In Harm's Way: Restraints applied even when unneeded

Some group home workers often respond too quickly to unruly behavior

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

At a Pyramid Health Care facility in June 2003, a girl threw a fork that hit a worker.

Pyramid's staff responded by restraining the girl.

The report filed with the state Department of Public Welfare isn't clear how the girl's actions justified what's called a restraint. Under state regulations, "takedowns" may occur only when a child is a serious threat to herself or others and after attempts to calm the child have failed.

Maybe that information just wasn't included in the report.

Or maybe the girl wasn't really a threat.

Some children who have lived in group homes and residential treatment facilities say workers sometimes restrain them when there's no danger, and that no attempt is made to prevent the takedown.

There's evidence they're not exaggerating. In Connecticut, videotapes contradicted an institution's official reports about restraints. In one case, the report said workers at the Connecticut Juvenile Training School restrained a boy because he lunged at them. The tape shows workers tackling the 13-year-old after the boy threw a milk carton against a wall.

"They call it a restraint," said Stephen Seman of Glassport, who spent two years at an Auberle group home, "but a restraint is supposed to be if a kid is going to harm someone or himself, none of which I ever saw a person restrained for."

"Restraint is for stupid stuff -- talking back, getting caught with cigarettes," he said.

He said there were restraints at Auberle every day. Auberle Chief Executive Officer John Patrick Lydon denied restraints happen daily but refused to release the number of takedowns that occur at the McKeesport institution's group home or its day school.

Seman's brother Michael, who spent about nine months in two group homes, said he was restrained once when some other boys were goofing around and pouring lotion on his hair.

While he was held down, he said, "I couldn't breathe."

Another time, he was restrained after refusing to get out of bed. One worker pulled him up by the shirt and another grabbed his legs, he said. He hit one of them with his elbow. Then, he said, "I was screaming and they jammed an elbow in my jaw when my head was against the wall. I could feel my jaw cracking. My jaw still is not the same from that."

Another teenager, Matthew Schaffer, 19, of Somerset County, who went to a boot camp for truancy, said, "They restrained all the time. The first day I was there, there were four restraints.

"There was a 14-year-old kid, one staff [member] took him down for moving his arm when we were at attention. He grabbed him from behind and slammed him into the table. He just twitched. His jaw was all bruised and swollen."

Then there was a child who was "on all kinds of meds" who talked when he wasn't supposed to and was restrained, Schaffer said.

Schaffer avoided restraint, but understands how it happens: "They were always doing stuff to make me mad, little things to aggravate me."

Reports obtained from the Department of Public Welfare describe some situations in which the restraint was questionable. All of these involved injury to the child because those are the only restraints that institutions are required to report:

April 2000 -- A Holy Family Institute worker restrained a girl who was verbally aggressive at the Emsworth facility. "He admitted that as she was attempting to walk past him, he shoved her backwards as he had to 'stand his ground,' " the DPW report said.

June 2000 -- After a worker at Holy Family swore and became visibly angry during a personal phone call, he cursed, chased and restrained a child who had not been aggressive.

January 2002 -- A child at Auberle was restrained after the worker, DPW wrote, "unilaterally created a confrontation with the statement, 'Do you have a problem with me?' "

February 2003 -- A Holy Family worker restrained a child during an argument about a cell phone. "At the time the youth was not out of control and did not need to be restrained," the DPW said.

October 2003 -- Workers at Harborcreek Youth Services in Erie restrained a boy, causing a laceration that needed nine stitches. Workers wrote that they did it because the boy was angry, had balled his fists and had previously threatened people and punched walls and cabinets when he was upset.