Often Effective, Timeout Target in Abuse Cases

When she first heard the rumor in the spring of 1993, Charlene Rogers couldnt believe it. A 10-year-old boy had reportedly been confined in a cardboard box for discipline at an elementary school in Thomaston, Ga., where she is a school board member.

So Ms. Rogers went to see for herself. Arriving at the school unannounced, while the class was at lunch, she saw the empty box. Inside were two handmade signs. One read "bathroom," the other said "help."

A police investigation would later confirm that the boy, Raphael Chambles, had been kept in the box for two weeks of class time and that the signs were the only way he...