NOT ONE BUT TWO AUTISTIC CHILDREN CONFINED IN BOXES, UPSTATE NEW YORK SCHOOL NOW ADMITS
THE SALMON RIVER CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT ADMITTED TO BUILDING THREE WOODEN BOXES FOR THREE DIFFERENT SPECIAL NEEDS KIDS
The Salmon River Central School District says it used two boxes like these as “timeout” boxes for autistic children who were acting out to “de-esclatate.” Photo credit: unknown, via Facebook Chrissy Jacobs.
AKWESESNE, NEW YORK Mar. 11, 2026
Two wooden "cells" were built for two different autistic elementary school children by an upstate New York school district and illegally used on both of them.
A third wooden cell was built for a third autistic child at a second elementary school, this one on the Akwesasne Indian Reservation, but teachers there refused to use it.
A fake "behaviorist" working for the school district without proper credentials OK'd the boxes and supervisors who should have known better approved. Putting kids in the boxes wasn't a crime, but it was a serious violation of state education department regulations.
Those were the shocking findings announced at a packed school board meeting held in the auditorium of the Salmon River Central High School Wednesday night. The findings are the result of an investigation ordered by the school board after local resident Chrissy Jacobs posted a photograph of one of the boxes on social media Dec. 16, 2025.
At a Salmon River Central School Board meeting two days later, Mabel Garrow said her 8-year-old grandson was placed in one of the boxes the district installed in the elementary school it operates on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation, The Free Lance News reported. The St. Regis Mohawk School serves about 350 Mohawk children.
Minnie Garrow speaking to the school board after the results of the investigation were announced. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
The school district denied placing the boy in the box.
"At no time was the item depicted in the photographs used by any student at the Mohawk school," a statement posted on the District’s Facebook page at the time said. "In fact, prior to the circulation of these photographs, the District had already determined that it would not utilize the specific device shown."
Garrow accused the school of lying.
"The box WAS USED!," she said in a comment on the school's post. "These things happened at RIKERS ISLAND a long time ago and SRCS copied that plan."
Garrow was right, the box was used, just not on her grandson, according to the findings of the investigation revealed on Wednesday.
The day after the raucous Wednesday evening meeting last Dec. 18, 2025, the school district said in a news release that "Special Education Allen Gravell, St. Regis Mohawk School Principal Alison Benedict and elementary school teacher Karrie Haverstock were placed on administrative leave by the district until further notice."
The board's news release also said it “reassigned Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stanley Harper to home duties pending the full investigation.“
Finally, the board announced the investigation which produced the results publicly announced at last night's board meeting.
The Salmon River Central School District Board of Education releases its report into two wooden boxes the district built for autistic children at two elementary schools. Photo credit: JB NIcholas.
The school district paid lawyers from Bond, Schoeneck & King to conduct the investigation. The firm has offices in four more states and defends school districts from lawsuits all across New York.
Calling the wooden cells "timeout" boxes, Kate I. Reid, the lawyer who conducted the investigation for the firm, said two of the devices "were used in November and December at the Salmon River Elementary School. They were used for two separate students."
When the controversy first broke back in December, the controversy was focused on the St. Regis Mohawk School and Garrow's grandson. The fact that the boxes were used on two additional children at a different elementary school was a surprise.
Unlike the school on Akwesasne territory, the Salmon River Elementary School serves mostly non-Native American children.
Reid said investigators found a third "timeout box was installed in a classroom at the St. Regis Mohawk school."
Unlike the two boxes at the Salmon River Elementary School, the box at the St. Regis Mohawk School "was never actually used."
Teachers there, Reid said, "They refused to use it."
"They covered the box up with blankets and pillows" instead, Reid explained, and "left it as a cubby area that any kid could crawl into and deescalate when they wanted to."
It was never used "as a particular intervention for the particular kid it was designed for," Reid added. "At least not this box," she cautioned.
In reaching these conclusion, Reid said she personally spoke to 43 first-hand witnesses and reviewed thousands of documents.
A protest sign left in the auditorium. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Samantha Frohm, the school district's behaviorist, recommended building and using the boxes in October 2025, Reid said.
The school district's report said the district's use of the boxes wasn't legally "child abuse or anything that would trigger any sort of criminal referal or license revocation referals or anything like that."
It was, instead, only a "regulatory violation"—even if there were "many, many" of them.
Just as problematic the report said, from a regulatory perspective, was the school's creation of segregated areas using file cabinets and bookcases to put the children in if they acted out in class.
Even more shocking, the special education behaviorist who recommended building and using the boxes in the first place was a fake, according to the investigation.
"The behaviorist in this case," Reid revealed, "does not actually qualify as a behaviorist. She does not have behaviorist credentials."
While the board released its report to residents Wednesday evening, it failed to say what, if any, action it was taking against Frohm, Gravel, Benedict or Haverstock who were suspended last December "until further notice."
Harper, the superintendent at the time, was replaced by Acting Superintendent Dr. Terrence Dougherty.
Frohm was no longer serving for the district, according to what school officials told local residents after a Know-Your-Rights training with officials from the New York State Education Department at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino on Mar. 4.
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