Sending schoolchildren whose behavior threatens classroom order or the safety of students and teachers to a “calm-down” room remains a controversial subject among educators and parents. But there should be no debate over the need for safeguards to protect children from self-inflicted harm if a school does use a segregation space.

Hillcrest Elementary School is learning that lesson the hard way, a lesson that some foresight could have been prevented. Instead, school administrators find themselves defending their calm-down room and its use with a 6-year-old student whose parents say he emerged with minor head injuries after being left in the room alone last fall.

The reason for such rooms is simple enough: to provide a space where a student whose behavior is spiraling out of control can be taken to settle down. A segregation room should be a last resort, after the teachers or other staffers have tried to calm the child in a quiet corner of the classroom or a separate “wellness” room where staff members work with students requiring individual attention.

Only in the most extreme cases should a child be taken to a solitary room. And in every case, that room should include padded surfaces and a responsible adult who makes sure the child does not come to harm. That happens in most Franklin County schools, Recorder staff writers Lisa Spear and Tom Relihan reported in an article published March 29. But it appears not to have happened in every case at Hillcrest.

School officials defend their use of the room as a safety measure. “People are often surprised. They say, ‘What could a 6-year-old do?’” said Principal Sarah Burstein. “Unfortunately, there are situations where a student could become physically aggressive to the point of hurting an adult.”

That’s a legitimate point. But school officials can achieve that goal while using a room that has padding on the walls, comforting artwork, constructive activities to refocus a child’s energy and — critically — a staff member who can contain a child’s physical aggression so he doesn’t hurt himself or others.

That’s the approach taken by most of the county’s other schools, creating an inviting atmosphere to help children who are not in control of their emotions or bodies to relax.

Until The Recorder began asking questions about it earlier this year, Hillcrest’s calm-down room stood in stark contrast to what most other schools have in place, with bare concrete walls and no windows other than a small one in the door. It was inside this room, a converted storage area, that 6-year-old Landon Cummings injured himself by repeatedly banging his head against the hard surfaces, resulting in a headache and a bumped and bruised forehead, according to his parents and school nurse reports. His mother, and another whose son also has been placed in the room after extreme behavior, home-school their children due, they say, to the school’s use of this spartan space.

Thankfully, Landon didn’t hurt himself more seriously last November. And Hillcrest has now made changes to the room, adding a colorful mural of a butterfly, caterpillar and smiling sun to the walls, and putting large pillows inside. The school is also considering adding pads to the walls. Which leads us to ask: What’s taking so long?

Hillcrest must also reform its approach to staffing the calm-down room. While a teacher or aide stay with the student in the room, staff members who feel themselves in danger have been allowed to leave the child in the room and watch the student through the door window.

That clears the way for children to hurt themselves before the observer can intervene, clearly an unacceptable situation. If Hillcrest administrators need ideas on how to contain a physically aggressive child, they might look to the example of Greenfield’s Discovery School at Four Corners, where educators employ a small, moveable padded cubicle with students who are thrashing about.

As reported in The Recorder story, opinions vary among educators and experts on the effectiveness and value of calm-down rooms. While the rooms have their educational pros and cons, however, there must be no room for children to hurt themselves. That lesson is clear.

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