Now that the dirty little secret about “scream rooms” is out, let’s hope legislators take notice and do something about this psychologically destructive practice employed routinely in special education schools across the state.

As a parent of a child with autism who has spent many hours of his elementary school days in the rooms in various schools, I’ll say it straight: This is state-sanctioned, institutionalized child abuse.

If I locked my kid in a closet it would be a crime. Yet some schools do it every day.