Special school pupils ‘tortured’ in calming rooms

[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnBy Noel Titheradge & Annabel DeasInvestigations correspondent & File on 4 producerStaff were filmed hitting and kicking pupils at a special school and leaving them in their urine, the BBC has found. Despite the school proving abuse in so-called “calming rooms”, some staff are still employed there and have not been barred from working with children. Parents say they have not been allowed to see the footage and were misled about the use of isolation.Whitefield School said it acted in pupils’ best interests and was not obliged to make barring referrals.In 2021, a sealed box containing 44 memory sticks of CCTV footage from inside three of the rooms was discovered by new leadership at the school in Walthamstow, north-east London. It is one of the UK’s largest special schools with about 370 pupils.The BBC then revealed a joint Metropolitan Police and local authority investigation had been launched into “organised abuse” by staff between 2014 and 2017 – when the rooms were closed.Now, we have obtained confidential school investigations written by an HR consultant it employed to review the footage and staff conduct.These reveal appalling abuse and neglect affecting 39 pupils, many who are not able to speak.Six staff were proven to have abused children on the balance of probabilities but were not sacked – and at least one referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) was recommended but not made.From leaked school and council reports, information requests, and interviews with current and former employees, our investigation can reveal:Pupils were left alone in the rooms for up to four hours, with footage showing them naked, sitting in urine and eating crumbs off the floorChildren were “slammed”, kicked and hit with force “without obvious justification”, while rhino pads – often used in rugby training – were deployed to push pupils insideThe HR consultant identified more than 20 CCTV clips of excessive force and records of police notes described possible assaults – but despite this the Crown Prosecution Service did not recommend prosecutionsA whistleblower who worked at the school describes what they saw on CCTV as “torture” – and says the rooms were worse than cellsThe whistleblower approached the BBC because they believe the school’s investigations had amounted to a “whitewash”.”You’ve ended up with staff with no sanctions against them, no learning or awareness, no serious case review to look at what went wrong,” they said.The Children’s Commissioner for England says the BBC’s findings are “horrifying” and rules on seclusion should be tightened.”There is no place for any of that behaviour and it needs to stop,” Dame Rachel de Souza says.Caught on camera: The special school staff who abused kids and kept their jobsIn 2021, CCTV footage of children being abused was discovered at a special school. But staff caught hitting and kicking children were not sacked or referred to the barring service.Listen now to File on 4 on BBC SoundsThe BBC has spoken to nine of the 39 affected families who say they are still being denied answers. We have also seen evidence that one family has been misled by the police.Many special schools use spaces outside of classrooms to address sensory needs or aggressive behaviour. But children were locked alone in Whitefield’s calming rooms, which were bare and without natural light. One was a former stationary cupboard.Government guidance states that seclusion should only be used for an “appropriate” amount of time – but Dame de Souza believes these rules were “really stretched” at Whitefield.One of those put in the rooms was David Gloria, now 20, who has diagnoses of autism, ADHD and OCD.Despite school records of his placement, he does not feature in any of the 500 hours of footage handed to the police – highlighting the scale of seclusion at the school.His father, Ricardo, says he asked about the use of the calming rooms when David started being placed in them and was wrongly told that staff always remained with pupils.David soon began coming home distressed, leading his dad to grow suspicious. So Ricardo demanded to see the rooms and records of the times his son was put there.The BBC has seen one observation report of a three-hour placement.In it, David is clearly upset, recorded crying on 38 separate occasions over the period, asking to leave throughout. He is also observed saying he is “confused” and “does not understand” why he is there. Significant self-injury is recorded – the boy slaps and punches his head, hits his stomach and throws himself into the wall. After two hours, David is twice observed urinating but is not allowed to leave.After about three hours, the staff member records he would now be returned to his classroom to “recover”.Education consultant Elizabeth Swan told the BBC the report alone warranted a voluntary DBS referral against staff monitoring David.His father Ricardo, a police officer, visited the room and said it was worse than a prison cell. He spotted a CCTV camera inside and demanded staff show him one of the videos.Ricardo says the footage shocked him. He says it begins with David being “assaulted” by staff who put a knee in his back and pushed him inside the room – force which is n …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]