Girl's death revives debate over restraining out-of-control kids

St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The death of the 7-year-old Wisconsin girl who lost consciousness after being held down at a Rice Lake, Wis., day treatment center has fanned the flames of an ongoing local and national debate about the use of physical restraints.

Angellika Arndt, who was living with foster parents in Ladysmith, Wis., was held face-down by two clinic workers on nine different occasions in the month she attended the weekday treatment program, according to a report by state officials who investigated her death. After being restrained on May 25, Angellika passed out. She died the next day at a Minneapolis hospital. The coroner determined the cause of death to be chest asphyxia.

A Northwest Counseling and Guidance Clinic official has said its staff acted appropriately. But Angellika's case highlights a question that professionals in treatment and corrections facilities, as well as public and private schools, must ask every day: How do you handle out-of-control kids?

Clinic officials and their defenders say the staff obeyed current laws, and that such restraints are sometimes necessary to protect the child and others.

But critics say Angellika should never have been placed on her stomach in restraint holds that could endanger her breathing. Some of those holds lasted one to two hours, according to the state report.

"She should have never been on her stomach, she should have been upright," said Mary Beth Kelley, a former special education teacher now on the faculty of the special education program at the University of Minnesota.

"There's been enough research out there, enough deaths, that I'm surprised anyone would still use that as a practice," she said.

No one agency compiles statistics on children who die after being restrained. But a Cornell University study found 45 child or adolescent fatalities between 1993 and 2003 that involved physical or mechanical restraints. And many professionals believe the number is much higher.

Northwest Counseling and Guidance Clinic runs 12 outpatient day treatment programs throughout Wisconsin. Children who go there are the ones whose illnesses have made them incapable of succeeding in a regular or specialized classroom, said Denison Tucker, clinic president.

"We're the stage before institutionalization," Tucker said. To help its staff learn how to deal with children whose behavior can be so challenging, the clinic brought in a Milwaukee-area company called Crisis Prevention Institute, a prominent provider of training for schools and other facilities across the country.

The company trains professionals who then go back to their place of work and teach others. The training focuses on how to keep situations from escalating to the point where they become dangerous, said Judith Schubert, the company's president.

Charlie Kyte, executive director of Minnesota Association of School Adminis-trators, said that kids with behavioral problems present a huge challenge to staff, whether in school or in other types of programs.

"I'd have a hard, hard time imagining that any adults were restraining this child for that amount of time unless the child was really out of control," he said, referring to Angellika. "My guess is they were doing their best to calm this child when this tragedy happened."