Jan 20, 2009 10:55 pm US/Central
I-TEAM: Mother Says Son Taught In Storage Closet
MOORHEAD, Minn. (WCCO) ―
Minnesota schools can use time-out rooms to keep students with behavior problems safe if they become a danger to others or themselves.
In December, the I-TEAM revealed how one school misused such a room and left a girl in long enough to eat the paint off the walls. However, it isn't just time-out rooms where children have been confined.
A mother, who has a son with autism, said her boy's education took place in a storage closet.
On this day, Alexis Caredenas is happy. Two years ago, that was not the case. His mother, Maricruz Caredenas, said he would walk around with a pillow and cry and cry.
When Maricruz talks about what her son went through during the 2006-2007 school year, it breaks her heart. She said he was in there from Nov. 2006 until Feb. 2, 2007 when she took him out of school.
At the time, Alexis was attending the Moorhead Senior High School. On the autism spectrum, he can't speak and is limited in what he understands. He was receiving special education services at the Moorhead High School.
Alexis' Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, allowed for instruction in what the district called a "therapy room" -- a place where the district thought he could be more effectively educated.
"So they decided to put him in that room and I said 'Yes, show me the room,'" said Maricruz.
The room she was shown had counters, a table and windows. She always thought he was in that room.
Maricruz said it wasn't until she dropped him off at school one day that a sympathetic paraprofessional who worked with Alexis told her where his teacher had really placed him.
She said it was a storage room and had a plaque that said "STORAGE ROOM".
Maricruz said half of the room had computers and stuff that wasn't used. She said there was just enough room to fit a table, two chairs and a beanbag.
"Alexis would lay on the bean bag on the floor and his feet were just up to where the chairs and table were. And there were no windows, there was nothing," Maricruz said.
She said he was in there everyday and still gets emotional when talking about it.
The Moorhead School District would not talk on camera, but did provide a written statement saying:
- "The school converted a former storage area to an alternative learning space for (Alexis)."
- "(Alexis) was never alone in Room 208"
- "The District offered to change the specialized instruction room location to a different room when the parent expressed concern."
- "(Alexis) was instructed in Room 208 for one hour and 45 minutes per day ... no single scheduled period in Room 208 exceeded 30 minutes".
His mother said in the IEP, Alexis had to be in the therapy room from 10 to 20 minutes.
Because the room was used for longer periods of time, and because she never approved the use of the storage room as a therapy room, Maricruz took the district to U.S. District Court.
Ultimately, they settled, and Alexis moved on. However, it took him a while, almost nine months to recover.
Now, it's back to dancing, working and spending days with mom and dad.
"I never, never, never put him aside. He is always with the family," Maricruz said.
The Moorhead School District said its time-out and behavioral interventions meet federal and state special education laws and rules.
Disability and education attorneys say they're seeing more cases involving time-out rooms and alternative learning environments.
The Moorhead School District disagrees with Maricruz about her account of Alexis' educational setting, but is bound by privacy laws and unable to speak about the specifics.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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