Schools increasingly using restraints on students with disabilities
July 14th, 2008
From the New York Times:
One unfortunate result of including children with disabilities in regular classes, experts say, is the increasing use of physical restraints on vulnerable students. Takedowns, isolation rooms, restraining chairs with straps and more are being used — the same sort of practices that families had hoped to avoid by steering clear of institutionalized settings.
In April, a 9-year-old Montreal boy with autism died of suffocation when a special education teacher wrapped him in a weighted blanket to calm him, according to the coroner’s report. Two Michigan public school students with autism have died while being held on the ground in so-called prone restraint.
… “Behavior problems in school are way up, and there’s good reason to believe that the use of these procedures is up, too,” said Reece L. Peterson, a professor of special education at the University of Nebraska.
… 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.
Tim Miller, above, has been repeatedly been restrained at his middle school in New York. His parents are suing the school district. He has Asperger’s syndrome.
(New York Times photo)
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