New York school board investigates wooden ‘timeout’ box allegations

Governor calls accusations that students with disabilities may have been confined in boxes highly disturbing'

A school district board in upstate New York is investigating school officials amid accusations that the district may have confined elementary school students inside wooden timeout" boxes.

Images of the boxes, which resemble tiny padded cells, first spread on social media last week, after a former member of the Salmon River school district school board accused officials of building them to seclude children with disabilities. The images unleashed an immediate uproar in the small district, which teaches about 1,300 children and lies on the border between New York state and Canada.