Safe Rooms in Public Areas?

    Hello! Today I come to you with some fairly controversial food-for-thought. However, I intend to have you believing in the need for safe rooms in public areas by the end of this article, so buckle up your seat belts and hold on tight!

    So, the first topic I'd like to hit is why safe rooms (public or private) are considered controversial. It has been noted that the use of "safe rooms" (which were anything but) were used as cruel punishment, or were used in the improper way. Such instances can be noted here. How is it safe to place individuals who may suffer from sensory overload (as many individuals living with mental disabilities do) into a tight room with loud, disruptive students? Or, how can it be ethical to place students into solitary confinement-type rooms for behavior they may have performed, but do not entirely understand? I'm sure we can all agree that those uses for safe rooms are a big no-no, but must be carefully considered when speaking about the use of safe rooms for public areas as we know exactly what to avoid. 

    As someone with anxiety that is often triggered by social situations or sensory-overload, I can speak from experience that some sort of safe room may have better helped me to cope when I was feeling panicky out in public. But, if I don't mean the safe rooms mentioned above? What do I mean? Well, consider the following- a room, in which individuals are free to come and go as they please, where the only expectation is to sit silently. You can do whatever you please to calm down, as long as it does not disrupt the coping mechanisms of another individual. A room solely devoted to assisting individuals with mental disabilities and/or sensory overload cope with the loud, chaotic world around them. As businesses and corporations work to make their public spaces more accessible and inclusive to all, they must learn to consider those with disabilities they cannot see, and learn to accomodate them as needed. Now, I'm not saying that a safe room in public spaces is fool-proof and is a guaranteed solution to work for all, I know it's not as we've seen what happens when used wrong. But, if we wanted to work towards inclusion for ALL, don't you think it'd be a step in the right direction?