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Federal report paints grim picture of
restraint techniques in schools
May 19, 2009 (updated May 20, 2009)
By John Simerman
Contra Costa Times
A 230-pound Texas teacher forces a
boy face down and lays on top of him, killing him, after he refused
to stay seated in class.
Weeks after threatening suicide, a
13-year-old boy with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder hangs
himself in a seclusion room using a cord a teacher reportedly gave
him to hold up his pants.
An assistant principal and staff at
a Michigan public school failed to offer medical help for an
autistic student's seizure, instead placing him in a prone restraint
for an hour. He died, but no criminal charges were filed. The
assistant principal now heads another school in the district.
They are among hundreds of
confirmed cases and allegations that the Government Accountability
Office unearthed in a report Tuesday that paints a grim picture of
how school officials have misused techniques to restrain or seclude
disruptive students — most of them with disabilities.
The GAO also found that states vary
widely in their regulation of the techniques in schools; that
criminal sanctions are rare; and frequently teachers or
administrators who abused or even killed children remain in school
posts, despite expensive civil judgments against the districts.
The report came at the request of
the House Education and Labor Committee, which heard testimony
Tuesday from parents of abused children, schools officials and
experts as it weighs federal legislation for training, reporting and
possibly limiting uses of restraint or seclusion. Rep. George
Miller, D-Martinez, the committee chairman, said just two states —
California and Texas — require reporting of restraint or seclusion,
and that those two states alone report 30,000 incidents.
What's alarming from the report, is
"the number of children who have died when people have put them in
restraints, what they call prone restraint, face down on the floor
and having someone sit on them, being suffocated. Hundreds and
hundreds of kids put in abusive situations, dangerous situations,"
Miller said. "This is a very serious problem."
Child advocates and lawyers for
disabled students say the problem has grown as the number of cases
of autism and other disabilities grows and more special education
students enter traditional public schools. In January, the National
Disability Rights Network issued a report documenting "dozens of
cases of students abusively pinned to the floor for hours at a time,
handcuffed, locked in closets, and subjected to other traumatizing
acts of violence," the GAO report states.
Rhoda Benedetti, a Walnut
Creek-based lawyer for disabled children, blames school districts
that cut corners in crafting state-mandated support plans for
special education students, then resorting to harsh discipline when
the plan fails.
"I've had clients who were seven
years old placed in closets, or their arms pinned down, where they
restrain them on the ground and sit on them. I've had clients with
severe bruising, black eyes occurring at schools and the schools
having no explanation for it," she said. "And the authorities tend
to look the other way. If a parent inflicted these kinds of damaging
injuries to a disabled child, the parent would be investigated of
course. But when a school does it, nobody does a thing."
According to the GAO report, 19
states have no laws or regulations related to the use of seclusion
or restraint in schools. Seven place some restrictions on use of
restraints but do not regulate seclusions. California sets limits on
emergency interventions for special education students. Parents must
be notified within a day and the school must file a report. Also, no
technique can be used that is "designed or likely to cause physical
pain" or denies sleep, food, water or bathroom access to the
student. The student cannot be locked in seclusion.
Last year, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have tightly restricted use
of restraint in schools and phased out seclusion by 2012, arguing
that the bill could place more students at risk by tying the hands
of school employees. Bruce Hunter of the American Association of
School Administrators cautioned that outlawing such techniques
outright could endanger students and teachers.
"If that were to happen and there
were a dangerous situation where somebody was being attacked, we
would have to call the cops and sit there and wait," said Hunter.
"That's unreasonable."
Reach John Simerman at 925-943-8072
or jsimerman@bayareanewsgroup.com.
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