From AP/Los Angeles Times:

A report from the U.S. Department of Education this weeks shows that 19 states do not in any way regulate their schools’ use of seclusion and restraints on misbehaving students. And even though 31 states do have some type of policy, the report found, many are weak and do not clearly spell out proper disciplinary procedures for teachers to follow.

Education Seretary Arne Duncan called for the assessment after congressional investigators disclosed evidence of widespread restraint and seclusion of students by school staff around the country, most of it involving students with disabilities. At least 20 deaths and many injuries were attributed to the practices.

For the first time, federal lawmakers are considering legislation that would prohibit restraint and seclusion in most circumstances and require training for educators on effective behavior management. The bill passed the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee earlier this month.

“Schools are the Wild West — anything goes,” said Leslie Lipson with the Georgia Advocacy Office, which is pushing for legislation that would ban both restraint and seclusion in Georgia. “We have seen instances of restraint and seclusion where teachers and other officials have used Velcro, duct tape, hog tying — kids locked in storage closets. All sorts of perversions.”

Related posts here.

Company sees threat to free speech on the Internet

From Reuters/New York Times, AP/Forbes.com, CNN:

A judge in Milan has found three Google executives guilty of criminal privacy violation charges for allowing a cellphone video of the bullying of an Italian youth to be displayed on a company website in 2006.

Press reports said the video showed the boy, described as having Down syndrome or autism, being taunted by classmates while one of the teens made a mock phone call to a Down syndrome support group.

A Google spokesman said the company would appeal what it called an “astonishing” decision, and said the case posed a threat to freedom of speech on the Internet.

Prosecutors said the case was not about censorship, but about balancing freedom of expression with the rights of an individual. They said the video remained online for months even though some web users had posted comments asking that it be taken down. Google said it removed the video within hours of being notified by police.

The three defendants received six-month suspended sentences for privacy violation. They were acquitted of charges of defamation, as was a fourth executive. All had denied wrongdoing. In an earlier action in juvenile court, the four bullies were sentenced to community service.

From USA Today:

In hearings seven months ago, congressional investigators disclosed evidence of widespread restraint and seclusion of students by school staff around the country, most of it involving students with disabilities. Some of the cases ended in death. Since the hearings, advocates say, only a handful of states have moved to restrict or regulate the practice.

“There has been a lot of attention, a lot of advocacy, a lot of family members involved, but it’s slow going,” says Jane Hudson, an attorney for the National Disability Rights Network, based in Washington, D.C.

See related interview with Rep. George Miller (D-California), who is co-sponsoring legislation that would prohibit or limit restraint and seclusion of students except in rare cases, when there is “imminent danger of injury.” An excerpt:

This abuse is a nightmare … The types of abuse these kids are suffering are so disturbing, you’d think these were stories about torture tactics used at prison camps. Instead they’re happening to some of our youngest children, in our schools.

From the Hartford Courant, Contra Costa [CA] Times, NPR, Muskegon [MI] Chronicle, press release from the House Education and Labor Committee:

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has introduced legislation aimed at protecting students in the nation’s schools from harmful uses of restraint and seclusion.

The legislation follows congressional hearings and a report by the Government Accountability Office last spring that documented hundreds of cases of schoolchildren being subjected to inappropriate uses of restraint and seclusion in schools, often by untrained school staff. A disproportionate number of those cases involved students with disabilities; some students died.

Lack of oversight has led to a “serious, systemwide failure” that in some cases has subjected students to “nothing short of torture,” said Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who co-sponsored the House bill with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) A comparable measure was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT).

The bill would establish minimum safety standards in schools, prohibiting  physical restraint or locked seclusion except in cases where there is imminent danger of injury, and where the restriction is imposed by a trained staff member.

It would also: prohibit mechanical restraints, including strapping children to chairs or duct-taping parts of their bodies; prohibit any restraint that restricts breathing, and require schools to notify parents immediately after incidents when restraint or seclusion was used.

In addition, the bill would require states to collect detailed data on restraint and seclusion, make it publicly available, and report it to the federal government.

(more…)

From ABC News (with video):

Two teacher’s aides are facing felony criminal charges for allegedly abusing Montana middle school students with disabilities last year.

Witnesses have accused Julie Parish and Kristina Marie Kallies of abusing 14-year Garret Schilling, who has Fragile X syndrome and limited verbal skills, by holding his head under running water, making him eat his own vomit, and leaving him sitting in his own feces for prolonged periods.

Other families have also come forward with allegations of abuse, including one report that a girl with cerebral palsy came home with chunks of hair missing.

The aides have resigned but deny the allegations.

See also:

Great Falls educators open window on special ed in wake of abuse charges — Great Falls Tribune

Editorial: Sunshine could help reassure special-needs community — Great Falls Tribune

Attorney general won’t investigate alleged school abuse — Great Falls Tribune

Special Ed Teacher Accused of Abusing Students — [Nashville, TN] WSMV

Lawsuit claims teacher abused special needs students — Nashville Newschannel5

From the [Minneapolis-St. Paul] Star Tribune:

A fifth and final suspect has been convicted in last year’s kidnapping and torture of a man with disabilities in rural Minnesota. Twenty-two year-old Jonathan M. Diepold was convicted of six violent crimes and a misdemeanor in the attack on Justin Hamilton 25, who has fetal alcohol syndrome. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of at least eight years in prison.

Carolyn Hamilton, Justin’s mother, says her once happy-go-lucky son has emotional scars that will never go away.

A year later, he not only has nightmares but also day terrors when he recalls smelling gasoline and hearing them discuss whether they would set him on fire, before he passed out, Carolyn Hamilton said.

… “Justin will have a lot to deal with for a long time after they’ve finished their prison sentences,” she said.

Earlier posts here.

From the Salt Lake Tribune, [Salt Lake City] Deseret News:

A Utah man was arrested this week when a 14-year-old boy, described by police as “severely mentally challenged,” was found chained to a couch.

Tai Ngo, the boy’s uncle and primary caregiver, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of felony abuse or neglect of a disabled child. Police said they believe Ngo would take the boy, who was described as “nonverbal,” to his grandmother’s apartment and chain him to the couch during the day while he went to work.

Law enforcement documents alleged Ngo would also lock the teenager in a room “that had nothing in it for extended periods of time,” and said another length of chain was attached to a couch in Ngo’s apartment. The arrest came after an apartment maintenance man noticed the teenager chained to the couch.