At the school where I work we have a student in kindergarten who is a major handful. A few days ago he exposed himself to a girl in his class (and it was not the first time he had done this at school). He has had many other disciplinary issues throughout the year.
Today I was on recess duty and saw he was by himself in a gated playground (adjacent to the larger playground) intended for the preschool children, not on the big playground with the kindergarten through second grade students. I questioned the other teacher on duty about it. She said the principal and teacher decided this would be his discipline for misbehaving (not sure which behavior they were addressing). The other teacher said she had approached the principal about it earlier in the week, stating she thought it was wrong, but nothing changed.
Anyway, he played all alone on the little playground while everyone else played on the big playground. I was very upset about this and talked to other teachers about it afterwards. No one seemed to think it was right, but no one (besides the teacher who was on duty with me) had said anything to the principal. The question came up, is this even legal? We’ve had trainings on the harm of isolation. Granted he is where the recess duty teachers can see him, but it just doesn’t seem right. I feel it is our responsibility as teachers to train even the most unruly child how to appropriately interact with their peers. I would think a one-on-one would be helpful, even if it was only during recess time. However, we are a small, private school so I am sure that is not in the budget