Seclusion in Ohio

The Columbus Dispatch reports:

The state’s independent legal advocate for people with disabilities has sued Columbus City Schools, saying the district is blocking attempts to investigate possible abuse of a student.

The Ohio Legal Rights Service filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday demanding access to student records and documents related to the district’s use of “seclusion rooms” for disabled students.

The agency is attempting to find out whether the district abused an 18-year-old student with autism in November by placing him in a padded room at school. The student’s mother told the agency that her son lay on the floor, urinated there and later contracted a staph infection, according to the lawsuit.