CHENEY, Wash. – A former student from Cheney School District has settled a lawsuit for $258,000 over alleged misuse of restraint and isolation practices. The student claims these practices caused severe emotional and psychological harm.
According to court documents, in 2011, as a kindergartener the student was locked in an isolation room for such a long period that he began chewing through the padded walls.
His mother repeatedly spoke with school staff to reduce the use of restraint and isolation. An agreement was made to notify her immediately if her son was placed in the time-out room again.
Despite the agreement, the student’s mother described another incident she came to pick him up from school to find her then 6-year-old son again in the isolation room without her knowledge. There he was naked, he had soiled himself and was hitting his head against the floor.
He told her, “They tried to kill me. They put me in that tiny room where there is not enough air.”
The court documents describe frequent incidents of the student being locked in the isolation room with the lights off or being restrained by school staff, all without his mother being notified.
The student says these incidents were ‘incessant,’ ‘excessive,’ and have had a lasting impact on his adult life.
Washington state lawmakers have been addressing issues of restraint and isolation in schools. In 2023 and 2025, legislation was introduced to reduce these practices in public schools.
During a public hearing in February, Esther Warwick from the Arc of King County highlighted the long-term impact on individuals who experienced isolation and restraint as students.
“I wanted to give you a sense that this issue does not just leave. It continues later in life as an impact on people with these experiences later in life,” said Warwick.
Despite efforts, neither of the bills introduced in the last session passed.
Cheney Schools reported using isolation or restraint 108 times during the 2024-2025 school year. While similar practices occur statewide, the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) has launched a pilot program to end these practices.
Approximately a dozen school districts are part of this program, but Cheney is not one of them. However, Pullman School District is.
There, they have reduced incidents from 460 in 2023 to just 25 in 2024.
NonStop Local reached out to Cheney School District for a statement. Their lawyer stated, “Contrary to the assertions in the student’s lawsuit that he was restrained or isolated an excessive number of times… the student was never restrained or isolated unless de-escalation efforts had failed […] and the student continued to present as a risk of harm to himself or others. He was also never restrained or isolated for disciplinary purposes.”
Under the OSPI, certain practices are banned in schools. This includes restraints putting a child face down, face up or on a wall, any act that restricts the student’s breathing, any form of corporal punishment, or any act that causes bodily harm beyond temporary marks.
While there is no law banning the use of isolation as a form of behavior management, the legislature has directed OSPI to monitor and publish rates of restraint and isolation in K-12 public schools.
