Thanks so much for keeping us informed...Yes, this is what we should fight for, or against in this case!
Many of you read my posts before about seclusion and the lack of laws/regulations in the school systems regarding the use of seclusions, size of rooms, length of time, etc. It is an issue that I was faced with recently after learning that my son's school system used a plywood box, instead of a real room, for seclusions and they were also using it as "punishment" for anything/everything instead of the purpose it was designed for. There are few states that have laws about this, specific to public schools. There ARE laws covering psychiatric facilities and hospitals, BUT NOT OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
A child died in my state a few days ago, in a private residential facility, after seclusions were used. This is the 2nd death in the past year here.
I am going public, to the news media, to bring attention to this matter. My advocacy attorney has pictures of the plywood box that my son's school system is using. Until today, they have refused to stop using these boxes, even after the attorneys came together in a meeting last week. But the news of this death MAY change their opinion. The bottom line is this..... Nothing will ever change without people like us stepping in and ensuring laws are passed. Check your state. Are there laws in your state regulating seclusions/restraints in your public schools? Probably not. PLEASE be aware of this issue and be proactive in your state to ensure this doesn't happen to another child.
If you want to read some history on my specific case, I have 2 previous threads here regarding this issue.
Has your attorney send a Gebser letter? Has he written to each individual involved saying that you will hold them personally responsible and bring criminal charges should your son be harmed? I agree that something needs to be done overall, but your primary concern needs to be your son's safety, so if you can get your atty to get them to cease use of this with your son, that will at least be something. Putting them personally and indivdually in harm's way, legally, may help.In NY, they passed a law last year governing the use of "aversives." Before that time, NY didn't allow them at all. The problem became that parents who agreed to send their kids to out of state residential schools (mostly due to behavioral issues that needed to be addressed 24/7) had little control over the aversives used THERE. So NYS passed a law to CONTROL the use of aversives IN STATE. That way, parents who agreed that their kids needed to be restrained could send their kids to in-state school and have some CONTROL. If you search "aversives" on this site, you'll find posts about NYS's aversive law. There are PLENTY of people here who object to it. They don't want aversives used at all in this state. However, what it does is allow parents who think their kids need this sort of approach to keep them in state where the kids will be safer because there ARE limits here. My son does not need this sort of approach, so I don't actually have an opinion about it. But I thought I'd point out why one state allows aversives now -- to save $$$ and keep the kids in state and, by doing so, supposedly give parents more control because they can actually access their kids more easily.
All the best in getting some laws passed in TN. SO glad to hear your own child is OUT of that situation.
Tzoya, like I stated in some of my previous posts, I took my son out of the school system a few months ago when we started having problems with this issue. I had to because they were abusing seclusions. The attorney working on this isn't "my" attorney. He's a state advocacy center attorney who has taken the case from the perspective of trying to put a stop to this stuff for ALL children. His first goal is to get an immediate stop to the use of the plywood boxes in my son's school system. His second goal is to initiate/help pass state legislation to regulate this issue for everyone.Legislators
Discuss How To Handle Unruly Kids
June 12, 2007 08:29 AM CDT
There's a proposed
bill on Capitol Hill right that deals with confining unruly, special needs
children.
Schools in Shelby
County, Tenn., use calming rooms to isolate out of control students. The whole
restraint and seclusion debate has been a hot topic lately, with the deaths of
two teenagers in the care of
According to child
advocates, the state needs to adopt a single, uniform policy that spells out how
to handle these situations.
"If it is a takedown
procedure, then what this bill would do is define how you take the child down
[like] that you have to release the child ever so often. You have to check to
make sure that they're breathing. There's a lot of checks and balances that are
required by this comprehensive legislation," said Walter Rogers with The Arc of
Tennessee.
At least two children
have died while in the care of the
Two more families now
admit that they pulled their youngsters out, fearing for their
safety.
The mothers said that
their children have problems and that they welcome help in disciplining
them.
But they claim the
center operates more like a prison.
"I took her out,"
said parent Norma Davis.
"That's it, we're
signing him out," said another parent Edith Ruland.
Their accusation is
that the center's staff is abusive.
"All of a sudden, I
just remember going down to the ground. And I guess when I raised my head up she
slammed it back down, and my mouth was pouring blood," said
According to
"Her face was black,"
she said, referring to pictures showing her daughter with bruises on her face.
"Her whole left side of her face was black."
"It's like they broke
her spirit,"
Dennis Ruland's
mother also took pictures to document alleged abuse against her
son.
"I was very upset,"
Edith Ruland said. "I was crying. He was crying, 'Momma, please don't make me
stay here. Please don't let me get whooped again.'"
The center is a
residential treatment facility in
"That this young man
became unruly and that they tried to restrain him. During the course of their
intervention, this young man may have suffered a heart attack," said Ted Denny
of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office.
This is the same way
14-year-old Linda Harris died a year and a half ago. She was forcibly taken out
of a time-out room by staffers.
Even though the
center, according to the families, did more harm than good, it might have been
just enough to scare Redman straight, she said.
"Me doing the things
I did wasn't worth me going down there," Redman said. "And I never want to go
back."
Davis and Ruland said
they asked about the marks on their children, but did not receive any
explanations.
The Montgomery County
Sheriff's Office is investigating the center as well as the Tennessee Department
of Children's Services. An investigator from the Disability Law and Advocacy
Center of Tennessee is expected to join the
investigation.
NewsChannel 5 tried to interview center officials several times over the last two days, but the reporters' phone calls were never returned.
I can't beleive this is still happeneng. They need to pass law from putting kids in wooden boxes. School systems that are doing this lack education in many ways. Why don't they put the kids in the vice principle's off to cool down. My daughter had 2 cool downs in the office. She just sits on the couch and cools off.This is all very disturbing. Even though my son doesn't have any serious behavioral problems(he's actually an angel in school), he did get overly excited and unintentionally agressive (shaking kid's hands during circle time) a few times. His teacher told me that she warned him he would have a time out, and I believe he really DID have one. I couldn't believe that in a special class where he is supposed to be understood and redirected, he was reprimanded for being happy instead! I was so disgusted and I let the teacher know I did not want him to be punished for that at all! These are just little things we have to watch out for. I have to mention this occured in Lee county Florida (Southwest FL) because I'm not a big fan of their LONG eval process and lack of quality pre-k AU programs.
There are many things that happen to children with special needs in the public school system that parents are not aware of. Remember there are good and bad people everywhere in all walks of life. You have to keep your eyes and ears open at all times when it comes to our children because so many are not able to communicate. My son is very verbal but he never told me that the staff was restraining him almost daily for 12 months. PS - Neither did the school staff!
Hello everyone,
I just joined this group from Florida. I pulled my son out of school 2 years ago because of restraint and seclusion in the public school system. It was the only way we could keep him safe from these so called people that were trying to help him. There are a group of us in Florida trying to make some changes by getting policies made and then a law passed. This is a hard fight and we are about 100 years behind in the way they treat children with disabilities in the public school system. My son started out with little behavior problems. By the time the school was done with him he was a mess and had big behavior problems. I didn't even know he was being restrained for over one year. He is doing so much better now and a happy child again with very little behavior problems anymore.
In my program we MUST be trained and pass testing in holds and escorts. You also must have parent CONSENT to do anything. I agree that I don't feel it is appropriate for most children HOWEVER some of the children do have behaviors that are dangerous enough to others that there has to be something to help manage them. That being said I do have children who have the use of a time-out room ( specifically designed for that purpose with a lengthy list of restrictions). We have students whose parents refuse to comply with these measures and in some cases these children have seriously injured other students and staff. It is a fine line.....but one that needs to be clearly delineated and monitored. Our staff have suffered broken bones, stitches, severe bruises, concussions etc.....and again....while I don't think time out or restraint is the first line of defense for some kids it is the only line between safety and serious injury to themselves and others. And if we have parents who do not agree to working with us in using the procedure (which is also paired with teaching replacement behaviors) then we have asked parents to switch their children to another program as we can not ensure their safety. I am probably rambling at this point but it is a fine line and as much as we all want to believe our children don't exhibit these behaviors the fact is that unfortunately, a portion of children with autism do....and when used as part of plan it can be an appropriate option..... just not a long term option.Tricia, Has your son ever been restrained? Mine has. 67 times in a 12 month period and I was NEVER notified even one time. My son went from a happy little boy to an angry frightened child that learned how to fight to try and protect himself. I pulled my son out of the public school system 2 years ago because we were afraid he was having a breakdown. The school blamed my child for everything and said we had a child with a severe behavior problem. A year later I found out about the 67 restraints when I requested the PCM logs. When I looked at the papers I cried. Not only did they abuse my child but on every line it said that the parents were notified which was a big lie. When I filed a complaint with the DOE, do you know what they did? Nothing! In most states there are no laws or polies to protect children in the public school system and parents cannot do a thing about it. There are so many children every day that start out with small behavior problems and wind up with big behaviors due to the over use and unnecessary use of restraint and seclusion. I am working with so many parents that have this same problem and some of the stories are much worse than mine. If the student has an FBA that is written by a qualified behavior analyst who understands the child and the disability, this should lead to positive behavioral supports and accommodations that will make restraint unnecessary or used as a very last resort. It has taken us 2 years of very hard work to get our son back to the way he use to be but he is almost there. Three years ago I never would have believed that this kind of abuse is done to children with disabilities in the public school system.
Floridamom
I am so very sorry for all of the children who have been mistreated in this way! Thank you for educating us so that we can protect our own children!What? Are you telling me that they actally put children in wooden boxes at school? This seems like extreme cruelty and abuse. Do they have a door on the box? Is there a lid?
As parents, we've got to stop these types of things... no one else is going to take the initiative...
In the Name of Treatment: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Child From Restraint and Seclusion.
http://www.aprais.org/ParentGuide2.pdf
Floridamom2
Dear AndrewsMommy,
I want to educate parents about restraint and seclusion so that they are aware of these things that happen in the public school system. In the beginning the problems were just in school but as time went on we started having problems at home also. This should have been a warning sign to me but the school had me convinced it was all my son. If you see behaviors increase at school and at home I would be very concerned.
Floridamom
Floridamom,