Parents are growing increasingly outraged over an unusual method some schools are using to discipline kids. The policy involves the use of isolation rooms (aka “scream rooms”), closet-sized rooms that children, often those with special needs, are placed in for a cooling-off period, where they can be left unmonitored for up to several hours at a time without bathroom breaks.

The latest school district to come under fire for reportedly employing such punishment tactics is Bellevue School District in Washington state. According to a report that aired on local news affiliate Q13Fox, the state wants schools to implement policies for restraints and isolation techniques, however parents are concerned that the Bellevue terms are too vague and allow room for other forms of punishment such as handcuffs, pepper spray, and even Tasers. Per Washington state rules, isolation rooms can only be used if there is a clear danger to the child or other students, but the Bellevue policy also allows use if there is unpredicted, spontaneous misbehavior.

“No teachers in our school district use Tasers or chemical sprays on special needs students,” Bellevue School Board President Steve McConnell tells Yahoo Shine, who adds that the district calls the rooms 'safe rooms’ and only uses them as a last-resort intervention in extreme scenarios. (The school's current policy can be found on the school district's website.) Those instances include when the child is posing immediate danger to himself or herself and other students, is severely disrupting the class, or damaging school property. If a child is placed in the room – which, says McConnell, would be for no more than 15 minutes – his or her parents are verbally notified within 24 hours and receive a letter documenting the occurence within five days of the incident.

“Putting in language like this will only give permission to some staff members to just do what’s convenient and not right,” one unnamed mother told the school board earlier this month, according to Q13Fox. She, along with other parents, expressed concern that the rooms were “traumatizing.” As a result of the meeting, the school board agreed to discuss the issue further over the summer before coming to a decision in the fall.