Use of Restraints Increasing in Public Schools?
“What Tim eventually said….was that he didn’t want to go to school because he thought the school was trying to kill him.”
John Miller, a podiatrist in Allegany, N.Y, says this about his 12-year-old son, who has Asperger Syndrome, and who was, according to a July 15th New York Times article, held down prone on the floor by teachers (one time for 20 minutes) when he was “confrontational.” The NYT article discusses something that is too familiar to me—and to parents of special needs children—-and that is, one suspects, a bit more than shocking to many. Kids coming home with bruises on their wrists, arms, legs: That’s not supposed to happen in public school, and not at the hands of teachers.
Well, it does. In our previous school district, the basket hold was used so often on Charlie that —for years after he left the school district—-he used to pretend to restrain himself, as if he’d learned, that’s how to get attention. It’s not surprising that Charlie’s body freezes up and his anxiety and anger rise to the roof when even a small amount of physical force is applied to him now. NYT article states that “psychiatric facilities and nursing homes are generally far more accountable to report on such incidents than schools”—-we were not told that the basket hold would be used on Charlie. We were simply told that it had been.
Charlie was in a self-contained classroom for autistic children when all of that occurred; the NYT article reports that such physical restraints, and also time out rooms, are being used on children who are in mainstream classrooms, and that the use of such restraints is increasing:
In dozens of interviews, parents, special education experts and lawyers who work to protect disabled people said they now regularly heard of cases of abuse in public schools — up to one or two a week surface on some parent e-mail lists — much more often than a decade ago. “In all the years I went to school, I never, ever saw or heard of anything like the horrific stories about restraint that we see just about every day now,” said Alison Tepper Singer, executive vice president of Autism Speaks, a charity dedicated to curing the disorder.
The issue is politically sensitive at a time when schools have done a lot to accommodate students with special needs, and some have questioned whether mainstreaming has gone too far. “Some parent organizations, they’re so grateful to the schools that their kids have been mainstreamed that they don’t want to risk really pushing for change,” said Dee Alpert, an advocate in New York who reports on the issue in the online journal specialeducationmuckraker.com.
For teachers, who have many other responsibilities — not least, to teach — managing even one child with a disability can add a wild card to the day. “In a class of 30 to 35 children, there’s a huge question of how much safety or teaching a teacher can provide if he or she is being called on to calm or contain a student on a regular basis,” said Patti Ralabate, a special education expert at the National Education Association. “The teacher is responsible for the safety of all the children in the classroom.”
In my son’s case, restraints were used because he had become a danger to himself, due to frequent self-injurious behavior in the form of head-banging (this was when Charlie was 7-9 years old). I believe the use of these restraints was a serious mistake and did not only physical, but psychological harm, to my son, whose limited language means that he could not, like Tim Miller, tell us that he “thought the school was trying to kill him” (and I am suspecting that the thought may very well have occurred to Charlie). Jim and I, a private ABA consultant and a team of private therapists, and the teachers and aides in Charlie’s current school district, have spent the past two years trying to undo the effects of those restraints. I think we have been largely successful—Charlie would not be calling for school with a laugh on the weekend if he did not like it—-but the vestiges of the behavior, and the fight or flight response, remain in Charlie, and making sure that he feels safe, secure, and appreciated are the sine qua non around here.
The NYT article suggests that the use of restraints is increasing in public schools because there are more students with behavioral, psychiatric, and autism spectrum disorders in mainstream settings. This point strikes me as open for debate. Teachers need the right training about how to set up calming strategies in advance—before a crisis moment—-and they need ongoing support to help address behavioral issues in classrooms as soon as they arise, and not when the out of district consultant makes a weekly visit. But another reason that people have not heard about the use of restraints until now may be because it’s only recently that a child like my son would be able to be in a public school; in another generation, he would already have been shipped out of the district, and to something more like an institution than the school the little yellow school bus drives him too.
I never hesitate to bring up the subject of restraints and how they are not to be used on Charlie in IEP and other school meetings. He has a detailed Behavior Intervention Plan that articulates carefully thought out strategies to calm him, often by teaching him to better communicate his needs and by considering what sensory issues he might be having. Even if you think “they’ll never do that,” you never know, and hindsight teaches me, better to keep our children safe than feel painfully sorry later.
Tags: abuse, asd, asperger, autism, autism blog, behavior, Crime, education blog, nursing homes, Parenting, pdd-nos, restraints, Safety, school, school blog, student, teacher, timeoutRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Disability Rights, Education, Legal Issues, Safety
26 opinions for Use of Restraints Increasing in Public Schools?
Maddy
Jul 15, 2008 at 1:45 am
off topic so delete as you see fit.
I have the opposite position, one covered in bruises and oblivious and the other ‘creating’ over blemishes.
You never know what your children ‘explain’ to the school.
Luckily we have an exceptional school.
best wishes
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 15, 2008 at 1:52 am
Had the same problem but it was, ah, more contentious.
that was then; now it’s the lovely, and exceptional, school.
Rose
Jul 15, 2008 at 7:55 am
Teachers often take no responsibility for their part in children’s behavior. I worked in an ABA school for 8 months, and the BEST teachers DID. There was one gal whose classroom was always peaceful. She absolutely blew me away.
Andrea
Jul 15, 2008 at 8:44 am
Gus used to go to a school that had quiet rooms, and I would periodically ask him if he was ever in one. But it’s a crap shoot getting an answer out of him most days. He’s come home with strange scrapes and bruises, but when I ask, he just says he doesn’t know or remember. Home schooling looks more and more attractive every day.
Niksmom
Jul 15, 2008 at 9:33 am
As we are learning more and more about the effects of Nik’s seizure meds on his coping abilities (seriously impairs them), we are grateful that we took him out of school last year. Even in his special needs preschool classroom, the taff was ill prepared to deal with any of the students’ behavioral challenges from any perspective other than assuming the kids “knew better” or could control their outbursts. In some cases, yes, the more verbal children, perhaps, could. But I saw many non-verbal kids acting out b/c it was the only way they knew how to communicate.
Sad commentary on special education in many, many schools when even those who are “supposed to know” and be trained are unable or unwilling to see behaviors as communications and try to figure out how to work with them.
Angela
Jul 15, 2008 at 10:45 am
I worked in the behavioral area of the public school system a few years ago… for exactly 3 months. We were taught the basket hold as well. I knew this was not an area I would ever want to work in again.
Andrea–this is the reason we do homeschool. My son with Autism has never seen the inside of a public school classroom.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 15, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I especially worry about this issues when districts make arguments for keeping a child in-district because it’s cheaper, and when questions are asked about behaviors, they say they can “deal with it.” Because they really can’t and are just holding their breath and then something bad happens…..
Andrea
Jul 15, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Very true, Kristina. Our district was pushing so hard to have Gus moved ‘in district’ and I think they still may be waiting for me to say I’ve changed my mind. They are only focused on what he can do academically as their basis for the recommendation, but my cousin just wnet through a similar thing this year and finally her son ended up being moved out of district again. But the damage was already done to the poor kid! I’m still not sure I want Gus in the exact placement he’s in now because in some ways I think it’s too stressful on him and hasn’t given enough of the life skills in order to focus more on academics. But then they complain that he doesn’t have the life skills, like sitting still for however long. I think he may just not be ready for the rigors of the program, but they’re still insisting they can handle him. He’ll have a new teacher next year and he’s with her now over the summer, so we’ll see if she really can - without medication - or else I’m requesting he be moved back to his old school. He can get academics anywhere.
I think I drifted off topic somewhere in there…multitasking is not my friend today, sorry.
Kelly Turner
Jul 15, 2008 at 1:38 pm
i watched a 60 minutes about a boy who had Asperger’s and the teacher would lock him in a storage closet everyday because they didnt want to deal with him. His condition started to deteriorate because he had little vocal skills, and took to head banging. One day, while locked in that cloest, he died from head trauma.
this was many years ago but i still think about it because it broke my heart.
http://www.groundedfitness.com
liquid zeolite
Jul 15, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Not to be flippant about this issue, but if a kid is bagging his head why don’t they just put a protective helmet on him with perhaps a belt connected the the back that is connected to the waste that prevents the head from moving forward? (Maybe my next patent, lol). That would do the trick without having to do too much man-handling I would think.
farmwifetwo
Jul 15, 2008 at 2:19 pm
We had an IEP meeting at the end of June and I got a huge behavioural list for both boys. EA shot down little boys (bolting mostly), was for 2 weeks, when the weather went up and down and the end of year out of synchs started happening. Luckily they finally told me (2wks later) and Sensory Diet was put in and he was fine.
Eldest usually has behavioural (focusing, wandering, mouthies) at the end of school. Again, nobody told me and they slammed us (talked to the teacher on the Mon and got the truth) with it at the IEP meeting. You should read the behavioural sheets the Ped sent the school. His main teacher (30yrs teaching keeping next year) vs the one who disliked him (30yrs OLD maybe) are black and white for behavioural.
So… I’m doing the “be careful what you complain about it just might bite you in the A$$” for him. I’ve started the process, I am making calls, getting the Ped to write a letter. They are going to put in a PROPER social and behavioural program next fall. They don’t want to… it’s too much work… they don’t want behavioural in to do an assessment of that classroom… guess what… I DON’T CARE. He’s turning into the class clown, he’s not mean, just wandering, not focusing etc. Needs to be taught social skills, how to navigate the playground and work in groups. A good RDI program would be nice but they won’t do it here… ABA still rules unfortunately.
Been a mth and I’m still mad… just wait until Sept when I’ve had all summer to stew about it.
I don’t trust them. I know 3 children they have screwed over due to neglect and poor programming. Plus, One child in a developmental class that shouldn’t be there and One child in a smaller class who’s Mother called the Superintendant and climbed over heads too. He’s there from gr 4 to 6, regular program, 6kids, 1 Teacher, 1 EA, and will be mainstreamed back at Gr 7. I have questions about that program as well. May be a good fit for my eldest…
IMO, the Teachers in Ontario have too much power, too much control and not enough accountability. Plus, they happen to be the biggest Union in the Province. Hard to respect them. But I’m not homeschooling fulltime. I’m mad enough now they can do it properly.
Daisy
Jul 15, 2008 at 2:19 pm
I am trained in many restraints and holds, but I explicitly told my principal that I do not plan to use them except in cases of dire emergency. The most useful part of Non Violent Crisis Response training was training in prevention and de-escalation.
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 15, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Non Violent Crisis Response training made a huge difference for us. I recommend it highly, and to work on prevention strategies and de-escalation, especially when the actively involved teaching a child what to do.
Helmets may seem a “safety” measure; for us, they were an easy solution for the schools to offer in the name of “safety,” and without them attempting to look at what was causing the behaviors, and the need for much better training of staff and much more support.
Regan
Jul 15, 2008 at 6:10 pm
It’s not just special needs kids–from some surveys I’ve read, typical classrooms are relatively thin on accentuating the positive, catching them being good and long-term effective solutions to behavior management, although it is the special needs students who bear the brunt of these ad hoc “interventions”. Hence some of the interest in school and district wide Positive Behavioral Support.
Mike,
If you “stop” a behavior without taking the time or effort to analyze why it is occurring, neither the student nor the teacher has learned anything, and unfortunately, stopping without doing the analysis sometimes leads to escalation of punishment or restraint by them delivering it because it is reinforcing to those who can do so. I think you will find that people have beat you to that invention and that helmet thing is not a practical long-term solution, and would fall in the realm of mechanical restraint.
Behavior is lawful and for that reason it is better to learn why it is occurring and warning antecedents and more successful strategies of coping, communication and deescalation for the student and those managing student behavior.
Admittedly picking out some statements in the story, that I found troublesome and concerning–
“No one keeps careful track of how often school staff members use such maneuvers. (…)
Oversight is virtually nonexistent in most states, despite the potential for harm and scant evidence of benefit, Dr. Peterson said. Psychiatric facilities and nursing homes are generally far more accountable to report on such incidents than schools, experts say (…)
“Some parent organizations, they’re so grateful to the schools that their kids have been mainstreamed that they don’t want to risk really pushing for change,”(…)
Even defying a teacher’s instructions — “noncompliance” — can invite a takedown or time alone in a locked room, they found.
Regan
Jul 15, 2008 at 6:21 pm
neither the student nor the teacher has learned anything
—————-
Actually I take this back.
The student may have learned that school is not a safe place and the person applying it may learn that restraint “works” and tend to use it as a punishing short cut.
What I meant was more functional and ethical long term solutions.
Tammy
Jul 16, 2008 at 12:35 am
Hi Kristina-
My son is 9 nad he was transferred in district to a different school where we were told they had more aides and that they had seen every kind of behavior and could deal with it.
Little did I know that this ment leaving him in a plywood box for hours on end, letting him wet himself in this box, -they told me he is doing it for attention-as we ALL know most of our kids HATE attention…sigh….
Countles IEP’s, behavior plans to no avail. They were restraining him too without my permission or notification-I found him restraining(face down and sitting on her) his sister at home which is where I finally found out it was being done to him at school.
The final straw was when he came home from school with wrist marks( actual finger prints) from them making him stand, and dragging him to the “box”, scratches on his stomach,back,and face, and raw red burn marks under his arm pits from them forcing him to stand up and dragging him to who knows where.
And thsi is what they said “We had a hard day”
I dont know if I will EVER be willing to trust the school system with my child again. Im homeschooling now and NONE of the behaviors they saw and told me abt are here happening at home..hmmmm…..
There are SO many secrets they keep from us as parents……. Im just thankful I learned what my son was going through and now have him OUT. But liek your son mine flintches and freaks out when grabbed for ANY reason still.
Breaks my heart. Mental health professionlas work closely with us still, and yet they wonder why my son is so adament abt shutting down and not wanting to socialize with them. His trust in adults and peers is TOTALLY understandeable in my honest opinion-I dont blame him one bit-kwim?
Melody
Jul 16, 2008 at 3:23 am
I haven’t had specific restraints on me, nor have I been mistreated physically by school staff to the point of abuse, but I have been dragged out of classrooms in high school, numerous times. It is fortunate that these times wasn’t during meltdown, because otherwise I would’ve done actual damage to them, rather than just squirm out of their grip and push them away. Even just thinking of these experiences, mild by comparison, gives me the shivers. I honestly don’t know what goes through the mind of a school counselor who will drag a 5 foot 10 autistic student from one part of a room where I was distressed, but not harming anybody or impeding traffic, and getting me distraught to the point of a meltdown, which fortunately I was able to delay for the few seconds it took to get to her office, as when I am in meltdown mode, I lose awareness of the physical space around me. But, if things had been worse, I’d have likely been expelled. Amazing how fate can be decided in an instant.
Andrea
Jul 16, 2008 at 7:17 am
Most of the ‘professionals’ really have no clue, do they?
Amy C.
Jul 16, 2008 at 8:03 am
Hi Kristina,
I’d like to invite you to our blog and group. You’ll see that it is so horrible systemic. Until we found each other, we all thought our situations were unique. Unfortunately, they are not.
Thanks for writing this great article!
Amy C.
Mom to an 8 year old with Asperger’s
Marla
Jul 16, 2008 at 10:02 am
This is so scary to me. Reminds me to talk with the place M will be going to again about how they handle melt downs.
I worked for a child care center that told us to do holds where the child was face down. It was terrible. This was a place for special needs children. I am sure the parents had no clue their kids were being held down. Those experiences before we adopted M taught me valuable lessons of what not to do.
When M was at her most challenging behavioraly there were times where we had to hold her to protect her from hurting herself. But, at the same time she craved deep pressure and would have outbursts to be held that way. It was a never ending cycle that almost got out of control. It sounds like parents and teachers need to have more education on how to handle difficult situations with children.
Rhonda
Jul 16, 2008 at 11:55 am
I pulled our then five-year old daughter out of school in September after only 4 times of attending class after they restrained her in a chair w/ belts w/out my permission, and in violation of the state of Wisconsin’s guidelines for restraints. I was in the room when they did it!!! It was a suppossed “special” kindergarten for six special ed kids and 19 reg. ed kids, and they had two teachers and only one aid. The sp. ed. moms all told them they didn’t have enough staff, and they insisted they could handle it.
When I came early to check out the situation, I found the reg. ed kids coloring the special person of the day, and all the sp. ed. kids in a “resource” room that looked like a storage place (a teacher actually came in and got her lunch out of there while they were in the room!). My daughter was running wild in circles w/ a dog bone?! in her mouth, kids were tugging at computers, and there were wires everywhere. When I came in the room, the teacher half-heartedly took my daughter by the hand and said, “come on let’s read.” (there were NO activities of any kind on the tables).
When we went over to the reg. ed. room, the teacher was not ready for us, and the kids had to wait in the hallway!!! Then when we went back in, she took my daughter and another child w/ downs, and marched them over to the circle time, where she proceeded to strap them into Ripkin chairs. All the other kids sat on the floor! I was so sad for my daughter! I was angry and stunned and didn’t know what to do!
We are headed to mediation next Wednesday. I don’t have high hopes and am planning on homeschooling if we can’t come to agreement after so many IEPs.
This is a national issue. I have spoken w/ so many families who find the school unwilling and unable to meet the needs of their special needs children. Many parents end up giving up, homeschooling or moving. Shameful.
Cathy
Jul 16, 2008 at 1:29 pm
I am not the parent of a child with Autism but I am an advocate. The wholesale use of Rifton chairs to restrain very young children in Wisconsin happened in 2007. The issue has served a small benefit and that is the renewed interest in and legislative advocacy to pass a law to restricy or end seclusion and restraint practices. Chldren have died here too. I can only imagine the efforts and time that parents devote to their children who have Autism. While I can understand the desire to remove a child from a public school setting, for their own safety and sanity, this will never end the hurt and death experienced by children with every kind of disability. In order to do that parents must tell their stories to legislators in their states and in federal government. In Wisconsin we have been actively seeking written testimony from parents, who’s children have been hurt in restraint or seclusion, for the purpose of preparing to fight for a law to be passed. We have tried before but we have to keep going and never give up. Anyone in any public school in all but a couple of states can restrain, sit on, choke, hit, seclude in unlit rooms with locked doors and no furniture, drag and generally abuse kids and there is no law to stop it. Prison inmates have better protections. A nationwide movement to stop this now is our only real chance of ending these barbaric activities. The protection of adults and children with disabilities is a civil rights movement whose time has come.
Two Distressing Trends
Jul 16, 2008 at 4:29 pm
[…] was the New York Times article about the increase in restraint usage for autistic students that Kristina Chew talked about. The comments were particularly enlightening and saddening to […]
29 Marbles / Experiences with Special Ed: The Ugly
Jul 16, 2008 at 11:08 pm
[…] Sadly, more than 10 years after this happened to us the problem seems to be growing instead of going away. Makes you want to shout, yell, scream, cry, throw your hands up in the air […]
Kristina Chew, PhD
Jul 17, 2008 at 12:51 am
@Amy C., thank you for the invitation—will be in contact—this topic means a lot to me.
Thanks to everyone—-I also remember feeling unsure about talking about restraints when it was happening. I felt that it a sign of how out of control things were becoming for us and Charlie, and about how we could not really handle what was going on.
I have been reading about post-traumatic stress disorder of late and I think my son went through that (and maybe still has repercussions) as a result of the restraints and the overall lack of training of some staff. It’s not just the physical bruises our kids get—-it’s the terrible memories, violations of the self by too much physical restraint/force.
Strapped to a Toilet in a Darkened Room
Jul 31, 2008 at 12:32 pm
[…] lawyer, Daniel Mason, says that the strap—-a restraint—was for the child’s “‘own safety,’” and that the lights were […]
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