The Las Vegas Sun wrote an editorial over the weekend about the committee's hearing regarding the GAO report about seclusion and restraint techniques used in schools. After recounting some of the horrendous accounts of abuse, the Sun said this:
Michigan News also ran a similar editorial today. In it, they mentioned the Secretary Duncan's commitment to evaluate state guidelines, ensuring sensible policies are in place next school year. The Michigan News said:
This is outrageous. Federal law allows workers in hospitals and treatment centers to restrain children only in emergencies, but the law leaves it up to the states to set policies regarding schools. State laws differ greatly. Many states allow teachers to severely restrain disabled children for little reason. To its credit, Nevada does not. The state outlaws the use of restraints on disabled children except where absolutely necessary and requires that school employees who work with disabled students receive training on “positive behavioral intervention.”
The disparity between states and the harshness of some of the restraint techniques has caught the attention of Congress. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said the result is that many students “are abused under the guise of punishment.”
Miller has called for legislation to outlaw schools from restraining or secluding students except in emergencies. Congress should act on that before any more students are hurt.
Michigan News also ran a similar editorial today. In it, they mentioned the Secretary Duncan's commitment to evaluate state guidelines, ensuring sensible policies are in place next school year. The Michigan News said:
Confining and restraining a student should be the last resort in every classroom. Training must be a critical part of any state policy. School should be a safe place for students and faculty.We encourage you to read the Las Vegas Sun and the Michigan News editorials in their entirety.
I placed my 3 year old twins in preschool because I wanted them to be around other children their age. We did not know at this time that our one son had autism. My sons were born prematurely. They were only in school for 2 days a week at 2.5 hrs a day for last 3 months of school. My completely nonverbal son(autism) would be crying hysterically when I picked up at school. No one could or would tell me why he was so upset. During last weeks of school my son refused to be strapped into his car seat . I had to force him into his seat. We couldn't for the life of us figure out what was happening to make him act this way. Husbands family lives 23 hrs. from us and my boys loved riding and looking. We found out the answer when I went to reuse their old backpacks beginning of next school year. I found a picture of my child restrained in a rifton chair. Someone cared enough to send me this picture. I called everyone who had authority in education and even filed a written complaint with OCR. Was told by OCR that my complaint was one day late (180) and they did not investigate. My family was devastated by this. I was forced to remove my child from school in kindergarten to protect him as he was being taken to a trailer behind the school by a spec. ed consult teacher.
I am the parent with the picture of the restrained child. Anyone wishing to pursue this case( because I am the only parent I know that has physical evidence of this happening to our children in school) or investigate further , please contact me. I am in fear of more retaliation and especially since my sons (autism ) twin is still in school. I fear retaliation against him. I have complete records and notes from teachers which tell a story of what happened to my very young ,very passive, non-verbal child. From the stories I've read it seems as if this is happening more often to our children that can't talk or tell us what is happening to them . My records show severe retaliation against parents. My other sons records show violations also. He was also labeled as Spec. Ed. I removed him from receiving spec. ed. services in kindergarten as the teachers retaliated and wrote every type of accommodation and modification allowed into his IEP and all he was supposed to have an IEP for this year was speech services. Our district has Corporal Punishment laws in their policies that are dated from 1975 that are used with our children with disabilities. I just found this out as I was searching to find out how the district kept legally getting by with disciplining our spec. needs kids.
Very few schools across the US activly follow positive behavoral plans. If they did we would not be in this mess.