own blood and urine while being held for hours in a “timeout” room are “inflammatory” and not founded in fact, Colorado Springs School District 11 officials said Tuesday.
The Legal Center for People With Disabilities and Older People issued a 21-page report Monday that says five disabled students at Will Rogers Elementary School were subjected to 45 incidents of improper restraint and seclusion during the 2005-06 school year.
Investigations are underway in five other Colorado school districts, including in the Denver-metro area, said Heidi Van Huysen, attorney for the center. The nonprofit advocacy group investigates allegations of abuse and neglect in settings for disabled people.
The center began investigating at Will Rogers after receiving complaints from parents, Van Huysen said.
“We’re talking about very young elementary-aged kids who are being repeatedly placed in a closed, timeout space, many of whom engaged in self-injurious behavior, and the staff knew that,” she said. “So we have kids that are hurting themselves to the point they were bleeding, and staff continued to place them in that room.”
The center plans to file a complaint with the Colorado Department of Education to suspend or revoke the license of the teacher in the school’s Learning Lab, and asked the department to ensure that District 11 is complying with state laws governing restraint and seclusion rules.
Two students, a boy and a girl who are now 11, were forced to sit in their own bodily fluids. The girl wet herself after five hours in the timeout room, and the boy engaged in head-banging that caused bleeding after he was placed in the room.
The district puts children in the timeout room if they are a danger to themselves or others. In its report, the center cites numerous occasions where the children hit, kicked, bit, threw things at teachers, climbed bookshelves and tried to run from the Learning Lab.
Robert Howell, executive director of special education for 3,000 special-needs students in District 11, said police and the district conducted investigations and found no abuse.
“I don’t believe them (allegations) to be accurate, based upon my own investigation,” Howell said.
Julie Rhuby, the girl’s mother, said her daughter’s teacher told her that the child was put in the timeout room from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. because she refused to do her schoolwork. Rhuby said she received a call from the school at 2:15 p.m. saying her daughter could not ride the bus home because she had wet herself.
“My daughter has never wet herself in her life. My daughter is 11 years old. She dresses like a little princess. She takes pride in who she is,” said Rhuby, whose daughter is not being named to protect her from being singled out for ridicule. “They didn’t let her out to eat, they didn’t let her out to go to the restroom. She had begged.”
Howell said the child was offered multiple opportunities to use the bathroom.
Howell said that the district’s policy has always been to try to mainstream special-needs children into their neighborhood schools.
But, he said, reports like the one issued by the legal center could have a chilling effect on that thinking.
“I would have to say that we are in a dilemma now. As the legal center continues to do its investigations, I think districts and teachers are going to be asking whether they can go ahead and serve these children,” Howell said.
Staff writer Erin Emery can be reached at 719-522-1360 or eemery@denverpost.com.
