MURRAYVILLE , Georgia ( CNN ) -- A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself , he told his parents that his teachers had put him in `` time-out . '' The room where Jonathan King hanged himself is shown after his death . It is no longer used , a school official said . `` We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes , '' Tina King said , tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called `` our baby ... a good kid . '' But time-out in the boy 's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell -- a concrete room latched from the outside , its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper . Called a seclusion room , it 's where in November 2004 , Jonathan hanged himself with a cord a teacher gave him to hold up his pants . Watch Jonathan 's parents on their son 's death » . An attorney representing the school has denied any wrongdoing . Seclusion rooms , sometimes called time-out rooms , are used across the nation , generally for special needs children . Critics say that along with the death of Jonathan , many mentally disabled and autistic children have been injured or traumatized . Few states have laws on using seclusion rooms , though 24 states have written guidelines , according to a 2007 study conducted by a Clemson University researcher . Texas , which was included in that study , has stopped using seclusion and restraint . Georgia has just begun to draft guidelines , four years after Jonathan 's death . Based on conversations with officials in 22 states with written guidelines , seclusion is intended as a last resort when other attempts to calm a child have failed or when a student is hurting himself or others . Michigan requires that a child held in seclusion have constant supervision from an instructor trained specifically in special education , and that confinement not exceed 15 minutes . Connecticut education spokesman Tom Murphy said `` time-out rooms '' were used sparingly and were `` usually small rooms with padding on the walls . '' Only Vermont tracks how many children are kept in seclusion from year to year , though two other states , Minnesota and New Mexico , say they have been using the rooms less frequently in recent years . Dr. Veronica Garcia , New Mexico 's education secretary , said her state had found more sophisticated and better ways to solve behavior problems . Garcia , whose brother is autistic , said , `` The idea of confining a child in a room repeatedly and as punishment , that 's an ethics violation I would never tolerate . '' But researchers say that the rooms , in some cases , are being misused and that children are suffering . Public schools in the United States are now educating more than half a million more students with disabilities than they did a decade ago , according to the National Education Association . `` Teachers are n't trained to handle that , '' said Dr. Roger Pierangelo , executive director of the National Association of Special Education Teachers . `` When you have an out-of-control student threatening your class -- it 's not right and it can be very damaging -- but seclusion is used as a 'quick fix ' in many cases . '' Former Rhode Island special education superintendent Leslie Ryan told CNN that she thought she was helping a disabled fifth-grader by keeping him in a `` chill room '' in the basement of a public elementary school that was later deemed a fire hazard . `` All I know is I tried to help this boy , and I had very few options , '' Ryan said . After the public learned of the room , she resigned from her post with the department but remains with the school . School records do not indicate why Jonathan King was repeatedly confined to the concrete room or what , if any , positive outcome was expected . His parents say they do n't recognize the boy described in records as one who liked to kick and punch his classmates . They have launched a wrongful death lawsuit against the school -- the Alpine Program in Gainesville -- which has denied any wrongdoing . A Georgia judge is expected to rule soon on whether the case can be brought before a jury . Jonathan 's parents say the boy had been diagnosed since kindergarten with severe depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder . But his father remembers him as a boy who was happy when he sang in the church choir . `` He was a hugger , liked to go fishing with me and run after me saying , 'Daddy , when are we going to the lake ? ' `` Don King said . King said that he wanted to know if there were similar situations in other schools and that critics of seclusion rooms fear there could be . `` Jonathan 's case is the worst of the worst , but it should be a warning . It 's reasonable to think that it could happen in all the other schools that use seclusion on disabled children -- largely because the use of seclusion goes so unchecked , '' said Jane Hudson , an attorney with the National Disability Rights Network . `` This is one of those most unregulated , unresearched areas I 've come across , '' said Joseph Ryan , a Clemson University special education researcher who has worked in schools for disabled kids and co-authored a study on the use of seclusion . `` You have very little oversight in schools of these rooms -- first because the general public does n't really even know they exist , '' he said . There is no national database tracking seclusion incidents in schools , though many have been described in media reports , lawsuits , disability advocacy groups ' investigations and on blogs catering to parents who say their child had been held in seclusion . Disability Rights California , a federally funded watchdog group , found that teachers dragged children into seclusion rooms they could not leave . In one case , they found a retarded 8-year-old had been locked alone in a seclusion room in a northeast California elementary school for at least 31 days in a year . `` What we found outrageous was that we went to the schools and asked to see the rooms and were denied , '' said Leslie Morrison , a psychiatric nurse and attorney who led the 2007 investigation that substantiated at least six cases of abuse involving seclusion in public schools . `` It took a lot of fighting to eventually get in to see where these children were held . '' CNN asked every school official interviewed if a reporter could visit a seclusion room and was denied every time . In other instances of alleged abuse : . • A Tennessee mother alleged in a federal suit against the Learn Center in Clinton that her 51-pound 9-year-old autistic son was bruised when school instructors used their body weight on his legs and torso to hold him down before putting him in a `` quiet room '' for four hours . Principal Gary Houck of the Learn Center , which serves disabled children , said lawyers have advised him not to discuss the case . • Eight-year-old Isabel Loeffler , who has autism , was held down by her teachers and confined in a storage closet where she pulled out her hair and wet her pants at her Dallas County , Iowa , elementary school . Last year , a judge found that the school had violated the girl 's rights . `` What we 're talking about is trauma , '' said her father , Doug Loeffler . `` She spent hours in wet clothes , crying to be let out . '' Waukee school district attorney Matt Novak told CNN that the school has denied any wrongdoing . • A mentally retarded 14-year-old in Killeen , Texas , died from his teachers pressing on his chest in an effort to restrain him in 2001 . Texas passed a law to limit both restraint and seclusion in schools because the two methods are often used together . Federal law requires that schools develop behavioral plans for students with disabilities . These plans are supposed to explicitly explain behavior problems and methods the teacher is allowed to use to stop it , including using music to calm a child or allowing a student to take a break from schoolwork . A behavioral plan for Jonathan King , provided to CNN by the Kings ' attorney , shows that Jonathan was confined in the seclusion room on 15 separate days for infractions ranging from cursing and threatening other students to physically striking classmates . Howard `` Sandy '' Addis , the director of the Pioneer education agency which oversees Alpine , said that the room where Jonathan died is no longer in use . Citing the ongoing litigation , he declined to answer questions about the King case but defended the use of seclusion for `` an emergency safety situation . '' The Alpine Program 's attorney , Phil Hartley , said Jonathan 's actions leading up to his suicide did not suggest the boy was `` serious '' about killing himself . Jonathan 's actions were an `` effort to get attention , '' Hartley said . `` This is a program designed for students with severe emotional disabilities and problems , '' he said . `` It is a program which frequently deals with students who use various methods of getting attention , avoiding work . '' A substitute employee placed in charge of watching the room on the day Jonathan died said in an affidavit that he had no training in the use of seclusion , and did n't know Jonathan had threatened suicide weeks earlier . The Kings say they would have removed their son from the school if they knew he was being held in seclusion , or that he had expressed a desire to hurt himself . `` We would have home schooled him or taken him to another psychologist , '' said Don King . `` If we would have known , our boy would have never been in that room . He would still be alive . ''
Mentally disabled , autistic kids injured , traumatized in school seclusion rooms . Comment: Autistic Iowa girl confined in school storage closet where she pulled out her hair .