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Parent speaks out against the use of isolation rooms in public schools in Davenport

DAVENPORT– Nicole Wallace says she will never forget the day her son told her he was put inside, what his teachers called the “Skills Room,” at Smart Inte...
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DAVENPORT-- Nicole Wallace says she will never forget the day her son told her he was put inside, what his teachers called the “Skills Room,” at Smart Intermediate School.

Her son Keagan was diagnosed with ADHD and was placed in a special education program at Davenport’s Smart intermediate.

The room was initially a place where Keagan could go to get away from bullies, but instead his mom says it was used as a punishment.

“His mind is racing a thousand miles a minute and they would lock him up for it...I’ve watched those kids being put in that room I’ve seen them kick the crap out of that door I’ve seen them go to town on each other in that room,” says Wallace.

Seclusion rooms in Iowa Schools are legal and are supposed to provide a safe place for special education students, but now U.S Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are calling for a federal investigation into them after schools in Iowa City Violated State and Federal law.

The Skills Rooms at Smart Intermediate were shut down in October 2017 because administrators say they did not meet the districts standards, but the district still uses what’s called a crisis intervention room for students.

Keagan spent the last year home-schooled and will now enter his freshman year of high school. Although Wallace says she is glad to hear rooms at Smart were shut down she says rooms like them should be shut down as well.

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