Recent inquiries have revealed the alarming use of seclusion room practices associated with UK school calming rooms. This should give us great pause as to what happens to the most vulnerable students. Calming rooms, referred to as quiet, safe, or seclusion rooms, are facilities designed to isolate pupils deemed a threat to themselves or others. Reports indicate that these rooms may not provide the safe space that it is claimed they do. In truth, they might actually cause significant injury.
Gemma Grant, a campaigner with the Challenging Behaviour Foundation charity, has condemned the use of calming rooms. She referred to them as “ancient, barbaric and inhumane.” Now that knot of controversy has come to a boil. Camera call from a criminal like Whitefield School shows outraging footage of children who were hit with unreasonable force. In other instances, children have been thrown violently to the ground. They are literally just being left in dirty, unsanitary conditions—sometimes sitting on their own vomit.
Here in the UK, schools aren’t even legally required to tell parents when their child has been placed into seclusion. This opacity has contributed to widespread panic among parents and advocacy organizations. The British Institute of Learning Disabilities is concerned about the risks associated with the use of restrictive practices. Instead, she and others want to encourage schools to critically examine how calming rooms are being used.
Among these the most shocking was the case of an autistic student at Wellspring Academy Trust. This particular student had been restrained for an appalling 50 minutes in a seclusion room. Eric Baskind, an expert on the use of force in institutional settings, has vehemently opposed these practices. He called them “brutal” and “unlawful.” He argues that the conditions and practices in calming rooms are harmful to students’ mental health.
The public outcry is becoming deafening. As officers from the London Borough of Waltham Forest were repeatedly advised on the overuse of calming rooms at Whitefield School prior to their shut down, but did nothing. This has only deepened concerns about what’s required to hold them accountable and the efficacy of current oversight efforts.
Reckoning with the growing uproar, the UK government released its response to calming rooms on Wednesday. Most recently, they once again promised to consult on the use of force and restrictive interventions in schools. Beginning this September, schools in England will be required to report any use of force against pupils directly to their parents. Even with this new regulation, there are no requirements for states to report publicly or even track the use of seclusion. As a result, parents are completely in the dark.
Parents have testified to the horrendous abuse their children have experienced inside these facilities. As Zoe, the mother of one of the affected boys, said. She was like, this is a child, and these are five adult grown-ups in a school where he should be feeling secure. Her frustration is a sentiment shared by countless other parents who believe the federal government isn’t doing enough to keep their children safe.
Maria, parent of one of the 39 students targeted by incidents at Whitefield School, spoke about her distress. She continued, saying definitively, “This should never happen again.” Their justifiable desperation for change underscores the urgent need for reform in how educational institutions address increasingly difficult behavioral issues presented by a growing population of students with trauma.
This divide between the perspectives of schools and parents when it comes to calming rooms presents a drastic, alarming chasm. Some of these educational powers argue in their defense that they need to use them in order to keep students safe. For advocates opposed to this overreach, the measures undermine students’ rights and dignity.
In response, Prime Minister and former Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for the revelations to ensure that such a situation “must never happen again.” His statement reflects a growing acknowledgment at high levels of government about the need for systemic changes to ensure student safety and well-being.
