Lessons in self-control

LOWELL -- A first-grader attacked the teacher with scissors. Another flung a chair across the classroom. Several students kicked, cursed, and punched their way into such a frenzy that teachers had to hold them down.

The usual punishments -- trips to the principal's office, parent meetings, and, finally, suspending them from school -- were not working. This year, Lowell teachers took action: They took seven of the school system's most disruptive children, who were also some of its youngest, and put them in a separate classroom where the pupils are taught how to behave.

With a mix of counseling, strict classroom rules, and plenty of adult oversight, the program aims to help the misbehaving pupils without interrupting their classmates' lessons.

Lowell educators are joining a growing number of elementary schools searching for ways to rein in troublesome tykes before their tempers get out of control and adults have to restrain them. They are hoping to prevent the kind of outbursts that recently led police in a Florida school to handcuff a 5-year-old and officers at a school in Fall River to handcuff a 7-year-old.

''The teachers had tried everything," said Sandra L. Dunning, principal of Lowell's Abraham Lincoln Elementary School, who volunteered to run the program. ''But it reached the point where there was such a disruption. You realize that it's not good for either party."

Newton and Worcester have also instituted programs to stop disruptive behavior before students get bigger, stronger, and in more trouble in the upper grades. Most alternative programs are for high school students with discipline problems, but more school systems are searching for ways to help the youngest, said June Million, spokeswoman for the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

No one tracks the figures, but Million said a recent informal survey of 52 schools nationwide found that two-thirds of the schools were starting behavior programs for elementary school pupils or looking for ways to address the problem. The National School Safety Center also has noticed an increase in the number of elementary schools concerned about behavior among the youngest children, said Ronald Stephens, the executive director.

In January, Lowell began using a single classroom for unruly first-grade and kindergarten pupils in the school system, which serves 15,000 students in kindergarten through grade 12. In addition to their usual courses, the six first-graders and one kindergartner also learn how to behave in class, to treat other students, and to react when they feel angry or afraid.

The goal, school officials say, is to return the children to their regular classrooms when they are ready, whether it takes weeks or months or longer. Three of the seven disruptive students are already making tentative visits to regular classrooms, and they could return full-time in the fall. Next year, Lowell school officials hope to expand the program through third grade.

Some children's advocates object to removing students from regular classrooms, because it takes them from their neighborhoods and friends and could stigmatize them as troublemakers.

Ann Flynn, an assistant vice president at United Way who helps oversee a behavior program for preschool-age children in Worcester, is pushing the Legislature to spend more money to help children before they even enroll in school.

''If we can get to the children earlier, we can solve it sooner," Flynn said. ''It's better for the child."

But school officials say they need a solution now. Lowell tries to include all children in regular classrooms, regardless of disabilities or behavior, but educators say the most disruptive children are interrupting the other students' education. Only the most serious cases are enrolled in the program, with parental permission, after other solutions have been exhausted, Dunning said.

In the Lowell program, three adults -- a teacher, an aide, and a social worker -- monitor the students. Each child's desk is set more than a foot apart, and red tape on the floor marks the child's personal space.

Like any first-graders, the students read stories, write paragraphs, and add and subtract. But they also learn how to act or speak when they are upset, instead of throwing tantrums. A weekly goal is taped to the top of each student's desk.

When they improve, they earn points toward privileges, such as going to the gym or the art or music room, instead of having those lessons in class.

In the beginning, some students had to be restrained 16 to 17 times a day to avoid hurting themselves or others, school officials said. The adults, who are trained in nonviolent restraint tactics, subdue the children by standing behind them, folding their arms across their chests, and holding their forearms from behind, usually for a few minutes. After about 16 weeks teaching the students, the teachers rarely have to use the tactics, Dunning said.

It took weeks to get the students to stop running around and sit in a circle on the floor. Now, it is a daily routine.

''Criss cross, apple sauce," teacher Catherine Breen said last week, directing the children to fold their legs and sit in a group.

But one student frowned. ''Why?" he said, unsmiling. ''Why do you say directions, directions? Every time it is a direction. Why do you keep saying it?"

Breen ignored him. Instead, she swiftly turned to the child next to her and said hello, a signal to the children to turn and greet the person beside them. His challenge deflated, the boy turned and greeted his neighbor.

When their anger boils over, students are taken to an adjacent room, where they talk to an adult. If they do not wish to talk, they can crawl into a large box to be alone or scribble out their anger on the chalkboard. Or they go downstairs to a therapy room, where students play in the sandbox or use board games to make it easier for them to talk.

On the walls are life-sized paper cutouts of the students. Sometimes during the child's visits to the room, they and the social worker write their feelings on the cutouts. ''I like to do puzzles with my friends," wrote a child who had kicked a teacher.

''When I'm a monster," wrote one boy, ''I can't control myself."

In Massachusetts, schools have grappled for years with ways to deal with students' behavior. Some school systems, such as Boston, have had Saturday behavior programs for years, but most alternative programs in the city are for students in middle or high school, a school system spokesman said.

Since 2000, Newton has been sending about eight elementary-school-age students each year to a temporary program to help them improve their behavior and return to class.

Worcester, which started its program last year, has sent 65 students to separate classrooms since the program began. They try to keep them for no more than three weeks.School officials in programs across the state say the students need help more than punishment: Many of them have suffered emotional turmoil.

Melissa Pearrow, president of the Massachusetts School Psychologists Association, said removing children from a regular classroom should be a last resort. But she said it is sometimes necessary when the disruptions do not stop.

''It's hard, and it's sad," Pearrow said. ''And it's almost like, whose education are you going to focus on? You have 15 kids in that classroom who are scared and who still have to learn."

Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.