Imagine sending your child to school expecting them to be supported – only to later learn they may have been forcibly shut inside a wooden box. That is the horrifying reality families in one New York school district are now confronting after state investigators found that disabled children were reportedly placed in wooden "stations" with doors held shut, and without parents ever being notified.
State officials have ordered reforms, but many parents say the response still falls painfully short. No formal apology has been issued. Families say the people involved have not faced enough accountability, despite findings that children endured isolation and improper restraints.
Sign the petition to demand a formal apology, meaningful accountability, and reparations for the children and families harmed.
For many local Akwesasne Mohawk families, the pain runs even deeper.
This happened in a community where the trauma of Native children being mistreated in residential schools still lingers. To many parents, seeing Indigenous children confined in boxes inside a school feels like a devastating echo of a dark history that should never be repeated.
One parent described hearing that children had been screaming inside the boxes as so upsetting it made her physically ill. Another parent recalled their young child calmly explaining: "If you are angry or if you are sad, this is where you go."
Disabled children deserve compassion, safety, and dignity – not fear and isolation. And Indigenous communities should never have to see reminders of historical harms playing out inside modern schools.
Although reforms are now underway, healing takes more than policy changes. Families deserve accountability, acknowledgment, and support.
Sign the petition now to urge New York officials to issue a formal apology, strengthen accountability, and provide reparations to the children and families affected.
