DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. -- A viral picture shows a third-grader serving detention at a local school. The image, taken at Rock Ridge Elementary School in Castle Rock, raised a serious question: Did the school take "timeout" too far?

The girl’s mother said putting her daughter in a small room as punishment left the 8-year-old traumatized.

Connie Ramstad said she was overcome with shock when she picked up her daughter Alegra who was placed in detention.

Her daughter was pulled out of class for allegedly threatening another girl. Ramstad was outraged her daughter was placed in the small room.

But what Ramstad saw as punishment fit for a criminal, Rock Ridge principal Peter Mosby saw differently.

“It’s not detention room, it’s a learning hall,” Mosby said.

In fact, Mosby said his son has been a visitor in the past.

Sven Gaskin's fourth-grade son once was sent to the room after lying to his teacher.

Full story here.

This one was pretty easy to look at and come to a decision about how I felt about it. I spent a year working at a high school so this is not the first time I’ve seen a detention room, or an area where a kid can try and calm down or work for a few minutes. Obviously though, it’s important to match the crime with the punishment. Should young Alegra have been put inside the room after threatening another student? ABSOLUTELY.

Are you kidding me? Schools aren’t for messing around. If you threaten somebody, you first of all better be able to back it up, and second of all you better be prepared to spend some time in the timeout room! It’s not like we’re talking some CIA black site where students are being water boarded, it seems like a pretty standard room. Would I want to spend two hours in there? Definitely not, but that’s because it looks boring as fuck not because it seems inhumane.

Get this principal; he sent his own son there! Absolutely ruthless! No special privileges in this school! Also, lying is such a less serious school crime than threatening. When I was in the classroom I just assumed that every word out of a kid’s mouth was a lie. Ran late because of the bus? That’s a lie. Mom said it was cool you slept in this morning? That’s a lie. You already learned this last year? Well, you got a 37 on the test so I’m sensing that's also a lie. When you’re a kid, you lie. When you’re a teacher, you get lied to. It’s not complicated. So here we are. Unfortunately, the “don’t do anything to someone else’s child that you wouldn’t do to yours” rule kinda went right out the window as soon as Mr. Principal went all blind justice on us and sentenced his own kid.

This blog is firmly on the side of “ok to put kids in a room” in this instance. If any misdoing is found after the fact, this blog will be deleted.

P.S. This is mean, but the “viral” pictures of the little girl unhappy in the room are kind of funny, no? You’re not being kept in a cage; it’s just a boring room! Welcome to working class America! Welcome to the middle class! Welcome to your cubicle life! There are so many boring rooms in her future; she doesn’t even know the half of it.