Friday, June 29, 2012

City schools avoid suit, hand over ‘seclusion room’ files

The Columbus DispatchFriday June 29, 2012  
By Jennifer Smith Richards

Click on the linkbelow to read the full article.

A federal lawsuit to force Columbus schools to hand over records about its use of seclusion rooms has been dismissed because the district provided them.

The Ohio Legal Rights Service, a state agency that works to protect people with disabilities, sued Columbus City Schools in March. The agency said the district was blocking its attempt to investigate whether children had been abused in the closetlike rooms. The agency sought the names and contact information of students who had been placed in seclusion rooms and records related to incidents that occurred in the rooms dating back to Jan. 1, 2011.

The district handed over the records throughout May and June, and the agency asked U.S. District Judge Gregory L. Frost to dismiss the case. He did on Wednesday.

The investigation continues, said Kim McConnell, spokeswoman for the Legal Rights Service.