Mother Sues Over Daughter’s Suicide Attempt in School Isolation Booth

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From The Guardian: “A woman whose daughter tried to kill herself while in an isolation booth at an academy school is to take legal action against the government.

The child, who cannot be named, has autistic spectrum disorder and mental health problems, but was put in an isolation booth by her school in Kent for more than a month.

Prior to the intervention of lawyers in mid-March, she had spent every day since mid-January in isolation, meaning she had to remain silent throughout the day and had no directed teaching. […]

Dan Rosenberg, an education solicitor at [law firm] Simpson Millar, said: ‘Guidance on behaviour and discipline in schools needs to be much clearer; especially with regards the use of isolation booths which, evidence suggests, are being used as a “dumping ground” for children, particularly those with special educational needs.

‘What was originally a method for dealing with an immediate crisis in a classroom is now being used as a low-cost solution for the long-term management of pupils, to the detriment of their mental health and education. The current guidance is not fit for purpose, and as a result children are suffering.'”

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2 COMMENTS

  1. I’d hate to be on the jury if this went to trial. I don’t know if I could stand listening to day after day of psychiatric blather from a large sequence of alleged experts delivering spiels in the malevolent custard such individuals use to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own bungling.

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  2. The Guardian article states:

    In a pre-action letter seen by the Guardian, lawyers said the extended time in isolation had had a significant impact on the girl.
    “It has caused her depression. It also lead to her taking an overdose while in the isolation room itself,” they said.

    To fully understand this sad report, I ask myself:

    So – an overdose of what “medication”? Given when?
    Was the behaviour that provoked her isolation a manifestation of SSRI/SNRI induced AKATHISIA, and hence possible subsequent akathisia induced suicidal ideation?

    Twenty per cent of those taking SSRIs develop clinically significant akathisia with its manifestations including intense agitation, aggression, violence against self or others, writhing-restlessness, pacing, hair pulling, self harm, inability to communicate and almost unbearable suffering?
    Might there have been more than the isolation that is alleged to have caused harm?

    Surely, without a fastidious, comprehensive time-line of all/any changes in prescription psychotropic, and other drugs, the investigation of this sad situation may not be complete?

    TRM 123. Retired Consultant Physician.

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