A mother’s testimony: Son died from school restraint
May 20th, 2009
From the Associated Press and CNN:
A Texas mother testified about the fatal use of restraints on her foster son in a congressional hearing Tuesday, as legislators received a GAO report documenting widespread abuse of techniques to restrain or discipline students with disabilities.
Toni Price of Killeen, Texas, told the House Committee on Education and Labor that her 14-year-old foster son, Cedric, died in March 2002 when his teacher disciplined him by restraining him face-down and sitting on him. She said the teacher, who outweighed her son by more than 100 pounds, ignored Cedric’s pleas that he could not breathe.
“If I treated Cedric that way at home, I’d be in jail,” Price said. Even though the death was ruled a homicide, a grand jury did not indict the teacher, who until this week worked as a special education teacher at a Northern Virginia high school. (See related post.)
Gregory Kutz, the GAO official who presented the findings at the House hearing, said there are no federal regulations on the use of restraints or seclusion in public or private schools. Nineteen states have no laws that restrict either practice, while eight states specifically ban restraint that restricts breathing, he said.
(Photo from video feed of hearings)
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May 23rd, 2009 at 11:43 am
I feel terrible for this mother and especially for this child. This makes me soooooo very disappointed in our system. I cannot even imagine what this child had to suffer and endure but I know he is now in peace and in a much better place where there won’t be harm to him ever again, he is in Gods kingdom where he is safe.
As far as the foster mom is concerned, my heart goes out to her for she is faced to deal with the pain for the rest of her life. I hope not only that the teacher does her time here on earth, but she also pays in HELL for what she has done to this innocent defenseless child. There is nothing worse than to harm a child with a disability that cannot defend themselves against these vicious monsters.
My child too was abused in the school system. I cannot compare to this family, but know that we had a long road of recovery with no help. There was no justice. From the school system, to the police dept, resource officer at school, from DCF, from the doctor who agreed that this was a restraint gone very bad, and yet didn’t report the abuse, all the way down to the D.A’s office that did absolutely nothing!!! They all have failed to protect not only my child, other vulnerable future victims as well. I myself fought until I had to move for the well being of my health and my family’s as well.
This inclusion classroom no longer exists in that school But I did do some research and found that this teacher involved is in the next school over to work once again with special ed “Go figure!”
So what I want to know is, Why nothing is being done to help protect our children? These children are challenged children with disabilities! It takes special people to take care of them. Us as parents had to learn on the job instantly to be patient, teachers, advocate, therapist, parent, friend, caregiver, etc. we should not have to add lawyer, law enforcement, special ed teacher, doctor, etc. to the mix, That should be their jobs otherwise they should not be entitled to their title, you have to earn that, lord knows we did.
I am going to continue to follow our so called justice system and will continue to fight for these children. We as parents need to “demand”! the protection for these children with disabilities. They are entitled to this. They too are citizens, right? or do they not count or matter, because they are different, disabled, or nonverbal?
A very concerned parent