Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Special education advocates, including a Palm Beach County mother, are a step closer to federal legislation governing the use of seclusion and restraint in schools.

Both practices have resulted in the death of children, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.

The report documented hundreds of allegations that children have been abused by school staff who physically restrained them or put them in isolation.

U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-California, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, held a committee hearing Tuesday to discuss the findings and to hear from victims. The Obama administration has also indicated plans to address abuses.

Miller said restraint can be viewed as a form of torture.

"When you start to think here, you're losing your breath you're losing your ability to breath .. .so you're creating that same physiological impact on that child that they're going to suffocate, and in fact, in cases they suffocated, they died," he said.

Miller requested the GAO investigation after attending a January press conference that featured a local mother and special education advocate, Phyllis Musumeci.

Musumeci, founder of the national Families Against Restraint and Seclusion, had been invited to the release of a report by The National Disability Rights Network, which documented widespread use, and some say abuse, of restraint and seclusion.

"It was powerful for me because this is the first time that anybody has accepted the fact that schools are doing harm to our children," Musumeci said of Tuesday's hearing.

"We haven't been listened to before. I have a list a mile long of groups, agencies, organizations that parents have contacted all over Florida and not one, not even one has helped, including our own governor.

Musumeci, of Boynton Beach, has been fighting against the practices since she learned about two years ago that her son, Christian, had been restrained by Palm Beach County school staff at least 89 times in a period of 14 months. She has been working with Florida's Advocacy Center for Persons with Disabilities to get a state law passed banning the use of seclusion and face-down restraint in public schools.

State laws and regulations vary. In Florida, there is no law addressing either practice in public schools.

Some school officials, including those in Palm Beach County, say the use of face-down or prone restraint is not dangerous if done properly. They say it is a necessary tool for school staff when a child is a danger to himself or others.

But the GAO report found evidence of improperly trained staff and instances when the technique cut off a child's air supply.

Tuesday's Congressional hearing included testimony from Texas foster mother Toni Price, whose son Cedric suffocated to death after a teacher restrained him and laid on top of him after he tried to leave the classroom.

Miller's spokeswoman Rachel Racusen indicated that his committee will have additional hearings on the issue because it's important to craft legislation to address the full range of issues. But she said Miller wants to move quickly.

"What we heard in today's hearing and in the findings of the GAO report, is it's an urgent problem," she said. "For some children, it's literally a matter of life or death."


Wow, I truly was not aware that this is being used and implemented in our school systems??? WTF!!!

Are florida schools integrated? Meaning that special ed students in gen ed class rooms?

I can say 7-10 years ago they were not, not sure about now.

wow but just picturing this makes it worse:
a child with special needs attending a general education class
put in restraints yikes in this day and age where people are so mean, wow.

I don't see the need to restraints if there is a proper classroom environment. Student who are EI (emotionally impaired) need more supervision and less contact with other students. Students who are CI (cognitively impaired) should be in a calm and disruption free classroom, so should not be in classroom with EI students.

I am very irritated with the school system. I am seriously starting to wonder about most of the teachers who are teaching. Half of them, I wonder how they even got through college. The other half appear to have no 'common sense'. And half of all of them should have choosen to go into another profession. I really don't know nowadays!

wtf???? a child in special ed isn't any more dangerous than someone in honors classes

I can see the difference is levels of a child's ability to learn and interact - but restraints just sound to F'ing barbaric to me

There will always be a situation or a circumstance that I don't take into account of, but I am hopeful there would be alternatives.

Local issue contact your County school board...

thank you I wouldn't have guessed

temp - I am trying to start a discussion on topic

http://www.fldoe.org/ese/pdf/clu-brief.pdf

Children that are emotional impaired are now being put in special ed classrooms. These children have (most of the time) severe mental illness and violent behaviorial problems.

Those students who are cognitively impaired (what most people think of special education) generally are non-violent.

Some can be. Some autistic children can become violent when angry. My child has been injured by one numerous times.

The boy is in the regular classroom. He's big too. The first month my child was in that school, the boy pushed my child down the steps. He banged another child's head against the wall right after that. He was angry about something.

Another day he picked up a desk and threw it at my child. The boy was angry at somebody else and my child was sitting the closest to him.

This year he charged across the room in gym class and pushed my child backwards onto the floor. Another time in gym this year, he threw his shoe at my child. He announced that he was doing first. My child was sitting on the floor across the room from him.

He does this to other children too. It's not just my child.

There was another boy worse then this at my child's other school.



I do not believe in restraints though.

Winx, would you know what the teachers did to try and prevent other acts of violence from this child? Was he removed? How he was removed?

true...maybe I just know about special ed in my area. autistic children are usually in special schools so they can focus on the special needs of the child. most kids here in special ed just have more minor learning diabilities....like ADD etc.

the public school teachers don't have the resources to teach a class of children like that. they are over worked and under paid.

Rose,

My child goes to a Christian school. There are two autistic children in my child's grade. The boy is the one that becomes violent.

I have a friend that has an Autistic son. He attends a special school in the city's public school system.

I have another friend that has a severely Autistic boy and he's deaf.
I'm not sure if he goes to school still. He doesn't function well. He's heavily medicated to keep him under control. My friend had to give him up. She visits him now.

I'm sorry to hear about your last friend winx...that must be hard.

the special ed I refer to is just kids struggling to learn..not with severe learning disabilities. they have special public schools for those parents that can't afford private here as well (I believe), but in the mainstream schools...the special ed kids are those that struggle but not because of sever learning diabilities.

I'm sorry Winx

I know too well. lol I'm keeping my eye on it.

Last year when he became violent, he was put in a room with him and the teacher only. My child said that they turned the lights out and closed the blinds.

That is the only thing that I've heard that's been done about the boy.

My child said that no teacher corrects him when he's done wrong. My child doesn't understand it - why he doesn't have to follow the rules.
Parents have told me that nobody does anything about it.

Now the one that was worse at the other Christian school: I heard that he was bi-polar and more. I'm talking 2nd grade and he was held back a grade and was a very big child. He would trip girls walking by him. He hurt them and pushed them. He hurt my child a few times. We saw him looking under the teacher's dress and touching himself during a play that the children were doing. He was on meds. The teacher never did anything. I think it was the teacher though. She was very passive. I didn't like her.

All the parents called the Principal and complained about the boy. He was asked to not come back to the school.

I didn't see in the OP that these children were severely disabled. they could just have emotional problems or something could have happened in the class to make the one kid walk out. but that happenes in normal classes also.

my son is in regular classes in public schools and kids can throw a temper tantrum there as well.

that child should have been in a specialized school for his disabilities. the child may have been reacting to knowing he was different.

Yes, it was difficult for my friend.

The public school special ed program here includes all of the children with problems. It includes the severe learning disabilities.

I have a friend (she's have a dinner Friday night ) She's a teacher's helper in the special ed school. She said that the child that she was assigned to help last year was almost a zombie. She had to feed the child, help her go to the bathroom and the child slept a lot. She couldn't walk and could barely talk. She's in a special class in the special ed. school. The teachers have told the parents that the school isn't doing the child any good but the parents want her to be in school.

I hear a lot about the children from her.

ADA (American Disibilities Act) states that students with disabilities are to be placed in the less restrictive environments first. So children with special needs are often tried in regular class rooms before being placed into special education or into specialized schools. And often there is no specialized school for children with severe problems.