Ricardo Gloria, 48, a former prison officer, was the first parent to discover the 'padded cell' calming rooms at Whitefield School in Whitechapel, where his autistic son David was locked away for hours without food, toilet breaks or supervision. He said he still has nightmares about the state of his son coming home from school—soaking wet, bright red and deeply distressed.
David, who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome as a toddler, told his family he had been locked in a calming room for four hours with no food, no toilet breaks and minimal supervision, and was only released at the end of the day. The revelations emerged after shocking CCTV showed autistic children being pushed, thrown to the floor, restrained by the neck and left alone sitting in vomit.
First to see the rooms
Ricardo, who was the first to see the rooms years before the widespread abuse was uncovered in leaked tapes, said he knew straight away something wasn't right. But when he demanded to see the rooms in person the following day, he was shocked to his core.
The father, who was working as a prison officer at the time, said it was nothing more than a padded cell you would expect for hardened criminals—with no windows, no light and nothing to 'calm' any of the children down. But things took an even more sinister turn when he noticed a CCTV camera in the corner and was allowed to view the footage a week later.
He said: "It was horrifying. There were three adults, two ladies and a man, dragging him in screaming and shouting. They dragged him into the cell and put him there by force. I worked in a prison and used to remove people from cells. But it was so shocking to see school staff doing that to a child."
Footage too distressing to watch
The footage was three hours and 45 minutes long, but Ricardo could only stomach an hour and a half before saying he had seen enough. He added: "David was swearing, begging them to open the door, but they just ignored him. He asked to go to the toilet—you can see he is desperate so he had no option but to go in the room."
Despite concerns raised by Ricardo back in March 2015, dozens of other non-verbal children continued to be subjected to the same treatment until an Ofsted report in 2017. Many parents didn't even find out until the Met Police knocked on their door in 2022, when 500 hours of recorded content was found on a memory stick in a box when new management took over—some of which was later leaked to BBC Panorama.
Families take legal action
Ten families—including Ricardo—have now taken legal action after revelations around the hidden punishments dished out against some disabled and "non verbal" children, who were unable to report the abuse. The claims include allegations of breach of duty of care, false imprisonment and breaches of human rights arising from the use of the rooms between 2014-2017. It is believed a total of 39 children were identified as being put in the calming rooms.
Ricardo said: "I just knew something was not right when David came home and I said to school 'you have to show me.' They were hesitant but we walked there and I can't explain how much of a shock it was. As a parent never in a million years I could imagine what I saw. I was working as a prisoner officer then. And this just felt like a cell. Supervised from the outside with no windows, no water facilities, no toilet. Somewhere they were just dumped. You would expect it to be a place with calm music in the background with books and stuff. It had nothing like that."
Referring to the footage, Ricardo added: "After one hour and a half when I had finished I looked at teachers and shouted at them—like a father would. They remained in silence. I just said 'how dare you. I trusted my son's life in your hands—and this is what you are doing. You put him in a cell? Are you kidding me?'"
Impact on David's life
Ricardo said the teachers didn't say a word. He added: "I told them 'this is not going to happen ever again—shame on your school.' It was the worst day of my life—this trauma has stayed with me. David had told me they put him in the calming room and never gave him any food all day. They kept him there for four hours and let him out just before he got the bus home. He is very aware of time. He spent four hours on the floor, said he asked to go to the toilet, but they never let him out so he had to wee on the floor. He came home very cold and his face was bright red and he was in absolute distress. He was wet all the way through. I was astonished at how he looked."
Ricardo and his wife Denise, 47, who have an older daughter now 30, started a new life in England in 2001 and had always wanted a son, so they were thrilled when David was born in November 2003. They said when he reached the age of two they thought he was taking longer to speak and was diagnosed a year later with autism. He joined Whitefield at the age of six in January 2009 after his family were told it was the best school in the area to deal with his needs.
Ricardo, of Chingford, added: "He was a happy boy and baby. Then he started to develop symptoms. He was losing eye contact and had become picky with his food. It was a shock for us and any parent. Of course you dream your son will be healthy and go on to be something like an engineer. But we had to start a new beginning. He was learning and improving until we noticed a change in 2012. He was able to communicate and started to tell us about the calming rooms. We just thought it was a normal thing—if they were naughty they would be just put in a different space to calm down."
Ricardo said they would sit down as a family and discuss David's day with him when he started speaking about it. He added: "He was saying he had been in the calming rooms for around 15 minutes. The weeks and months were passing through and he started reporting it more and more. 20 minutes here, 50 minutes there. I always believed in good faith what the school was doing—I never imagined in the UK such an environment or place exists. By the end of 2014 he started going more often. Maybe three times a week. I just believed it was to be by himself and stop him being naughty."
Aftermath and ongoing fight
Ricardo said in the years that followed his discovery different techniques were used to restrain his son and he doesn't believe he was put back into the calming rooms. But he was eventually excluded in 2019 when the school said they couldn't meet his needs. He added: "In all those years I never saw a single bit of remorse. I told them he was not going back in the calming rooms and as far as I had been aware—until the Ofsted report in 2017—nobody was being placed there. I was shocked to hear other children were still being put there. They have identified 39 children and I think my son is the only one who was verbal. Unlucky for them he told us what was happening so they never did it to him again."
For Ricardo and Denise, the trauma of what their son went through has never gone away. He added: "I would take an arm off me for this to have never happened and I feel very guilty about it. How could this have been allowed to happen. I never imagined it and just thought he was in good hands." After his exclusion, David was given a place at an alternative school in 2020 but then Covid hit and he lost that place. When he reached 18 and out of school age he has been cared and looked after at home since then.
Ricardo added: "He is a depressed young man. We struggle to cope. My wife has had to give up her job to look after him full time. He was removed from school like a click but the impact of what he went well is going to stay with him forever. I can not put hands on him- and have to pre prepare to hug him. He has PTSD and does not want people to grab him. He is depressed and on medication all the time. But as a father I can not just go up and hug him and that is heart-breaking."
Ricardo said they had tried to just forget about it until a Met Police officer knocked on their door out of the blue in 2022. He said: "We sat down in the living room and explained what happened. They said there was a whistle-blower about the calming rooms and our son's name had come up. We had to go back to the grave to bring back a problem we had tried to bury. It opened up a lot of wounds but I wanted to see some justice done. We gave statements and after a three year investigation, the police were unable to press any criminal charges."
Ricardo was the first parent to contact Leigh Day solicitors which has notified both the trust and local authority of the legal action against them. He added: "The police investigation failed but I don't think it is just about the individuals to be honest with you. This is more about the corporation of the school and local authority for allowing it to happen and to continue for many years after I first raised concerns. Where was the training, the accountability or even the heart to not be so cruel to the children. The damage is done—we can not retrieve time to go back and prevent this from happening. The victims are not only the children, it is the families. I don't think individuals to be honest with you—this is more about the corporation of the school and the local authority and there needs to be some settlement for my son so we can try and repair some of the damage. It has been incredibly tough for all of us. I just don't understand how I can have reported it in 2015, Ofsted were made aware in 2017 but it wasn't until the whistle-blower in 2021 that it finally came to light to the other parents. The other victims were not even made aware until the police told them. The school has not been honest with the parents. It is so wrong to leave them locked away but they had a chance to repair the damage and they didn't. They carried on until Ofsted stepped in—and I believe would have carried on until today if they hadn't been caught. I need to fight for the justice we couldn't get for David and the other children at the time."
Ricardo is now part of the Whitefield Advocacy Group, created by Andrew Pritchard, who runs the AP Foundation and whose nephew Jamie, now 27, was one of the pupils filmed in the rooms. Andrew said: "These calming rooms need to be banned—they are inhumane. We just can not let this happen to anyone else and are pushing to change the law so schools can not have kids locked up like that that the parents are not even aware of."
A spokesperson for Flourish Learning Trust, which ran the school when the footage was discovered, said it no longer operates any schools and none of the prior leadership are still in post. It said: "We recognise the seriousness of the events at the school which took place between 2014 and 2017, and our thoughts remain with the children and families affected by what happened. The review reports on important learning to assist with the changes which have taken place to offer better protection for children. Flourish Learning Trust no longer operates any schools, and none of the prior leadership are still in post. Interim arrangements are in place to ensure oversight until the Trust is officially closed. Whitefield School itself is now being run by a different trust which supports the outcomes from the review and has been working hard to transform the school and give every pupil the care, dignity and support they rightfully deserve."
A Waltham Forest spokesperson said: "We are aware of the civil legal action led by Leigh Day. We will not be commenting further while legal action is ongoing."
