A woman with her mouth covered in blue tape stood silently outside the Fairfax County School headquarters Wednesday for 30 minutes. She protested, along with another mother, because her 12-year-old son Quentin - who has Autism - was kept in seclusion for 30 minute intervals when he attended a FCPS elementary school.
"As we stand here ... there are children in many of our schools in solitary confinement right now," Jennifer Tidd said. "There are children being restrained. Right now. It's horrifying."
She recently told WUSA9 about her son Quentin, who is emotionally about three years old. She showed us the stack of notices documenting his daily seclusion at an FCPS school.
After he left FCPS, Quentin was put in seclusion even more often at a private school. She said he protested the treatment he hated in the only way he could.
"Everyday he would come home, I would unpack his backpack and there'd be urine soaked clothes that I would wash, fold up and put them back the next day to be in seclusion," said Tidd. "And soil those. It was a habit, that was our life."
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FCPS allows restraint and seclusion when a child's behavior turns dangerous, but they're only supposed to be used to protect the student or others.
"Seclusion wasn't an emergency event like they say, it was a lifestyle for him," said Tidd.
Quentin is now in a private school that does not use seclusion and "his behavior has improved dramatically," said Tidd.
She plans to protest for 30 minutes a day for 437 days - the number of days Quentin was put in seclusion.
"Putting your child in seclusion for 30 minutes, even if you tell it's only 30 minutes, what about the other 23 hours?" she said. "When is they're thinking about when is the next time I'm going to be in seclusion?"
Tuesday evening, the FCPS School Board sent out notice that because of recent reports and testimony that have "...shed light on FCPS restraint and seclusion practices and past reporting discrepancies, it is directing the Superintendent to "undertake a complete, thorough, and independent review of the practices."
The school board also plans to conduct a public work session on those practices next week. That public work session will be held on April 2, at FCPS headquarters in Falls Church.