NPR

Rumors spread on social media over the winter: School kids with disabilities in the Salmon River Central School District, including Akwesasne Mohawk children, were being confined by special education teachers in wooden boxes. Sarah Konwahahawi Herne was devastated. “It was so unfathomable that our children were seeing these boxes and hearing children screaming in these boxes,” said Herne, a parent and a member of the tribal community. “I cried, I threw up, and I immediately grabbed my laptop and said, What are we going to do?” Local school officials later confirmed that at least two boxes had been built and used by staff in November and December of 2025. That disclosure sent more shockwaves through this region of small Upstate New York towns just south of the U.S.-Canada border, which includes the sprawling St. Regis Mohawk Reservation. Officials with New York state’s education department have now quietly issued an official order requiring sweeping reforms in the district. According to the report obtained by NPR, the state’s investigation found that at least five elementary-age students with disabilities were confined in a “wooden box for a timeout.”