Every major failure in public education follows the same pattern: administrators become fluent in slogans while their most basic duties collapse.
The unfolding scandal in the Salmon River Central School District is a case study in how a system that advertises “values” can fail students in practice—spectacularly, expensively, and with little accountability.
Salmon River Central School District serves roughly 1,300 students in Fort Covington, New York, near the Canadian border. The district spends approximately $41 million annually, translating to about $29,000 per student. Under any reasonable standard, that level of funding should produce strong academic outcomes and attentive student support.
Instead, just 16% of students are proficient in math and only 25% in reading on state exams. Those numbers reflect a deeper systemic failure that extends far beyond this single district and across much of the public education system.
Yet a visit to the district’s public-facing materials tells a different story. The front page of the district’s website prominently emphasizes diversity, language, and institutional values, projecting moral seriousness and cultural awareness.
That messaging now stands in stark contrast to allegations that elementary students with disabilities were confined in wooden “timeout” boxes—structures parents described as resembling small padded cells.
According to reporting confirmed by local outlets, district officials are under investigation after images circulated on social media showing wooden enclosures built inside two elementary schools.
The district acknowledged that three such crates existed, claiming they were never used and have since been dismantled.
Parents told a very different story at a community meeting, alleging that their children were placed inside the boxes as a form of seclusion.
One parent of a minimally verbal child said his son described the structures as a place students were sent “to calm down,” regardless of emotional state.
That description alone should alarm anyone familiar with special education law.
Hellbound and Down 