rubber room

plural rubber rooms

1. idiomatichuman sciencesA cell lined with cushions used for confinement of a mentally disturbed person.

   "If you kept on worrying about being killed you could end up in a rubber room."

   2002 December 6, Robert L. Jamieson Jr, “Dec. 7, 1941: From boy to man in one hellish day”, in Seattle Post-Intelligencer, retrieved 07 Aug 2014

   2 more examples

   Barry is... well, what? Borderline autistic and obsessive-compulsive, with serious anger management issues and a dangerous behavioural disorder that in the real world would get him a one-way ticket to the rubber room.

   2003 February 7, Peter Bradshaw, “Punch-Drunk Love”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 07 Aug 2014

   How is it that the Virginia Tech shooter Seung Cho and Adam Lanza weren't in a rubber room instead of in a classroom shooting people?

   2013 Jan. 25, Comment by egginmybeer, "The gun lobby’s long reach," Boston Globe (retrieved 7 Aug 2014)

   Synonyms: padded room, padded cell

2. idiomaticeducationEspecially in New York City, a temporary workplace assigned to a teacher who is not permitted to teach in a classroom because he or she is under disciplinary review.

   The findings dropped the day before the one-year anniversary of his idling away in the rubber room, where teachers await disciplinary hearings.

   2013 April 25, Corinne Lestch, “Report substantiates misuse of school property accusations against 'rubber roomed' teacher”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 07 Aug 2014

   1 more example

   The film briefly visits a “rubber room” in New York City where idle teachers accused of misconduct wait months and sometimes years for hearings while drawing full salaries.

   2010 September 23, Stephen Holden, “Movie Review: Waiting for 'Superman' (2010)”, in New York Times, retrieved 07 Aug 2014

   Synonyms: reassignment center