Special Needs Students Allegedly Placed in Wooden Boxes at New York School, Parents Demand Accountability [Video]

What started as quiet concern inside a small upstate New York community has exploded into national outrage after parents learned how some special needs students were allegedly being handled at school.

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According to parents and advocates, staff members at St. Regis Mohawk School in Akwesasne are accused of placing children into wooden boxes as a form of behavior management. The boxes were reportedly built from wood and lined with padding, described by staff as a calming tool. Parents say what they saw told a very different story.

“I’m going to call them what they are: child-sized holes,” parent Chrissy Onientatahse Jacobs said during an appearance on NewsNation’s Morning in America. Jacobs, who previously served on the Salmon River School District board, said the images were sent to her by someone working inside the school. After seeing them, she felt the public needed to know.

Once the photos began circulating, the school’s board of directors shut the campus down and launched an internal investigation. The superintendent was placed on at-home duties, while additional staff members were put on administrative leave as the inquiry continues. Officials have not yet confirmed how long the boxes were in use or how many students were involved.

The situation quickly reached state leadership. New York Governor Kathy Hochul publicly condemned the allegations, calling them “alarming and entirely unacceptable,” and signaling that state officials are watching closely.

The school serves a predominantly Native American student population, which Jacobs says cannot be ignored when examining how something like this was allowed to happen. She believes the issue reflects a broader failure to protect vulnerable communities.

“This is a direct relation to what happens when you dehumanize any population or demographic of people,” Jacobs said. “Eventually, we just become statistics on a paper for funding.”

Parents now say they want accountability, transparency, and real assurances that no child will ever experience this again. The investigation remains ongoing.