NOT 1 BUT 2 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.
AKWESASNE, 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 allegedly 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, allegedly, but 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.
Jacobs, who attended the meeting last night, said the findings the box wasn’t used at the Akwasasne school and that no crimes were comitted was a white wash.
“The faith in that process is not really there,” Jacobs said. Pointing to the pale skin of the fashionably-dressed lawyer who presented the findings without answering questions about them, the Akwasasne woman called it a “bogus investigation by people who don’t know us.”
Local residents react to the results of an investigation commissioned by the Salmon River Central School District into its use of so-called “time out” boxes to imprison special needs children who acted out in class last year. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Back in December, the board of the Salmon River Central School District held a meeting two days after Jacob’s exposed the boxes. At that Dec. 18 meeting, 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.
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."
The day after last December’s raucous school boarding, the school district said in a news release that "Director of 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 three 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, it 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 de-escalate when they wanted to." It was never used "as a particular intervention for the particular kid it was designed for."
"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.
Minnie Garrow speaking to the school board after the results of the investigation were announced. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
Samantha Frohm, the school district's behaviorist, recommended building and using the boxes in October 2025, Reid said.
Frohm was a fake, Reid revealed.
"The behaviorist in this case," Reid said, "does not actually qualify as a behaviorist. She does not have behaviorist credentials."
Still, 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 much of a regulatory violation as the boxes, the report said, was what the school district did to try and manage all three children before the boxes. The district created segregated areas in classrooms in both schools using file cabinets, bookcases and makeshift screens to isolate the children in if they acted out in class.
When the board released its report to residents Wednesday evening, it failed to say what, if any, action it was taking against Gravel, Benedict or Haverstock—all of whom were suspended last December "until further notice."
The board never annouced it was taking any action against Frohm, the allegedly fake behaviorist.
Harper, the superintendent at the time, was replaced by Acting Superintendent Dr. Terrence Dougherty in January.
A protest sign left in the auditorium. Photo credit: JB Nicholas.
The board allowed public comment but not questions after Reid finished presenting her findings. That’s when Jacobs and the community stepped up to the mic and opened fire.
Dr. Sarah Konwahahawi Herne, another Akwasasne woman, pointed out the investigation’s findings that “non-indigenous people” are “also feeling this violence.”
“We stand in solidarity with all of them shoulder to shoulder,” Herne added. ”That’s why we’re here. That’s why this is important to us.”
Still, Herne called the report itself an insufficient response and said that school board members should resign.
“As a mother speaking to other mothers in our community,” she said, “our trust is broken and there’s fear here.”
A handful of local residents spoke about problems they themselves were facing—including a bus monitor who allegedly assaulted multiple generations of children.
Dr. Maggie Conners criticized the way teachers were trained to deal with difficult special needs students who act out. She said the district relied on compliance dependent behaviorial techniques that do “not supporting actual emotional regulation.”
“Clearly,” she added, “the staff doesn’t understand the types of support that the children need.”
The technique, Applied Behavioral Analysis, is the standard of care for special needs children nationwide.
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