My response to the article, “When do students need timeouts?” (Sept. 27) is: “When do students need to sacrifice their learning with disruptive peers?”

This is my opinion and mine alone. I am a special educational technician who does one-to-one work with students. I have done this for the past seven years. I take an eight-hour class every year for safety care behavioral training to keep the student, their peers and myself in control and safe.

Does “seclusion” mean evacuating a classroom so that there is just the student and adults in the room? Or is it giving the student a safe place to get themselves calmed down and back in control without the opportunity of injuring themselves or others?

Some of my co-workers have been seriously hurt. I have been hit in the face by a notebook thrown at me, stabbed with pencils, kicked and hit. Let’s not even talk about the abusive, unacceptable language.

All students deserve the best education they can get, but they also have to held accountable for their actions. My greatest satisfaction is in seeing students succeed and learning to learn.

Carla Gilley

Sidney