Hearing About Restraints and Seclusion Today
Published May 19, 2009 @ 12:15AM PT
Today at 10am (EDT) is a live webcast of hearings on the "abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint in schools." The hearings are being held by the Education and Labor Committee in the House of Representatives. Witnesses who will be speaking include Ann Gaydos, whose daughter, Paige, who's on the autism spectrum, was put into a face-down prone restraint by a teacher in Cupertino, California, in 2001, and Toni Price, whose 14-year-old son, Cedric, was suffocated in 2002 by his teacher in a middle school in Killeen, Texas, "'after she placed him in a 'therapeutic floor hold' to keep him from struggling during a disagreement over lunch."
Yesterday's USA Today has more about what happened to Cedric and to Paige, who now lives in Colorado and who, in the words of her mother "'....came out of there very listless, kind of discouraged, kind of cynical." Paige's parents sued the Cupertino School District and were awarded $700,000 by a federal jury (they settled for $260,000 to avoid an appeal). And, in Atlanta, yesterday's 11Alive.com reported that a judge ruled that 11-year-old Stefan Ferrari, who is on the autism spectrum and non-verbal, was physically and verbally abused by teachers at the Marshall School in DeKalb County, in October of 2008.
As also noted in USA Today:
A few experts say restraint and seclusion should be a teacher's last line of defense against upset or unruly kids, but that the techniques can be effective when used properly.
Bill East, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education, says they should be allowed "in those rare instances when school-based positive behavioral support has not worked."
But five states now ban prone restraint, which caused Cedric's death. The disability-rights network last January called on the Obama administration to ban it — or any other restraint that can suffocate a child — except when the immediate physical safety of students or staff is jeopardized.
I recently posted on the perils of restraints, which should not be used without parents giving consent. The procedures should be spelled out in a Behavior Intervention Plan that is part of a child's IEP, as should the circumstances when they would be used. Parents should be informed in writing by the school district after restraints are used. And, teachers should also have plans for how to teach a child communication, relaxation or other skills so that things do not get to the point when restraints would need to be used.
Take action and just say no to seclusion and restraints.
Photo of Cedric Napolean from USA Today.
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Comments (15)
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Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.
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The hearings are still in progress but the testimony has concluded and they are in the questioning phase and are discussing options that might be pursued, such as federal expansion of PBIS, possible federal registry of abusive educators, esp. in the event of a death or found guilty of abuse, ban of prone restraint, development of uniform standards due to missing or inconsistent regulation across the states. Suggestions to parallel the procedures for preventative measures from SAMSHA mental health passed in 2003, dependent on how that is going (schools were not eligible for those competitive grants under that regulation).
I am personally familiar with restraint and seclusion and follow it in the course of tracking, but the findings of the GAO and the testimony was truly harrowing. Any other member of the public who committed some of the incidents reported would be in jail or subject to strong penalties. By contrast, in all of the reported egregious incidents, all of the penalties were comparatively minor, and at least 1 teacher found guilty of homicide retains a teacher's license and is teaching today.
Apparently this has been eye opening to the Committee and several members were clearly disturbed. One Committee member who was a teacher in an earlier career felt that things are getting worse rather than better and that there is a "code of silence" for educators. Ms. Gaydos confirmed her experience that educators or parapros who report these events on behalf of the children are subject to retaliation.
I don't know whether the House Committee website will post the report at their webpage, but GAO reports can be found here,
http://www.gao.gov/docsearch/repandtest.html
so I anticipate that it will be there shortly.
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 05/19/2009 @ 08:25AM PT
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I need to correct and apologize for a factual misstatement, which I misheard during the Hearings.
The teacher referred to having committed homicide was not found guilty. Law enforcement felt they had probable cause but the grand jury would not bring the indictment. So it is innocent until proved guilty, although innocent in this case seems a very far stretch from the usual interpretation.
My apologies.
As far as.
And, teachers should also have plans for how to teach a child communication, relaxation or other skills so that things do not get to the point when restraints would need to be used.
It takes 2 to tango. The one thing that struck me most strongly during this today was that the density of training has to be on the adult end. Of course, the minors need to be given/taught the tools to functionally communicate and self-manage, but the adults have the overwhelming balance of power, both individually and as a system. Going to restraint or lengthy seclusion for some of the trivialities noted today indicates to me, that unless those involved enjoy beating up kids (and I admit that--there are just people who should not be allowed to work with children) that they might be working with a skimpy skill set in a system of tacit approval. The misuse of time-out from reinforcement or cutting quickly to restraint and prone restraint for heavens sake, already indicates a lack of training, supports or being on the edge of competency or being in control. The lack of accountability and retaliation towards those who would speak out says volumes about systematic problems.
I think system wide PBIS would be a good thing for everyone in cultivating a culture of behavioral support and what is acceptable.
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 05/19/2009 @ 09:15PM PT
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By the way, the hearing is still continuing...so log on if you can.
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 05/19/2009 @ 08:33AM PT
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I watched the hearings. We can only hope that the is enough outrage amongst those who watched to fix the system.
Paige's story hit me the hardest as its nearly identical to our story. Sebastian still struggles today - 2 years later. We have yet to find any medical professionals who are willing to believe our story enough to help him.
Posted by Amy Caraballo on 05/19/2009 @ 11:27AM PT
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What stands out to me upon reading these stories is that something like a prone restraint was used on these children (I think Paige Gaydos was 7 years old?) for the behavioral issues they were having. It just seems out of proportion. My own has continued to have long-term effects from being restrained too frequently and incorrectly when he was 7.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 05/19/2009 @ 07:06PM PT
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This is Paige Gaydos' dad.
The really sad part, and the part that many people don't get, is that safe restraint practices have been established and are used successfully all over the country. It is not as if the teachers have to choose between abusive restraints and letting the kids run free.
After Paige's ordeal at Cupertino Union School District (one of the top rated districts in California, ironically), she enrolled at Esther B Clarke (EBC) school, which is sort of a school-of-last-resort for difficult kids. What an oasis! The policies and procedures are explained to parents and children at the beginning. If/when restraints are necessary, they are performed in safe ways that leave the child and teacher unharmed.
One positive side effect of this is that kids end up needing far fewer restraints. After Paige had one restraint early at EBC she learned from it and never needed one again. Because of the approach taken, kids are far more likely to adapt their behaviors positively.
Unfortunately, there are a few schools (public and private, poor and rich, red states and blue states) where for whatever reason teachers either aren't taught the safe approaches or just choose to ignore them, and the administration looks the other way. In Paige's case we later learned that the restraints her teacher used were expressedly forbidden by California law as life threatening, and that the teacher had received the proscribed training. Yet, she'd been called out several times by aides and parents, and each time the district took steps to cover up the issue. In our case they just denied everything and claimed that all the requisite paperwork had been miraculously lost.
Ironically, districts sometimes complain about the cost of special education programs, but a well-run program costs a lot less than a poorly-run one, when you take into account all the fallout from the inevitable incidents involving abused children.
Posted by Craig Gaydos on 05/19/2009 @ 07:52PM PT
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Thank you so much for commenting here. My son is in a public school district in New Jersey; his program uses ABA and the teachers and aides are instructed in using protective holds----in safe procedures. That's terrible about the cover-up: You have to wonder what administrators are thinking, or not.
Hope Paige is doing all right and thanks very much to your family for speaking out on this very important issue.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 05/19/2009 @ 08:13PM PT
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@ Craig Gaydos. I am sorry to hear that your child was put in face-down hold restraint by a teacher. I am so glad that Paige is in a better school. I am glad you shared your experiences. It is wrong what happend to your child. Everyone gets hit with these situations all of a sudden. It is so difficult to know what to do.
I live in California too. You live more in the Bay area and I live in Northern CA. It was hard to respond to your comments especially "school-of-last-resort for difficult kids." In our area these last resort schools are call "the Ranch".
It is common in our area to place students in 'ranch schools' as a measure of dealing with difficult to place students. I talked to Tony Attwood at an autism conference after the school district wanted to change my son's placement. Tony said that it is important for autistic children to imitate healthy behavior and not behavior of students at the ranch. I really had to fight hard to prevent this type of placement. Tony's words repeated to mental health and the public school saved my son from the ranch. I would not on this blog mention the full name of The Ranch.
Children placed at Children's Services are certified to be in need of level 14 placement. Their diagnoses may include psychotic disorders, depressions, traits of personality disorders, and attention disorders... Ranch devoted the next fourteen years to serving adjudicated boys between the ages of 7 and 17, diagnosed with developmental disabilities.
Many of these children and adolescents have histories that include abuse, neglect, exposure to drug abuse, and attempted suicide. Some behaviors that are symptomatic of these negative experiences are running away, physical and verbal aggression, self-abuse, bizarre responses to various aspects of the environment, criminal behavior, pervading distrust of adults, severe impairment of communication, and other dysfunctional behaviors.
They must be at least seven years of age and no older than seventeen at the time of placement.
Our typical residents have a legal status of 600, 300, 26.5, or 3632 and several are new to the Mental Health/Department of Social Services system.
(The government not the parents have legal rights to your child.)
The mental health services are scheduled to treat the residents 24 hours a day - 365 days of the year. The primary goal is to provide children in crisis with immediate intervention, while providing an initial evaluation for their immediate emotional needs.
Treatment focuses on the reduction of maladaptive and/or psychotic behaviors exhibited by the young person upon entry into the program. Individual therapy, psychiatric consultation, day treatment, group therapy, and crisis intervention are treatment components. Each child is provided with an individualized treatment plan based on his/her specific needs..Ultimately, the successful completion of the individualized treatment plan will prepare residents for a less restrictive environment.
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Types of disabilities may include DSM-IV diagnostic classifications, emotional disability, behavior disorder, learning disability, or a combination of disorders and disabilities that prevent them from functioning successfully in their current setting.
Teachers and therapists participate jointly in case conferences and development of the Individualized Educational Plan. (Only the staff is involved in the IEP because the legal status of the child is with the government and not the parents.) Each student will have a complete and current Individual Educational Program (IEP) that qualifies them as eligible for Emotionally Disturbed and/ or Learning Handicapped services... This IEP is required for admission to determine appropriateness for admission to our School.
One student that this suddenly happened too was helped by having an IEP written with his family and my input. The family said it was this IEP that allowed him to get an education while spending years at the Ranch.
This School is intended to serve the special needs of the at-risk student in a residential placement. Most of the children are admitted here for the very same reasons that they are 'expelled' from other special education settings. The integration of the treatment program and educational program allows for a constant effort of solving serious behavior problems. (That is why once placed here the child can't returned to the family until the Ranch
says your child can function in a less restrictive environment).
A child doesn't need to be danger of being expelled. My son didn't have this problem. All of this is at the discretion of school and mental health. To avoid this situation you need to hire an attorney with expertise in this area and go twice before a judge. There is little input from the parents.
Posted by L I on 05/20/2009 @ 12:31PM PT
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Video an Special-needs Kids at Risk for seclusion and restraints
You have received the following link from California:
Click to access the sent linkSpecial-needs kids at risk*
*This article can also be accessed if you copy and paste the entire address below into your web browser.
http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2009/05/19/boudreau.seclusion.and.restraint.cnn
Posted by L I on 05/19/2009 @ 11:22PM PT
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Mission The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Inc. (COPAA) is an independent, nonprofit, §501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization of attorneys, special education advocates and parents. COPAA's mission is to be a national voice for special education rights and to promote excellence in advocacy. Our primary goal is to secure high quality educational services for children with disabilities.
http://www.copaa.org/about/index.html
#4. Stop schools from using abusive interventions on children with disabilities.We believe it is important to stop the use of restraints, seclusion, and aversive interventions on children with disabilities. No child with a disability should be subjected to neglect, abuse, or risk of death in the name of treatment or under the guise of providing educational or therapeutic services, regardless of the setting. Abuse violates children's rights and dignity and is neither educational nor effective. Children should receive effective positive behavior supports developed within a comprehensive, professionally-developed plan of behavioral accommodations, supports, and interventions. Effective federal and state legislation is important. Among other actions, we support Congressman George Miller's bill, H.R. 6358, to prevent abuse in residential schools, and we ask that similar protection be extended to students in public and private day schools.
(George Miller Bill)
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/43/15/21-a
The Stop Child Abuse in Residential Programs for Teens Act of 2008 (HR 6358) was passed by the House of Representatives in June 2008 but still requires approval by the Senate.
Residential Programs for Teens May Get Federal Oversight Rich Daly Several mental health organizations maintain that increased oversight of adolescent residential treatment programs is warranted by findings of injuries and even death among young participants in these facilities
http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/43/15/21-a
It would provide first-time federal standards for private and public residential programs, such as wilderness camps for children with behavioral problems. The oversight is needed, said proponents of the bill, because the programs, which are only regulated in a few states, may hire undertrained staffs who sometimes have been involved in injuries or deaths of the youths they are supposed to help, among other problems.
Posted by L I on 05/19/2009 @ 11:47PM PT
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That last sentence really stands out---who gets hired (background checks needed) and how they are tried are terribly important. For us, gone are the days when many of Charlie's therapists were young woman, college-student age. There's a lot involved in taking care of him and teaching him.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 05/20/2009 @ 05:37AM PT
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COPAA releases report asking Congress to stop the use of restraints, seclusion, and aversives upon children with disabilities in school. The report entitled, Unsafe In The Schoolhouse: Abuse Of Children With Disabilities, details 143 incidents of the use of abusive interventions against children with disabilities in school. The report also includes suggested legislative remedies. More
http://www.copaa.org/index.html
The full report, updated on May 10, 2009, which includes 155 incidents of abusive interventions in school and COPAA's legislative recommendations, is available here. (Note: COPAA will periodically update the survey results)
In March-April 2009, we(Copaa) conducted a survey that identified 143 cases in which children were subjected to aversive interventions. We received reports of children subject to prone restraints; injured by larger adults who restrained them; tied, taped and trapped in chairs and equipment; forced into locked seclusion rooms; made to endure pain, humiliation and deprived of basic necessities, and subjected to a variety of other abusive techniques.
Of the survey respondents, 71% had not consented to the use of aversive interventions; 16% had, but many believed the interventions would only be used in limited circumstances where there was an imminent threat of injury. Moreover, 71% reported that the children in involved did not have a research-based positive behavioral intervention plans; 10% did (but parents often said that the plan was not followed). 84% of children restrained were under 14 years of age, with 53% aged 6-10.
An 11 year old South Carolinian girl was being restrained with beanbags on the floor, and the school attempted to use a straightjacket restraint on her. As a result of advocacy by her attorneys, the restraints were terminated. Her curriculum was changed to be more age appropriate because her behaviors likely resulted from being bored with curriculum. A new crisis plan was put into place to avoid restraint: if the student became aggressive toward staff, the staff would break away from the student and briefly leave the classroom. Using this plan, the child quickly calmed down and went to her desk area. Previously, the school district had requested that the parent take the child home early on regular basis; parents report this has not happened for the last 2 months. With the new behavioral plan, the child has made substantial progress in school.
Posted by L I on 05/19/2009 @ 11:58PM PT
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This might be news you can use,
Rep. Phil Hare [on 5/21/09] introduced in the U.S. House
Positive Behavior for Safe and Effective Schools Act of 2009 (H.R. 2597).
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 06/02/2009 @ 01:49PM PT
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Adolescent residential treatment
The adolescent residential program are really very helpful for those parents who dont want to send their kids in boarding school or for any training programmes but are they really helpful, yes they are very helpful but depends on parents to understand what residential programs will be good for their kids.
Posted by Neelkamal Pandey on 09/21/2009 @ 12:19PM PT
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Yes, Adolescent residential treatment are very helpful programs i like the comment.
Posted by Neelkamal Pandey on 09/21/2009 @ 12:22PM PT
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