COLORADO — A lawmaker in the state proposed a bill that would ban seclusion rooms in all public and charter schools in the state. However, the lawmaker who wrote the bill knew that it would never get out of committee the way it was written.
“So seclusion rooms cause trauma for me, and students have to deal with that trauma even when they’re not in a seclusion room.” Democrats in the state legislature, led by bill sponsor Regina English, said, “I think we can be more proactive instead of reactive because there’s always a better way, a better path, especially for students.” “This [bill] should be a no-brainer this is the right thing for the state of Colorado to do, it really is.”
The bill was talked about at a meeting on Wednesday by the education committee. The bill as it was written would not allow any school district, district charter school, or institute charter school to seclude a student on certain land.
Denver Public Schools have had a lot of talk about seclusion rooms. The school that used these rooms, McAuliffe International School, came under attack. DPS looked into it and found that staff put kids in this room without keeping an eye on them.
“That’s not okay with me, not on my watch,” English said about the results of the probe. English’s point of view is not shared by all.
One of Jessie Hawthorn’s sons used McAuliffe’s private room for school.
Hawthorn told 9NEWS, “I was glad that he had that choice.” “My son at different times destroyed classrooms threw desks and chairs everywhere, so there are students like that that need time to become regulated and those types of rooms are important for those students.”
English put the bill on hold in committee this week, which means she pushed back the vote for another day. She said it was possible that the bill did not have enough votes as written to get through the committee on Wednesday.
She thinks it could pass with some changes, though.
To help clear things up, she said, “They want to know what seclusion and de-escalation mean.” “I have hope and would like to have trust that my colleagues agree that this is not best practice and that we will get it through both chambers.”
English is the only backer in the House right now. Democratic Senator Janet Buckner will likely introduce it in the Senate.
She said that the exact changes are still being made. There could be big changes to the plan after amendments, and it might not even lead to a full ban in the end.