Give emotionally volatile students a little extra space. If a student being disciplined becomes agitated and doesn’t appear to be calming down, don’t use intimidation, ask a lot of questions, put your hands on him or her, or use force to try to redirect the student.

De-escalating the situation by backing off gives the student time to calm down and allows him or her to get to a state of being where he or she will more likely be able to actually hear your point.

If the student needs to be moved to a place where he  or she is not causing a disruption to a classroom or common area, be sure to make requests brief and specific.  Once the student is isolated,  he or she should be supervised but left alone to cool down.

From The School Discipline Advisor, Volume 11, Issue 2, April, 2009.