SUN EDITORIAL:

Danger to students

Congress should create a uniform policy regarding restraining children with disabilities

Sunday, May 24, 2009 | 2:06 a.m.

In 2002 a 14-year-old Texas boy died after being restrained by his special education teacher. The boy, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, was crushed after the teacher, who outweighed him by 100 pounds, laid on top of him. The boy’s offense? He did not stay in his seat.

A grand jury rejected criminal charges in the case, and the teacher is now working in a public school in Virginia.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case. In a review of laws governing the restraint of children with disabilities, the Government Accountability Office found thousands of cases of children being restrained or confined in the nation’s schools. California and Texas, which contain more than a fifth of the nation’s children, reported a total of 33,095 such instances in schools during the past academic year.

The GAO also reported “hundreds of allegations” of abuse and highlighted 10 cases from across the nation, four of which ended in death, due to restraint techniques. For example, in 1993 a

9-year-old boy in New York with a learning disability was confined to a “small, dirty room” 75 times over six months for “whistling, slouching and hand-waving.” A 7-year-old California girl with mild autism was repeatedly restrained or secluded in 2001 and 2002 because teachers said she was “acting out.” In one instance, a teacher forced the girl to lie face down and then sat on her — because the girl wiggled a loose tooth in class.

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.

Discussion: 2 comments so far…

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By neiman1

May 24, 2009

4:32 a.m.

Suggest removal

Yes, a national law. State should not be allowed to run things in their states. No one is competent except our great Congress. Really?
By teacher

May 24, 2009

9:38 a.m.

Suggest removal

Nobody should vote on this issue until they spend several weeks working in a special ed classroom, and know what is reasonable and realistic, and what isn't. Did the "small, dirty room" (totally subjective description - how small? dirty in what way?) hurt this child? If his behavior wasn't disruptive or dangerous, then why did the teacher keep removing him? To cause trouble and aggravation and extra work for him/herself as a teacher? What's needed here is what's needed, and lacking, all over America: common sense, and dealing with individual problems on an individual basis. Congress will probably do something totally overblown, as it did with NCLB. It will come up with some kind of legislation that will create yet more paperwork for teachers and administrators, and more cost for schools, and have no appreciable effect. In Nevada, teachers (even those who are not special ed) have to watch a video that explains how restraints can and cannot be used. That's enough.

I have to say that the "poor children" tone and lack of critical analysis and detail here bothers me. I see way too many kids who seem to feel they have every right in the world to behave however they please, and that teachers no longer have a right to discipline them even in the mildest ways. Our schools put up with way too many brats - and I mean BRATS - who slow down the education process for the kids who behave, due to this "children are victims of teachers" attitude that is promoted by some inept parents. When is common sense going to change schools so that teachers have some control again? It's pretty common knowledge that discipline is lacking in public schools - one of the reasons some parents pay for private school - yet we never hear of Congress considering doing something to allow teachers to get chronically disruptive students out of their classrooms, do we?