Fulton judge says defendant accused of hitting two pupils didn't intend to harm them.
Friday, July 25, 2008
By Kathy Coffta Sims
Staff writer
A Fulton City Court judge has dismissed the charges against a special education teacher who was accused of striking two developmentally disabled students in May 2007.
Judge Spencer Ludington said in court Wednesday that he did not think Gracia Thompson, 45, of 56 W. Third St., Fulton, intended to harm thestudents.
Thompson was facing two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, stemming from incidents in the spring of 2007 at Lanigan ElementarySchool in Fulton.
"I believe it is fair to suggest that this was a reaction to the behavior of an aggressive child," Ludington said.
Thompson's lawyer, James Eby, told the judge that Thompson, who has been at the district since 1999, was assigned to students who have profound mental and physical disabilities. He said the students often have tantrums and throw objects at, scream at, hit and spit at theirteachers.
He said the incidents that resulted in charges against Thompson involved two students, one of whom is profoundly disabled. He said Thompson was trying to teach that student, a 7-year-old, how to urinate in the toilet when he turned on her and spat at her.
"She did smack his upper thigh a few times to redirect him to the task at hand." Eby said. He said that student had no signs of physical injury and was never seen by a nurse or doctor.
A teacher's aide brought the incident to the attention of the district and they conducted a thorough investigation, Eby said. He said the district came up withan appropriate administrative remedy and that when Thompson returned to the classroom, she received a letter from the boy's mother, welcoming her back.
Oswego County Assistant District Attorney Gregory Oakes told Ludington that the mother did not have the full story of what happened when she wrote the letter.
"She regrets having written that letter," Oakes said. "Now that sheis aware of what happened, she certainly has a different opinion."
Oakes said that the boy's mother spoke to two aides who told her she didn't have the full story of what happened that day in the classroom. It was then that she went to the Fulton Police Department.
Eby said in the second incident Thompson put up her hand to prevent a5-year-old child from butting his head into her head or body. He said she reacted with a defensive motion and did not intend to hurt thechild.
Eby said Thompson's account of that incident was confirmed by an aide who was present in the room when it happened.
Oakes, who had offered to let Thompson plead guilty to two counts of second-degree harassment, told the judge that witnesses to that incident said Thompson was frustrated and hit the victim three or four times in the back of the head, saying "How do you like it?"
"That's acting out of anger and frustration," Oakes said.
But Ludington, who read aloud from several of Thompson's performance evaluations, said that he did not believe that the evidence showed that Thompson acted in any way that was injurious to the child.
He said that neither student was treated by a doctor or nurse for any injuries and that by all accounts, Thompson was a person of good character who was an asset to the Fulton school district.
Earlier in the proceeding, Eby questioned whether the district attorney's office had allowed the evidence in the case to be considered by a grand jury.
"It's clear to me there was no grand jury involved. Therefore, the subpoena that was issued was improperly issued," Eby said. "This is a bunch of baloney. I ask the court to put an end to this matter, hereand now."
Ludington agreed with Eby."There is absolutely no evidence that a grand jury was properly impaneled to review this matter," the judge said. "The district attorney has no authority to issue grand jury subpoenas.
"Thompson had been reassigned to the district office when she was charged. Late last year, Superintendent William Lynch said Thompson would not be allowed back into the classroom until the court proceedings against her were resolved.
Lynch was not available to comment on Thompson's status on Thursday.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Mom wants school to explain son's injuries
Austin mother suspects substitute teacher injured her special needs child.
By Molly Bloom
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, July 26, 2008
One Wednesday in January, 4-year-old Alex González came home from his pre-K class at Andrews Elementary School in Northeast Austin with three big bumps on his head, bruises under his arms and tears in his eyes.
Alex is autistic and communicates through gestures and guttural sounds, so his mother, Rosalía García, couldn't ask her son how he got hurt. Instead, she asked the school's assistant principal.
García says that she is still waiting for answers.
Because neither Alex's family nor school staff noticed any injuries when Alex left for school, his parents believe that their son's injuries occurred while he was in class with a substitute teacher.
The sub, a 69-year-old retired postal worker named Gilbert Lazalde, said in an interview with the American-Statesman that he did not hurt Alex and did not know how the injuries occurred.
The district's police department has closed its investigation into Alex's injuries and has not charged Lazalde with a crime.
School records show that teachers at two campuses had complained about how Lazalde treated students before Alex was injured. Lazalde was eventually terminated from his position as a substitute after teachers at four separate campuses complained about his behavior, but district records do not indicate that Alex's injuries played any part in the termination.
Though the Austin school district allows school principals to bar specific substitutes from their campuses and file administrative complaints about subs who violate campus or district rules, it has no specific policy requiring the district to fire substitutes who have amassed multiple complaints.
And though the district's substitute handbook warns substitutes that violations of any district or campus policy can result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination, Lazalde wasn't terminated until teachers at four Austin elementary schools reported accusations that he had pinched, shoved and been verbally abusive to students.
García says Alex's story shows what can happen when adults with limited teaching experience or training are put in charge of some of the most vulnerable, and often most difficult to manage, children. A substitute teacher with multiple complaints against him should never have come in contact with her son, she said.
"I can't believe they allow (those) people to work with disabled students," García, who speaks limited English, said in Spanish.
Six months after Alex was hurt, district officials, who didn't initially tell García that a substitute was supervising her son the day he was hurt, have yet to tell her what they know about the events leading to his injuries, she said.
They have also declined to release the police report on his injuries, citing state laws on the confidentiality of child abuse investigations.
Special education shortage
There are no statewide requirements for substitute teachers beyond submitting fingerprints and passing a national criminal background check to show they haven't been convicted of a violent or sexual crime against a public school student. A search of public records found that Lazalde does not have a criminal history.
The Austin school district also requires its substitutes to have at least 60 hours of college credit and attend a one-day training session, requirements similar to or more rigorous than those of most other large Texas school districts and most other Central Texas districts.
The Austin's district's substitute handbook doesn't discuss teaching students with special needs, though a 290-page supplementary manual used in substitute orientation devotes four pages to the subject. That's four more pages than the Round Rock school district's 12-page substitute teacher's handbook devotes to it.
About 860, or 27 percent, of Austin's substitutes were certified teachers in 2007-08, according to the district. Last year, 3 percent of substitutes were certified to teach special education classes, and less than 1 percent were certified bilingual teachers.
Special education and bilingual teachers are in high demand statewide, district spokesman Andy Welch said, and special education and bilingual substitute teachers also are in short supply.
In a June letter to García, associate superintendent Claudia Tousek wrote that the district's substitute office is "exploring opportunities" to offer additional workshops on working with students with special needs. District officials declined to discuss Alex's injuries with the Statesman.
Teacher responds to claims
Lazalde said that on Jan. 16 he was subbing for Alex's special education teacher when, after walking Alex from one classroom to another, he saw the bumps on Alex's head. Lazalde said that he immediately reported them to campus staff. Lazalde said that he was never alone with Alex except when he walked him from one classroom to another. Even then other teachers were in the hallway, Lazalde said.
Lazalde said he received "absolutely no training" from the district on dealing with children with special needs before he began working in the classroom.
"They never really mentioned autistic," he said. "They just said, 'Don't mess with the kids' and stuff like that."
District records show that Lazalde, who is fluent in Spanish, completed 112 substitute teaching assignments from September 2007 through March 2007, most of them in English as a Second Language or bilingual classes.
But prior to subbing in Alex's class at Andrews, Lazalde was asked by administrators in October at Allan Elementary School in East Austin and Travis Heights Elementary School in South Austin not to return to their campuses.
Teachers at both schools said Lazalde was rude and physically abusive to students, according to substitute office reports provided by the district under the Texas Public Information Act.
According to the reports, Lazalde is accused of pinching Allan students to get their attention and telling one special education student, "Shut up. What are you retarded?"
Lazalde replied to the accusations in writing, saying that he did not pinch students and didn't recall telling students to shut up.
"In Spanish I repeatedly said, 'callense' [Be quiet] and 'silencio, [Silence]' " he wrote. "I admit that I did use the word 'retarded.' I did not call the student retarded but used it in questioning his behavior."
Lazalde apologized for calling the student "retarded," saying he didn't know the student had a disability. In a letter, he told the district's substitute office that being a substitute teacher was a "hard learning experience" and asked for advice or reading materials to help him deal with difficult classroom situations.
Complaints continue
After Alex was injured at Andrews, Alex's teacher also asked that Lazalde not return. The teacher reported that another special education student Lazalde was escorting fell and cut her lip and that his explanation of how and where it happened "didn't seem to match."
In a written response to that report, Lazalde wrote that he had no idea why the girl fell. Lazalde said he immediately took her to the school nurse.
In his response, Lazalde also explained that he did "restrain a couple [students] on several occasions in an effort to gain control of them and get them to follow my directions. ... Short of using severe physical punishment (which I would never do) I don't know what other techniques I could have used."
Two months later, Lazalde was asked not to return to Pleasant Hill Elementary School after a fourth-grade teacher reported that her students complained that Lazalde had shoved them, poked them and pulled their arms.
After that complaint in March, the district removed him from their substitute list and barred him from working for the school district again.
Lazalde said he has since taken a part-time job in a field unrelated to education.
Rosalía García, Alex's mother, said that in the weeks after being injured, Alex, the eldest of her four children, was fearful of going to school. Just passing by his school bag hanging in the hallway could make him cry, she said.
Earlier this month, Alex squirmed on his father's lap, eager to get up and greet visitors to the family's apartment off Cameron Road.
Alex bore no visible, permanent scars from his injuries. But his parents are still angry that their son was hurt at school and that no one has told them for certain how he was injured. "I just want to know what happened," García said.
The accusations
Retired postal worker Gilbert Lazalde, 69, was barred from working in Austin schools after teachers at four campuses reported student complaints that he was physically and verbally abusive:
Oct. 22, 2007 —An Allan Elementary School teacher reported that students said Lazalde pinched them, told them to 'shut up' and called a special education student 'retarded.' Lazalde responded to the accusations in writing, saying that he did not pinch students and didn't recall telling students to shut up. He said he did not realize the student had any disabilities and intended to call the student's behavior, not the student himself, 'retarded.'
Oct. 25 —A Travis Heights Elementary School teacher reported that Lazalde was 'rude' to students, told them to 'shut up' several times and touched one student on the shoulder in a way the student thought was 'rough.'
Lazalde replied in writing that students were unruly — one hit him in the chest with a rock, he said — and that he was sorry he told students to shut up. Lazalde said he touched a student on the shoulder with a rolled up lesson plan to get the student's attention. 'It was not in any way "rough" or violent,' he said.
Jan. 18, 2008 —Teachers at Andrews Elementary School reported that Lazalde's explanation of how and where a special education student he was escorting fell and cut her lip 'didn't seem to match.'
Alex Gonzalez comes home from his class supervised by Lazalde with injuries including large bumps on his head.
Lazalde replied in writing a month later saying, 'I was walking right beside her. There were no obstacles in her way. ... I have no idea why she fell!' He said he took her to see the school nurse right away. He said in an interview that he did not injure Alex.
March 7 — A Pleasant Hill Elementary School teacher asked the district not to send Lazalde to the campus again after fourthgraders complained that Lazalde had shoved them into their chairs, poked them and pulled their arms. 'One (student) said he hit her,' the teacher wrote.
SOURCE: Austin school district documents
mbloom@statesman.com; 445-3620 ¡Ahora Sí! staff writer Tania Lara contributed to this story.
By Molly Bloom
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, July 26, 2008
One Wednesday in January, 4-year-old Alex González came home from his pre-K class at Andrews Elementary School in Northeast Austin with three big bumps on his head, bruises under his arms and tears in his eyes.
Alex is autistic and communicates through gestures and guttural sounds, so his mother, Rosalía García, couldn't ask her son how he got hurt. Instead, she asked the school's assistant principal.
García says that she is still waiting for answers.
Because neither Alex's family nor school staff noticed any injuries when Alex left for school, his parents believe that their son's injuries occurred while he was in class with a substitute teacher.
The sub, a 69-year-old retired postal worker named Gilbert Lazalde, said in an interview with the American-Statesman that he did not hurt Alex and did not know how the injuries occurred.
The district's police department has closed its investigation into Alex's injuries and has not charged Lazalde with a crime.
School records show that teachers at two campuses had complained about how Lazalde treated students before Alex was injured. Lazalde was eventually terminated from his position as a substitute after teachers at four separate campuses complained about his behavior, but district records do not indicate that Alex's injuries played any part in the termination.
Though the Austin school district allows school principals to bar specific substitutes from their campuses and file administrative complaints about subs who violate campus or district rules, it has no specific policy requiring the district to fire substitutes who have amassed multiple complaints.
And though the district's substitute handbook warns substitutes that violations of any district or campus policy can result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination, Lazalde wasn't terminated until teachers at four Austin elementary schools reported accusations that he had pinched, shoved and been verbally abusive to students.
García says Alex's story shows what can happen when adults with limited teaching experience or training are put in charge of some of the most vulnerable, and often most difficult to manage, children. A substitute teacher with multiple complaints against him should never have come in contact with her son, she said.
"I can't believe they allow (those) people to work with disabled students," García, who speaks limited English, said in Spanish.
Six months after Alex was hurt, district officials, who didn't initially tell García that a substitute was supervising her son the day he was hurt, have yet to tell her what they know about the events leading to his injuries, she said.
They have also declined to release the police report on his injuries, citing state laws on the confidentiality of child abuse investigations.
Special education shortage
There are no statewide requirements for substitute teachers beyond submitting fingerprints and passing a national criminal background check to show they haven't been convicted of a violent or sexual crime against a public school student. A search of public records found that Lazalde does not have a criminal history.
The Austin school district also requires its substitutes to have at least 60 hours of college credit and attend a one-day training session, requirements similar to or more rigorous than those of most other large Texas school districts and most other Central Texas districts.
The Austin's district's substitute handbook doesn't discuss teaching students with special needs, though a 290-page supplementary manual used in substitute orientation devotes four pages to the subject. That's four more pages than the Round Rock school district's 12-page substitute teacher's handbook devotes to it.
About 860, or 27 percent, of Austin's substitutes were certified teachers in 2007-08, according to the district. Last year, 3 percent of substitutes were certified to teach special education classes, and less than 1 percent were certified bilingual teachers.
Special education and bilingual teachers are in high demand statewide, district spokesman Andy Welch said, and special education and bilingual substitute teachers also are in short supply.
In a June letter to García, associate superintendent Claudia Tousek wrote that the district's substitute office is "exploring opportunities" to offer additional workshops on working with students with special needs. District officials declined to discuss Alex's injuries with the Statesman.
Teacher responds to claims
Lazalde said that on Jan. 16 he was subbing for Alex's special education teacher when, after walking Alex from one classroom to another, he saw the bumps on Alex's head. Lazalde said that he immediately reported them to campus staff. Lazalde said that he was never alone with Alex except when he walked him from one classroom to another. Even then other teachers were in the hallway, Lazalde said.
Lazalde said he received "absolutely no training" from the district on dealing with children with special needs before he began working in the classroom.
"They never really mentioned autistic," he said. "They just said, 'Don't mess with the kids' and stuff like that."
District records show that Lazalde, who is fluent in Spanish, completed 112 substitute teaching assignments from September 2007 through March 2007, most of them in English as a Second Language or bilingual classes.
But prior to subbing in Alex's class at Andrews, Lazalde was asked by administrators in October at Allan Elementary School in East Austin and Travis Heights Elementary School in South Austin not to return to their campuses.
Teachers at both schools said Lazalde was rude and physically abusive to students, according to substitute office reports provided by the district under the Texas Public Information Act.
According to the reports, Lazalde is accused of pinching Allan students to get their attention and telling one special education student, "Shut up. What are you retarded?"
Lazalde replied to the accusations in writing, saying that he did not pinch students and didn't recall telling students to shut up.
"In Spanish I repeatedly said, 'callense' [Be quiet] and 'silencio, [Silence]' " he wrote. "I admit that I did use the word 'retarded.' I did not call the student retarded but used it in questioning his behavior."
Lazalde apologized for calling the student "retarded," saying he didn't know the student had a disability. In a letter, he told the district's substitute office that being a substitute teacher was a "hard learning experience" and asked for advice or reading materials to help him deal with difficult classroom situations.
Complaints continue
After Alex was injured at Andrews, Alex's teacher also asked that Lazalde not return. The teacher reported that another special education student Lazalde was escorting fell and cut her lip and that his explanation of how and where it happened "didn't seem to match."
In a written response to that report, Lazalde wrote that he had no idea why the girl fell. Lazalde said he immediately took her to the school nurse.
In his response, Lazalde also explained that he did "restrain a couple [students] on several occasions in an effort to gain control of them and get them to follow my directions. ... Short of using severe physical punishment (which I would never do) I don't know what other techniques I could have used."
Two months later, Lazalde was asked not to return to Pleasant Hill Elementary School after a fourth-grade teacher reported that her students complained that Lazalde had shoved them, poked them and pulled their arms.
After that complaint in March, the district removed him from their substitute list and barred him from working for the school district again.
Lazalde said he has since taken a part-time job in a field unrelated to education.
Rosalía García, Alex's mother, said that in the weeks after being injured, Alex, the eldest of her four children, was fearful of going to school. Just passing by his school bag hanging in the hallway could make him cry, she said.
Earlier this month, Alex squirmed on his father's lap, eager to get up and greet visitors to the family's apartment off Cameron Road.
Alex bore no visible, permanent scars from his injuries. But his parents are still angry that their son was hurt at school and that no one has told them for certain how he was injured. "I just want to know what happened," García said.
The accusations
Retired postal worker Gilbert Lazalde, 69, was barred from working in Austin schools after teachers at four campuses reported student complaints that he was physically and verbally abusive:
Oct. 22, 2007 —An Allan Elementary School teacher reported that students said Lazalde pinched them, told them to 'shut up' and called a special education student 'retarded.' Lazalde responded to the accusations in writing, saying that he did not pinch students and didn't recall telling students to shut up. He said he did not realize the student had any disabilities and intended to call the student's behavior, not the student himself, 'retarded.'
Oct. 25 —A Travis Heights Elementary School teacher reported that Lazalde was 'rude' to students, told them to 'shut up' several times and touched one student on the shoulder in a way the student thought was 'rough.'
Lazalde replied in writing that students were unruly — one hit him in the chest with a rock, he said — and that he was sorry he told students to shut up. Lazalde said he touched a student on the shoulder with a rolled up lesson plan to get the student's attention. 'It was not in any way "rough" or violent,' he said.
Jan. 18, 2008 —Teachers at Andrews Elementary School reported that Lazalde's explanation of how and where a special education student he was escorting fell and cut her lip 'didn't seem to match.'
Alex Gonzalez comes home from his class supervised by Lazalde with injuries including large bumps on his head.
Lazalde replied in writing a month later saying, 'I was walking right beside her. There were no obstacles in her way. ... I have no idea why she fell!' He said he took her to see the school nurse right away. He said in an interview that he did not injure Alex.
March 7 — A Pleasant Hill Elementary School teacher asked the district not to send Lazalde to the campus again after fourthgraders complained that Lazalde had shoved them into their chairs, poked them and pulled their arms. 'One (student) said he hit her,' the teacher wrote.
SOURCE: Austin school district documents
mbloom@statesman.com; 445-3620 ¡Ahora Sí! staff writer Tania Lara contributed to this story.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Substitute teacher gets probation for taping unruly student to seat
By Charles Keeshan (Chicago) Daily Herald Staff Writer
Published: 7/15/2008 4:08 PM Updated: 7/15/2008 5:43 PM
A substitute teacher who taped a pair of rambunctious 8-year-old special education students to their seats was spared forced confinement himself Tuesday when a judge sentenced him to probation instead of prison on a pair of felony convictions.
Matthew Konetski, 32, of South Beloit, Ill., must serve two years probation, pay a $1,500 fine and perform 80 hours public service under the sentence handed down by a McHenry County judge.
The sentence comes about six weeks after a jury found Konetski guilty of aggravated battery and unlawful restraint for a March 2006 incident in which he taped one of his students at Harvard's Jefferson Elementary School to his seat, then put tape over the boy's mouth when the boy would not sit still.
The taping, according to trial testimony, lasted between two and five minutes.
Authorities initially charged Konetski with doing the same to a second student, but prosecutors opted not to go to trial on those allegations.
The mother of the boy whose case did go to trial said she is satisfied with the sentence.
"I never wanted to put him in jail," she said. "I just wanted him held accountable."
In a letter to the court, the mother said her son, who's been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, began acting out after the incident. At one point, she writes, the boy was hospitalized for more than 30 days.
"(He), 26 months later, still wakes up screaming 'Let me go!,' " the letter states.
During his trial, Konetski testified that he taped the boys as a last resort when they would not stop getting up in class. Although he was a first-year substitute with no special education training, Konetski was left alone with the special education students without two aides normally assigned to the class.
He apologized Tuesday for his actions, saying he never intended to harm or scare the boys.
"I was just trying to come up with a way to deal with a situation I didn't know how to deal with," he said.
County prosecutors had asked for a jail sentence along with the probation term, saying a stiff sentence would send a message to the public.
"(The victim) experienced being confined in his chair that day by this defendant," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Sharyl Eisenstein said. "We feel that he, in turn, should be confined in the McHenry County jail."
Konetski will not have to register as a sex offender because, Judge Sharon Prather ruled, there is no evidence his actions were sexually motivated.
Published: 7/15/2008 4:08 PM Updated: 7/15/2008 5:43 PM
A substitute teacher who taped a pair of rambunctious 8-year-old special education students to their seats was spared forced confinement himself Tuesday when a judge sentenced him to probation instead of prison on a pair of felony convictions.
Matthew Konetski, 32, of South Beloit, Ill., must serve two years probation, pay a $1,500 fine and perform 80 hours public service under the sentence handed down by a McHenry County judge.
The sentence comes about six weeks after a jury found Konetski guilty of aggravated battery and unlawful restraint for a March 2006 incident in which he taped one of his students at Harvard's Jefferson Elementary School to his seat, then put tape over the boy's mouth when the boy would not sit still.
The taping, according to trial testimony, lasted between two and five minutes.
Authorities initially charged Konetski with doing the same to a second student, but prosecutors opted not to go to trial on those allegations.
The mother of the boy whose case did go to trial said she is satisfied with the sentence.
"I never wanted to put him in jail," she said. "I just wanted him held accountable."
In a letter to the court, the mother said her son, who's been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, began acting out after the incident. At one point, she writes, the boy was hospitalized for more than 30 days.
"(He), 26 months later, still wakes up screaming 'Let me go!,' " the letter states.
During his trial, Konetski testified that he taped the boys as a last resort when they would not stop getting up in class. Although he was a first-year substitute with no special education training, Konetski was left alone with the special education students without two aides normally assigned to the class.
He apologized Tuesday for his actions, saying he never intended to harm or scare the boys.
"I was just trying to come up with a way to deal with a situation I didn't know how to deal with," he said.
County prosecutors had asked for a jail sentence along with the probation term, saying a stiff sentence would send a message to the public.
"(The victim) experienced being confined in his chair that day by this defendant," Assistant McHenry County State's Attorney Sharyl Eisenstein said. "We feel that he, in turn, should be confined in the McHenry County jail."
Konetski will not have to register as a sex offender because, Judge Sharon Prather ruled, there is no evidence his actions were sexually motivated.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Restraint called common at school; Youths describe practices at facility where boy died
This is another instance of a restraint death, this time at a private school in 2007:
By Greg Garland and Annie Linskey
Baltimore Sun
February 2, 2007
As authorities continued to investigate the death of a youth who was being restrained at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School, four young men held there said the school's staff routinely restrained students - sometimes for hours and for minor infractions.
The accounts by the four youths, all juvenile offenders, describe practices that conflict with what state policies and experts say are the proper and widely accepted methods of physically controlling unruly youths. The use of physical restraint should be brief and done only as a last resort to keep a youth from injuring himself or someone else, state officials say.
In separate interviews with The Sun, one youth said he was held to the ground by Bowling Brook staff for four hours as punishment for talking during a meal.
Another said he was restrained four times in his 18 months at the school. A third described the restraint of students as "a regular occurrence" and estimated that he saw it happen once a week.
Three of the four complained that when they were restrained, they had had trouble breathing while being held down.
Officials at Bowling Brook, a privately run residential program for juvenile offenders, declined to comment yesterday on the youths' allegations.
The young men were interviewed outside Baltimore's juvenile court as they were released to home detention.
The four were among at least 40 youths who have been removed from Bowling Brook at the request of the Maryland public defender's office since the death last week of Isaiah Simmons, 17, who lost consciousness after being restrained by staff for more than three hours.
At least four youths who witnessed the attack have said staff members "sat on" Simmons while he was held facedown on the ground, according to the Maryland public defender. Two witnesses have told The Sun that Simmons complained during the incident that he couldn't breathe.
The school has said in a written statement that its handling of Simmons was proper.
An expert who teaches restraint techniques to state workers said the training emphasizes that "no weight should be applied" to a youth held facedown in a prone position. "No program will say sit or kneel on them," said Danny Martinez of Jireh Consulting and Training in Albuquerque, N.M. He said most incidents of restraint last one to five minutes.
His firm has been teaching the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services employees who train workers at state-run facilities for about five years but is not involved with any training program at the privately run Bowling Brook.
Youths who were interviewed yesterday described witnessing or being subjected to lengthy periods of restraint.
Maurice Holmes, 18, said he was held to the ground for four hours the first time he was restrained. "It felt like I was going to die," he said. "I'm blowing snot out my nose. I'm saying, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe.'"
Raymond Aur, 17, said he saw people restrained almost every day during his 10 months at Bowling Brook.
He said he was restrained in a seated position three times and on the ground four times. In July, he said, he was restrained for four hours because he disobeyed orders and spoke during a meal.
He said workers took him outside and pressed his face into fresh-cut grass. His face was covered with bruises and cuts, he said, and at one point he urinated on himself.
Aur said that three staff members held him down and that the men worked in shifts so that when one got tired, another would take his place. After they released him, Aur said, the guards told him that he had been restrained for four hours - and now "owed" the school four hours of work.
He said he had pain in his arms that continued until the next day, when the staff took him to the hospital. His mother, Sheila Aur, showed a reporter a hospital bill for $386 that was sent to her.
The description is for "services for Raymond D. Aur rendered at Carroll Hospital Center" on July 17.
Sheila Aur said that when she visited her son that weekend, he "looked like he'd been beaten by 10 people. ... They said that Ray had been restrained for a long time."
While the state Department of Juvenile Services allows workers at its state-run facilities to use facedown restraint, some programs prohibit that because of the potential to cause harm.
Staff at the Glen Mills Schools, a well-regarded program for juvenile offenders in Pennsylvania, are told not to put a youth facedown, said Jack Rachko, who oversees training there.
"We tell them to do everything possible to keep him faceup," he said. "We never want them facedown, always faceup - and you always monitor their breathing."
He said it is rare for a youth at Glen Mills to be physically restrained for longer than 10 minutes, and it would be brought to the attention of high-level supervisors if a restraint went on for much longer than that.
"You gain control and it's over, usually within 10 minutes," Rachko said. "We don't have extended restraints going on and on and on."
Maryland's policies say physical force - including restraint - is to be used as a last resort and that "only the minimum amount of physical force necessary to control the youth may be used."
But Nichelle Vandervall said her son, who is 16, was restrained with such force that on one occasion, his elbow was dislocated and a blood vessel in his eye burst. "It scared him to death," she said. "He hasn't been restrained since then."
But Vandervall has mixed feelings about the facility. She's noticed a positive change in her son's attitude. "He's not as aggressive as he was," she said.
"Bowling Brook, what they stand for, the opportunity is excellent," she said. "My son is much better than what he was when he got there. He sees that he can be something other than a drug dealer."
Investigators with the Department of Juvenile Services inspect private facilities like Bowling Brook several times a year, according to department spokesman Edward Hopkins. The most recent visit to Bowling Brook was Jan. 12, less than two weeks before Simmons' death. "There were no negatives, no deficiencies or things like that" found in the unscheduled visit, Hopkins said.
By Greg Garland and Annie Linskey
Baltimore Sun
February 2, 2007
As authorities continued to investigate the death of a youth who was being restrained at the Bowling Brook Preparatory School, four young men held there said the school's staff routinely restrained students - sometimes for hours and for minor infractions.
The accounts by the four youths, all juvenile offenders, describe practices that conflict with what state policies and experts say are the proper and widely accepted methods of physically controlling unruly youths. The use of physical restraint should be brief and done only as a last resort to keep a youth from injuring himself or someone else, state officials say.
In separate interviews with The Sun, one youth said he was held to the ground by Bowling Brook staff for four hours as punishment for talking during a meal.
Another said he was restrained four times in his 18 months at the school. A third described the restraint of students as "a regular occurrence" and estimated that he saw it happen once a week.
Three of the four complained that when they were restrained, they had had trouble breathing while being held down.
Officials at Bowling Brook, a privately run residential program for juvenile offenders, declined to comment yesterday on the youths' allegations.
The young men were interviewed outside Baltimore's juvenile court as they were released to home detention.
The four were among at least 40 youths who have been removed from Bowling Brook at the request of the Maryland public defender's office since the death last week of Isaiah Simmons, 17, who lost consciousness after being restrained by staff for more than three hours.
At least four youths who witnessed the attack have said staff members "sat on" Simmons while he was held facedown on the ground, according to the Maryland public defender. Two witnesses have told The Sun that Simmons complained during the incident that he couldn't breathe.
The school has said in a written statement that its handling of Simmons was proper.
An expert who teaches restraint techniques to state workers said the training emphasizes that "no weight should be applied" to a youth held facedown in a prone position. "No program will say sit or kneel on them," said Danny Martinez of Jireh Consulting and Training in Albuquerque, N.M. He said most incidents of restraint last one to five minutes.
His firm has been teaching the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services employees who train workers at state-run facilities for about five years but is not involved with any training program at the privately run Bowling Brook.
Youths who were interviewed yesterday described witnessing or being subjected to lengthy periods of restraint.
Maurice Holmes, 18, said he was held to the ground for four hours the first time he was restrained. "It felt like I was going to die," he said. "I'm blowing snot out my nose. I'm saying, 'I can't breathe, I can't breathe.'"
Raymond Aur, 17, said he saw people restrained almost every day during his 10 months at Bowling Brook.
He said he was restrained in a seated position three times and on the ground four times. In July, he said, he was restrained for four hours because he disobeyed orders and spoke during a meal.
He said workers took him outside and pressed his face into fresh-cut grass. His face was covered with bruises and cuts, he said, and at one point he urinated on himself.
Aur said that three staff members held him down and that the men worked in shifts so that when one got tired, another would take his place. After they released him, Aur said, the guards told him that he had been restrained for four hours - and now "owed" the school four hours of work.
He said he had pain in his arms that continued until the next day, when the staff took him to the hospital. His mother, Sheila Aur, showed a reporter a hospital bill for $386 that was sent to her.
The description is for "services for Raymond D. Aur rendered at Carroll Hospital Center" on July 17.
Sheila Aur said that when she visited her son that weekend, he "looked like he'd been beaten by 10 people. ... They said that Ray had been restrained for a long time."
While the state Department of Juvenile Services allows workers at its state-run facilities to use facedown restraint, some programs prohibit that because of the potential to cause harm.
Staff at the Glen Mills Schools, a well-regarded program for juvenile offenders in Pennsylvania, are told not to put a youth facedown, said Jack Rachko, who oversees training there.
"We tell them to do everything possible to keep him faceup," he said. "We never want them facedown, always faceup - and you always monitor their breathing."
He said it is rare for a youth at Glen Mills to be physically restrained for longer than 10 minutes, and it would be brought to the attention of high-level supervisors if a restraint went on for much longer than that.
"You gain control and it's over, usually within 10 minutes," Rachko said. "We don't have extended restraints going on and on and on."
Maryland's policies say physical force - including restraint - is to be used as a last resort and that "only the minimum amount of physical force necessary to control the youth may be used."
But Nichelle Vandervall said her son, who is 16, was restrained with such force that on one occasion, his elbow was dislocated and a blood vessel in his eye burst. "It scared him to death," she said. "He hasn't been restrained since then."
But Vandervall has mixed feelings about the facility. She's noticed a positive change in her son's attitude. "He's not as aggressive as he was," she said.
"Bowling Brook, what they stand for, the opportunity is excellent," she said. "My son is much better than what he was when he got there. He sees that he can be something other than a drug dealer."
Investigators with the Department of Juvenile Services inspect private facilities like Bowling Brook several times a year, according to department spokesman Edward Hopkins. The most recent visit to Bowling Brook was Jan. 12, less than two weeks before Simmons' death. "There were no negatives, no deficiencies or things like that" found in the unscheduled visit, Hopkins said.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Autopsy: restraint killed student at Killeen school
July 17, 2008: We just became aware of this article and wanted to share his story. Staff withheld food as punishment from a child they knew to have been deprived food as a baby. When he attempted to leave the classroom in search of food, staff restrained him. Another child died at the hands of educators who should have known better...
Monday, March 25, 2002
KILLEEN, Texas (AP) - A 14-year-old boy who died after being restrained in a classroom by his teachers perished from an excessive amount of pressure to his chest, a preliminary autopsy shows.
Cedrick Napoleon, a special-education student at Manor Middle School, died March 7 about an hour after being restrained. School officials said he was causing problems in his behavior management class.
A female teacher and two aides remain on leave from the school, and police said the case is likely to be referred to a grand jury.
The autopsy revealed Friday that Napoleon died from "mechanical compression of the trunk," which forensics officials say is a form of suffocation.
Killeen police said the investigation is ongoing. The school district, which has been working with police, also is conducting an internal investigation.
Police said the teacher and a male aide attempted to restrain Cedrick, who was 4-foot-11 and weighed 129 pounds, in the classroom. Another aide was in the room with about a dozen students, police said.
The teen's foster parents, Wilbert and Toni Price, said classroom staff had restricted Cedrick's food as punishment for his misbehavior.
"But for him, that was a very bad punishment, because when he was a little baby, he was deprived of food," Wilbert Price said. "He liked food. It was like a security blanket for him. And they were aware of this."
Cedrick was trying to leave the classroom in search of food when he was restrained, Toni Price said.
She said Cedrick's classmates told her that he told the person holding him down, "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I give."
Toni Price said Cedrick was a peaceful boy who loved football and basketball and someday wanted to open his own doughnut shop.
"Cedrick always had a big smile," she said, noting Cedrick had been in their care for 16 months.
"On that day, Cedrick wasn't doing anything violent. He wasn't fighting anyone. He wasn't hurting anyone.
"And for him to have had to lost his life like that is a crime, and somebody should pay for that."
Charles Patterson, Killeen Independent School District superintendent, said in a news release Friday that he would like "to convey that the heartfelt thoughts of personnel in the district continues for the family in the loss of Cedrick."
Monday, March 25, 2002
KILLEEN, Texas (AP) - A 14-year-old boy who died after being restrained in a classroom by his teachers perished from an excessive amount of pressure to his chest, a preliminary autopsy shows.
Cedrick Napoleon, a special-education student at Manor Middle School, died March 7 about an hour after being restrained. School officials said he was causing problems in his behavior management class.
A female teacher and two aides remain on leave from the school, and police said the case is likely to be referred to a grand jury.
The autopsy revealed Friday that Napoleon died from "mechanical compression of the trunk," which forensics officials say is a form of suffocation.
Killeen police said the investigation is ongoing. The school district, which has been working with police, also is conducting an internal investigation.
Police said the teacher and a male aide attempted to restrain Cedrick, who was 4-foot-11 and weighed 129 pounds, in the classroom. Another aide was in the room with about a dozen students, police said.
The teen's foster parents, Wilbert and Toni Price, said classroom staff had restricted Cedrick's food as punishment for his misbehavior.
"But for him, that was a very bad punishment, because when he was a little baby, he was deprived of food," Wilbert Price said. "He liked food. It was like a security blanket for him. And they were aware of this."
Cedrick was trying to leave the classroom in search of food when he was restrained, Toni Price said.
She said Cedrick's classmates told her that he told the person holding him down, "I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I give."
Toni Price said Cedrick was a peaceful boy who loved football and basketball and someday wanted to open his own doughnut shop.
"Cedrick always had a big smile," she said, noting Cedrick had been in their care for 16 months.
"On that day, Cedrick wasn't doing anything violent. He wasn't fighting anyone. He wasn't hurting anyone.
"And for him to have had to lost his life like that is a crime, and somebody should pay for that."
Charles Patterson, Killeen Independent School District superintendent, said in a news release Friday that he would like "to convey that the heartfelt thoughts of personnel in the district continues for the family in the loss of Cedrick."
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
St. Lucie School District sued by another mother claiming abuse
Reported by: Eric English
Email: eenglish@wptv.com
Photographer: Eric English
Last Update: 7:19 pm
July 16, 2008
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL-- You will probably remembe the case of Alex Barton. His mother claims he was ‘voted out of his classroom’ by his classmates several months ago. Now another parent in St Lucie county is suing the school district claiming her son was also abused.
“I almost passed out when he went like that because I couldn't breath.”
Isaiah Moore recounts an April 2007 incident he and his mother say they will never forget.
Video supplied to Isaiah's mother by the school district shows the then second grader, who is in the autistic spectrum, being escorted down a hallway to a conference room by a behavior specialist.
His mother says what's not on the video is the abuse that happened next.
Anna Moore says, “He was dragging him down the hallway into a little room. The little room they went into is where my son says he started restraining him again...and my son suffered a busted lip, cervical strain, busted lip.”
The video cuts, but later shows the boy along with additional staff walking back through the halls. Isaiah seems to be favoring his back.
Photos taken later that day show the scrapes and bruises and cuts Isaiah suffered.
Anna says “There are verified findings that there was physical abuse, bizarre punishment and maltreatment to my child...yet I can't get anyone to press charges and this man is probably still working with children.”
Now in private school, his mom says Isaiah is getting the compassion in education she says he needs and wants her lawsuit to help set standards for dealing with exceptional children in a school district that has seen been called to question for the way it treats autistic children.
“I am coming forward because there are no laws to protect our children. I thought this was clear cut abuse, and something is going to happen...nothing has happened. Nothing has happened.”
The school district would not comment on the pending litigation.
Email: eenglish@wptv.com
Photographer: Eric English
Last Update: 7:19 pm
July 16, 2008
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL-- You will probably remembe the case of Alex Barton. His mother claims he was ‘voted out of his classroom’ by his classmates several months ago. Now another parent in St Lucie county is suing the school district claiming her son was also abused.
“I almost passed out when he went like that because I couldn't breath.”
Isaiah Moore recounts an April 2007 incident he and his mother say they will never forget.
Video supplied to Isaiah's mother by the school district shows the then second grader, who is in the autistic spectrum, being escorted down a hallway to a conference room by a behavior specialist.
His mother says what's not on the video is the abuse that happened next.
Anna Moore says, “He was dragging him down the hallway into a little room. The little room they went into is where my son says he started restraining him again...and my son suffered a busted lip, cervical strain, busted lip.”
The video cuts, but later shows the boy along with additional staff walking back through the halls. Isaiah seems to be favoring his back.
Photos taken later that day show the scrapes and bruises and cuts Isaiah suffered.
Anna says “There are verified findings that there was physical abuse, bizarre punishment and maltreatment to my child...yet I can't get anyone to press charges and this man is probably still working with children.”
Now in private school, his mom says Isaiah is getting the compassion in education she says he needs and wants her lawsuit to help set standards for dealing with exceptional children in a school district that has seen been called to question for the way it treats autistic children.
“I am coming forward because there are no laws to protect our children. I thought this was clear cut abuse, and something is going to happen...nothing has happened. Nothing has happened.”
The school district would not comment on the pending litigation.
Calm Down or Else
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: July 15, 2008
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/healthscience/15restraint.php
The children return from school confused, scared and sometimes with bruises on their wrists, arms or face. Many won’t talk about what happened, or simply can’t, because they are unable to communicate easily, if at all.
“What Tim eventually said,” said John Miller, a podiatrist in Allegany, N.Y., about his son, then 12, “was that he didn’t want to go to school because he thought the school was trying to kill him.”
Dr. Miller learned that Tim, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was being unusually confrontational in class, and that more than once teachers had held him down on the floor to “calm him down,” according to logs teachers kept to track his behavior; on at least one occasion, adults held Tim prone for 20 minutes until he stopped struggling.
The Millers are suing the district, in part for costs of therapy for their son as a result of the restraints. The district did not dispute the logs but denied that teachers behaved improperly.
For more than a decade, parents of children with developmental and psychiatric problems have pushed to gain more access to mainstream schools and classrooms for their sons and daughters.
One unfortunate result, some experts say, is schools’ increasing use of precisely the sort of practices families hoped to avoid by steering clear of institutionalized settings: takedowns, isolation rooms, restraining chairs with straps, and worse.
No one keeps careful track of how often school staff members use such maneuvers. But last year the public system served 600,000 more special education students than it did a decade ago, many at least part time in regular classrooms. Many staff members are not adequately trained to handle severe behavior problems, researchers say.
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.
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have recently tightened regulations governing the use of restraints and seclusion in schools. California, Iowa and New York are among states considering stronger prohibitions, and reports have appeared on blogs and in newspapers across the country, from The Orange County Register to The Wall Street Journal.
“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. “It’s an awful combination, because many parents expect restraints to be used — as long as it’s not their kid.”
Federal law leaves it to states and school districts to decide when physical restraints and seclusion are appropriate, and standards vary widely. Oversight is virtually nonexistent in most states, despite the potential for harm and scant evidence of benefit, Dr. Peterson said.
Psychiatric facilities and nursing homes are generally far more accountable to report on such incidents than schools, experts say.
In dozens of interviews, parents, special education experts and lawyers who work to protect disabled people said they now regularly heard of cases of abuse in public schools — up to one or two a week surface on some parent e-mail lists — much more often than a decade ago.
“In all the years I went to school, I never, ever saw or heard of anything like the horrific stories about restraint that we see just about every day now,” said Alison Tepper Singer, executive vice president of Autism Speaks, a charity dedicated to curing the disorder.
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.
“Some parent organizations, they’re so grateful to the schools that their kids have been mainstreamed that they don’t want to risk really pushing for change,” said Dee Alpert, an advocate in New York who reports on the issue in the online journal specialeducationmuckraker.com.
For teachers, who have many other responsibilities — not least, to teach — managing even one child with a disability can add a wild card to the day.
“In a class of 30 to 35 children, there’s a huge question of how much safety or teaching a teacher can provide if he or she is being called on to calm or contain a student on a regular basis,” said Patti Ralabate, a special education expert at the National Education Association.
“The teacher is responsible for the safety of all the children in the classroom.”
The line between skillful conflict resolution and abuse is slipperier than many assume. Federal law requires that schools develop a behavioral plan for every student with a disability, which may include techniques to defuse the child’s frustration: a break from the class, for instance, or time out to listen to an iPod.
But in a hectic classroom, children with diagnoses like attention deficit disorder, anxiety or autism can seemingly become defiant, edgy or aggressive on a dime — and the plan, if one exists, can go straight out the window, investigations have found. Even defying a teacher’s instructions — “noncompliance” — can invite a takedown or time alone in a locked room, they found.
In an extensive report published last year, investigators in California documented cases of abuse from districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, the suburbs of Los Angeles and in the rural northeastern part of the state.
During the 2005-6 school year, an 8-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and mild mental retardation was repeatedly locked in a “seclusion room” alone, adjacent to the classroom — at least 31 times in a single year. His parents heard about it from another parent, who saw the boy trying in vain to escape.
In another school, a teacher held a 12-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder “face down on the floor, straddling him at his hips, and holding his hands behind his back,” according to the investigation, which was done by California’s office of protection and advocacy. Congress established such offices in each state in the 1970s to protect the rights of the disabled.
Leslie Morrison, director of investigations at the California office, said parents often complained about such episodes but were usually reluctant to cooperate with an investigation. “They’re afraid the school will retaliate,” she said.
And the children, who have an array of psychiatric diagnoses, from attention deficit to autism, often do not understand what is happening or why. “They just think they did something wrong and are being punished,” Ms. Morrison said. “Many of them are not verbal at all and can’t even tell their parents.”
In Tim Miller’s case, school logs obtained by his father illustrate how quickly a situation can escalate, regardless of behavior plans. In one entry, dated March 18, 2005, a teacher wrote:
“Tim was screaming down the hall. He ran past me and began to double his fist to punch the locker. At this point I scooped my arm underneath his and directed him into my room.”
After the boy continued to struggle, this teacher and another “laid him onto the mat, where he was held approximately 20 minutes,” the log said.
Tim, now 15, graduated from the school last year and in June completed his first year of high school, excelling in a variety of mainstream classes without incident. In a telephone interview, he said he no longer thought much about the takedowns.
“I just think now that they were idiots to do that,” he said. “I remember telling my mom to pray to God that they wouldn’t keep doing it, and wishing the other kids would see what was happening.”
When a school has a so-called zero tolerance approach to bad behavior, it often does makes a public spectacle of controlling a child’s behavior, said several parents interviewed for this article.
Kathy Sexton, who lives near Dallas, had to pick up her 11-year-old son, Anthony, who has a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, at the police station, after school staff members had the boy hauled away in handcuffs for cursing at a teacher.
“I didn’t hear about it for hours and had to go get him at jail,” Ms. Sexton said in a phone interview. “He was hysterical, obviously, and he’s had his ups and downs since then. It’s hard to know what a thing like that does to a child that age.”
Several companies offer programs to teach so-called de-escalation techniques to school staff, and a scattering of schools have developed model programs to pre-empt confrontations, and defuse them when they happen.
But experts say that until policymakers and schools adopt standards, on exactly which techniques are allowed and when, children with behavior problems will in many districts run the risk of being forcibly brought into line.
Dr. Peterson, the Nebraska professor, illustrates the challenges by citing two recent cases in Iowa. In one, the parents of an 11-year-old who died while being held down called for a ban on restraints; in the other, parents charged that a school failed their son by not restraining him. The boy ran away and drowned.
“It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Dr. Peterson said, “and it reflects the level of confusion there is about this whole issue.”
Published: July 15, 2008
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/healthscience/15restraint.php
The children return from school confused, scared and sometimes with bruises on their wrists, arms or face. Many won’t talk about what happened, or simply can’t, because they are unable to communicate easily, if at all.
“What Tim eventually said,” said John Miller, a podiatrist in Allegany, N.Y., about his son, then 12, “was that he didn’t want to go to school because he thought the school was trying to kill him.”
Dr. Miller learned that Tim, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was being unusually confrontational in class, and that more than once teachers had held him down on the floor to “calm him down,” according to logs teachers kept to track his behavior; on at least one occasion, adults held Tim prone for 20 minutes until he stopped struggling.
The Millers are suing the district, in part for costs of therapy for their son as a result of the restraints. The district did not dispute the logs but denied that teachers behaved improperly.
For more than a decade, parents of children with developmental and psychiatric problems have pushed to gain more access to mainstream schools and classrooms for their sons and daughters.
One unfortunate result, some experts say, is schools’ increasing use of precisely the sort of practices families hoped to avoid by steering clear of institutionalized settings: takedowns, isolation rooms, restraining chairs with straps, and worse.
No one keeps careful track of how often school staff members use such maneuvers. But last year the public system served 600,000 more special education students than it did a decade ago, many at least part time in regular classrooms. Many staff members are not adequately trained to handle severe behavior problems, researchers say.
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.
Michigan, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have recently tightened regulations governing the use of restraints and seclusion in schools. California, Iowa and New York are among states considering stronger prohibitions, and reports have appeared on blogs and in newspapers across the country, from The Orange County Register to The Wall Street Journal.
“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. “It’s an awful combination, because many parents expect restraints to be used — as long as it’s not their kid.”
Federal law leaves it to states and school districts to decide when physical restraints and seclusion are appropriate, and standards vary widely. Oversight is virtually nonexistent in most states, despite the potential for harm and scant evidence of benefit, Dr. Peterson said.
Psychiatric facilities and nursing homes are generally far more accountable to report on such incidents than schools, experts say.
In dozens of interviews, parents, special education experts and lawyers who work to protect disabled people said they now regularly heard of cases of abuse in public schools — up to one or two a week surface on some parent e-mail lists — much more often than a decade ago.
“In all the years I went to school, I never, ever saw or heard of anything like the horrific stories about restraint that we see just about every day now,” said Alison Tepper Singer, executive vice president of Autism Speaks, a charity dedicated to curing the disorder.
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.
“Some parent organizations, they’re so grateful to the schools that their kids have been mainstreamed that they don’t want to risk really pushing for change,” said Dee Alpert, an advocate in New York who reports on the issue in the online journal specialeducationmuckraker.com.
For teachers, who have many other responsibilities — not least, to teach — managing even one child with a disability can add a wild card to the day.
“In a class of 30 to 35 children, there’s a huge question of how much safety or teaching a teacher can provide if he or she is being called on to calm or contain a student on a regular basis,” said Patti Ralabate, a special education expert at the National Education Association.
“The teacher is responsible for the safety of all the children in the classroom.”
The line between skillful conflict resolution and abuse is slipperier than many assume. Federal law requires that schools develop a behavioral plan for every student with a disability, which may include techniques to defuse the child’s frustration: a break from the class, for instance, or time out to listen to an iPod.
But in a hectic classroom, children with diagnoses like attention deficit disorder, anxiety or autism can seemingly become defiant, edgy or aggressive on a dime — and the plan, if one exists, can go straight out the window, investigations have found. Even defying a teacher’s instructions — “noncompliance” — can invite a takedown or time alone in a locked room, they found.
In an extensive report published last year, investigators in California documented cases of abuse from districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, the suburbs of Los Angeles and in the rural northeastern part of the state.
During the 2005-6 school year, an 8-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and mild mental retardation was repeatedly locked in a “seclusion room” alone, adjacent to the classroom — at least 31 times in a single year. His parents heard about it from another parent, who saw the boy trying in vain to escape.
In another school, a teacher held a 12-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder “face down on the floor, straddling him at his hips, and holding his hands behind his back,” according to the investigation, which was done by California’s office of protection and advocacy. Congress established such offices in each state in the 1970s to protect the rights of the disabled.
Leslie Morrison, director of investigations at the California office, said parents often complained about such episodes but were usually reluctant to cooperate with an investigation. “They’re afraid the school will retaliate,” she said.
And the children, who have an array of psychiatric diagnoses, from attention deficit to autism, often do not understand what is happening or why. “They just think they did something wrong and are being punished,” Ms. Morrison said. “Many of them are not verbal at all and can’t even tell their parents.”
In Tim Miller’s case, school logs obtained by his father illustrate how quickly a situation can escalate, regardless of behavior plans. In one entry, dated March 18, 2005, a teacher wrote:
“Tim was screaming down the hall. He ran past me and began to double his fist to punch the locker. At this point I scooped my arm underneath his and directed him into my room.”
After the boy continued to struggle, this teacher and another “laid him onto the mat, where he was held approximately 20 minutes,” the log said.
Tim, now 15, graduated from the school last year and in June completed his first year of high school, excelling in a variety of mainstream classes without incident. In a telephone interview, he said he no longer thought much about the takedowns.
“I just think now that they were idiots to do that,” he said. “I remember telling my mom to pray to God that they wouldn’t keep doing it, and wishing the other kids would see what was happening.”
When a school has a so-called zero tolerance approach to bad behavior, it often does makes a public spectacle of controlling a child’s behavior, said several parents interviewed for this article.
Kathy Sexton, who lives near Dallas, had to pick up her 11-year-old son, Anthony, who has a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, at the police station, after school staff members had the boy hauled away in handcuffs for cursing at a teacher.
“I didn’t hear about it for hours and had to go get him at jail,” Ms. Sexton said in a phone interview. “He was hysterical, obviously, and he’s had his ups and downs since then. It’s hard to know what a thing like that does to a child that age.”
Several companies offer programs to teach so-called de-escalation techniques to school staff, and a scattering of schools have developed model programs to pre-empt confrontations, and defuse them when they happen.
But experts say that until policymakers and schools adopt standards, on exactly which techniques are allowed and when, children with behavior problems will in many districts run the risk of being forcibly brought into line.
Dr. Peterson, the Nebraska professor, illustrates the challenges by citing two recent cases in Iowa. In one, the parents of an 11-year-old who died while being held down called for a ban on restraints; in the other, parents charged that a school failed their son by not restraining him. The boy ran away and drowned.
“It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Dr. Peterson said, “and it reflects the level of confusion there is about this whole issue.”
Principal's out to get me, charges teacher in 'Rubber Room' suit
BY RACHEL MONAHAN
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Monday July 14th 2008, 7:36 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/07/14/2008-07-14_principals_out_to_get_me_charges_teacher.html
A Brooklyn teacher claims he was banished to a "Rubber Room" after blowing the whistle on his principal for preventing special education students from getting services, the teachers union charges.
Kimani Brown, a teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy IV for three years, is suing Principal Marian Bowden for punishing him in retaliation.
"I'm a special education teacher. I'm supposed to make sure my students are getting their services provided," Brown said. "So I spoke up."
Brown charged Bowden hadn't hired a resource room teacher until months into the 2007-08 school year and that special education students were denied counseling and weren't given mandated extra time on tests.
The allegations mark another controversy swirling about the school, which reported a mom to child welfare services over her daughter's supposed absences, even though she wasn't enrolled, the Daily News reported last month. Brown has been idling at full pay in a detention room since May 21, a lawsuit the union filed July 3 in Manhattan Supreme Court charges.
The suit refers to a letter of commendation Bowden wrote in 2006, praising Brown for his "commitment" to "the special needs population."
After Brown's complaint last fall, the suit charges, city and state education officials visited and gave the school until yesterday to file a plan to correct problems, including the lack of individualized education plans for some students.
The officials said they are reviewing the document and will monitor the academy to ensure compliance.
Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg declined to comment.
DAILY NEWS WRITER
Monday July 14th 2008, 7:36 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2008/07/14/2008-07-14_principals_out_to_get_me_charges_teacher.html
A Brooklyn teacher claims he was banished to a "Rubber Room" after blowing the whistle on his principal for preventing special education students from getting services, the teachers union charges.
Kimani Brown, a teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy IV for three years, is suing Principal Marian Bowden for punishing him in retaliation.
"I'm a special education teacher. I'm supposed to make sure my students are getting their services provided," Brown said. "So I spoke up."
Brown charged Bowden hadn't hired a resource room teacher until months into the 2007-08 school year and that special education students were denied counseling and weren't given mandated extra time on tests.
The allegations mark another controversy swirling about the school, which reported a mom to child welfare services over her daughter's supposed absences, even though she wasn't enrolled, the Daily News reported last month. Brown has been idling at full pay in a detention room since May 21, a lawsuit the union filed July 3 in Manhattan Supreme Court charges.
The suit refers to a letter of commendation Bowden wrote in 2006, praising Brown for his "commitment" to "the special needs population."
After Brown's complaint last fall, the suit charges, city and state education officials visited and gave the school until yesterday to file a plan to correct problems, including the lack of individualized education plans for some students.
The officials said they are reviewing the document and will monitor the academy to ensure compliance.
Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg declined to comment.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
After PSL Autistic boy's case, Attorney General weighing more complaints from parents
By Colleen Wixon
Saturday, July 12, 2008
TALLAHASSEE — Stemming from its investigation into a Port St. Lucie autistic boy voted out of kindergarten, the state Office of the Attorney General is looking at how children with autism are treated in Florida schools.
"We want to understand this issue on a more global scale," said Sandi Copes, press secretary for the Office of the Attorney General in Tallahassee. "To see if there is an underlying problem."
Since the office's initial investigation into the case of 5-year-old Alex Barton, several people with autistic children have come forward with their own complaints, Copes said.
Parents are expressing frustration their complaints haven't been heard, so the Attorney General's office wants to talk with them to see if there's any way to help, she said. Those discussions could take place in the coming weeks, she said.
The investigation began after Alex told his mother, Melissa Barton, he was voted out of his kindergarten class by his fellow students. Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo told police she wanted Alex to hear from his peers how his behavior affected others. She then took a poll as to whether Alex should be allowed to return to the classroom, according to reports.
Alex lost the vote, 14 to 2.
At the time, he was in the process of being tested for Asperger Syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. He since has been diagnosed with the disorder, Barton said.
The St. Lucie County School District continues to investigate the incident.
When the Attorney General's office investigated Alex's situation, Barton mentioned other parents who had contacted her regarding the treatment of their autistic children, Copes said.
Barton said she is glad parents finally have someone paying attention to them.
"Finally, things are getting done," she said. "There is some justice in it."
It's no longer just about Alex, she said.
"There are other children out there that have been waiting (for help) a very long time," she said.
"No one has been listening forever."
The Attorney General's office is trying to compile a list of participants to meet and talk about their issues, Copes said. The investigation is statewide and not concentrating on one area in particular, she said.
Meanwhile, Barton said parents are trying to mobilize. She said now is the time for parents with complaints to come forward.
The Office of the Attorney General is interested in talking with parents of children with autism who have concerns about their child's treatment in schools. Parents with concerns can call the citizen services hotline at (866) 966-7226.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
TALLAHASSEE — Stemming from its investigation into a Port St. Lucie autistic boy voted out of kindergarten, the state Office of the Attorney General is looking at how children with autism are treated in Florida schools.
"We want to understand this issue on a more global scale," said Sandi Copes, press secretary for the Office of the Attorney General in Tallahassee. "To see if there is an underlying problem."
Since the office's initial investigation into the case of 5-year-old Alex Barton, several people with autistic children have come forward with their own complaints, Copes said.
Parents are expressing frustration their complaints haven't been heard, so the Attorney General's office wants to talk with them to see if there's any way to help, she said. Those discussions could take place in the coming weeks, she said.
The investigation began after Alex told his mother, Melissa Barton, he was voted out of his kindergarten class by his fellow students. Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo told police she wanted Alex to hear from his peers how his behavior affected others. She then took a poll as to whether Alex should be allowed to return to the classroom, according to reports.
Alex lost the vote, 14 to 2.
At the time, he was in the process of being tested for Asperger Syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. He since has been diagnosed with the disorder, Barton said.
The St. Lucie County School District continues to investigate the incident.
When the Attorney General's office investigated Alex's situation, Barton mentioned other parents who had contacted her regarding the treatment of their autistic children, Copes said.
Barton said she is glad parents finally have someone paying attention to them.
"Finally, things are getting done," she said. "There is some justice in it."
It's no longer just about Alex, she said.
"There are other children out there that have been waiting (for help) a very long time," she said.
"No one has been listening forever."
The Attorney General's office is trying to compile a list of participants to meet and talk about their issues, Copes said. The investigation is statewide and not concentrating on one area in particular, she said.
Meanwhile, Barton said parents are trying to mobilize. She said now is the time for parents with complaints to come forward.
The Office of the Attorney General is interested in talking with parents of children with autism who have concerns about their child's treatment in schools. Parents with concerns can call the citizen services hotline at (866) 966-7226.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
State agencies faulted over alleged abuse at Anderson School
By Cara Matthews • Journal Albany Bureau • June 11, 2008
ALBANY -- A report released by the state inspector general today says two agencies neglected their duties in investigating alleged abuses of an autistic and developmentally disabled adolescent while he was in the care of a Dutchess County school.
Inspector General Joseph Fisch faulted the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for People with Disabilities for deficiencies in New York’s oversight of Jonathan Carey’s care at the Anderson School in Staatsburg from 2003 to 2004.
The CQC and the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities provided misleading or inadequate information about Jonathan’s care to his parents and the Governor’s Office, Fisch found.
The CQC in particular conducted a “shoddy child-abuse investigation, failing to fully address allegations that Jonathan was neglected, inadequately fed and left to lie naked on a urine-soaked bed,” the report said.
“The case of Jonathan Carey teaches us that our disabled children deserve a better system,” Fisch said in releasing a 244-page document on the matter.
Jonathan’s parents, Michael and Lisa Carey of Delmar, Albany County, sparked the inspector general’s probe and have sued the Anderson School. Jonathan died last year while he was in the care of the O.D. Heck Developmental Center in Schenectady last year. He was 13. Two workers have been convicted in his death.
Fisch’s report makes 20 recommendations to prevent another case like Jonathan Carey’s, including a review of the state’s Social Services Law related to abuse in institutional settings.
The CQC and Office of Mental Retardation have promised to improve their oversight in the case of children with disabilities, Fisch’s report said.
Michael and Lisa Carey planned a news conference later today to comment on the report.
A spokesman for the Anderson School could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fisch’s investigation included a review of some 25,000 pages of documents and more than 75 interviews.
“It is difficult to contemplate any tragedy more difficult for parents to endure than the death of a child,” Fisch said in a statement. “Such pain is more intolerable when the child, as was the case with Jonathan Carey, suffered at the hands of professionals who were entrusted with Jonathan’s care.
“Jonathan was autistic and developmentally disabled. Such children require more attention, more love, more understanding and more kindness than other youngsters. Parents, and indeed society, have every right to expect and demand such effort in their behalf,” Fisch said.
Other findings in the report include:
-- The CQC misrepresented the extent of its work to the state Senate, the governor, the inspector general and Michael and Lisa Carey.
-- OMRDD “generally conducted an adequate review and gave follow-up assistance to the Anderson School to correct problems.” But the agency did not fully address potential violations by the school in the neglect and maltreatment of Jonathan.
-- OMRDD was deficient in its communications with the Careys and provided inaccurate or misleading information to the governor.
Gov. David Paterson has proposed legislation that would improve the safety of children in residential programs. It would define certain behaviors, such as kicking, biting or withholding food, as abuse, even if they did not injure a child.
ALBANY -- A report released by the state inspector general today says two agencies neglected their duties in investigating alleged abuses of an autistic and developmentally disabled adolescent while he was in the care of a Dutchess County school.
Inspector General Joseph Fisch faulted the state Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for People with Disabilities for deficiencies in New York’s oversight of Jonathan Carey’s care at the Anderson School in Staatsburg from 2003 to 2004.
The CQC and the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities provided misleading or inadequate information about Jonathan’s care to his parents and the Governor’s Office, Fisch found.
The CQC in particular conducted a “shoddy child-abuse investigation, failing to fully address allegations that Jonathan was neglected, inadequately fed and left to lie naked on a urine-soaked bed,” the report said.
“The case of Jonathan Carey teaches us that our disabled children deserve a better system,” Fisch said in releasing a 244-page document on the matter.
Jonathan’s parents, Michael and Lisa Carey of Delmar, Albany County, sparked the inspector general’s probe and have sued the Anderson School. Jonathan died last year while he was in the care of the O.D. Heck Developmental Center in Schenectady last year. He was 13. Two workers have been convicted in his death.
Fisch’s report makes 20 recommendations to prevent another case like Jonathan Carey’s, including a review of the state’s Social Services Law related to abuse in institutional settings.
The CQC and Office of Mental Retardation have promised to improve their oversight in the case of children with disabilities, Fisch’s report said.
Michael and Lisa Carey planned a news conference later today to comment on the report.
A spokesman for the Anderson School could not immediately be reached for comment.
Fisch’s investigation included a review of some 25,000 pages of documents and more than 75 interviews.
“It is difficult to contemplate any tragedy more difficult for parents to endure than the death of a child,” Fisch said in a statement. “Such pain is more intolerable when the child, as was the case with Jonathan Carey, suffered at the hands of professionals who were entrusted with Jonathan’s care.
“Jonathan was autistic and developmentally disabled. Such children require more attention, more love, more understanding and more kindness than other youngsters. Parents, and indeed society, have every right to expect and demand such effort in their behalf,” Fisch said.
Other findings in the report include:
-- The CQC misrepresented the extent of its work to the state Senate, the governor, the inspector general and Michael and Lisa Carey.
-- OMRDD “generally conducted an adequate review and gave follow-up assistance to the Anderson School to correct problems.” But the agency did not fully address potential violations by the school in the neglect and maltreatment of Jonathan.
-- OMRDD was deficient in its communications with the Careys and provided inaccurate or misleading information to the governor.
Gov. David Paterson has proposed legislation that would improve the safety of children in residential programs. It would define certain behaviors, such as kicking, biting or withholding food, as abuse, even if they did not injure a child.
Judge ponders lawsuit over teen’s hanging
By Stephen Gurrsgurr@gainesvilletimes.com
POSTED July 9, 2008 11:52 p.m.
Lawyers for a Gainesville special-needs school where a troubled teen hanged himself in 2004 say his parents have no grounds to sue under a federal law.
The attorney representing the parents of 13-year-old Jonathan King said the case is important to the futures of "countless other severely behaviorally disordered children across the state" and what policies will be in place to protect them from themselves and others.
A Hall County Superior Court judge will decide if the civil case goes forward after hearing a motion for summary judgment Wednesday from an attorney for Pioneer Regional Educational Service Agency, or RESA, and Alpine Psychoeducational Program, the Athens Street facility where King hanged himself in a seclusion room for unruly students in November 2004.
The teen used a rope that was given to him by a school official earlier in the day to keep his pants up.
Attorney Phil Hartley, representing Pioneer RESA, asked Chief Judge C. Andrew Fuller to dismiss the suit on the grounds it does not meet the requirements of a specific federal civil rights law.
Don and Tina King sued Pioneer RESA, a 12-county entity that oversees the Alpine program and other special-needs schools, under a federal law that permits people to sue state government employees and others acting "under color of state law" for constitutional law violations. The law is commonly used in police brutality claims.
The Kings’ attorney, Wyc Orr, told Fuller in a lengthy oral argument that Pioneer RESA and the Alpine program’s failure to properly train employees in how to deal with suicidal students represented "a constitutionally infirm set of policies, practices and customs, and it cost Jonathan King his life."
Hartley, representing the school, said the Kings failed to show that policymakers knew of a risk of a constitutional violation and were "deliberately indifferent."
"They cannot point to the actions of anybody, much less Pioneer RESA, that shock the conscience of the court," Hartley said.
Hartley said that courts have repeatedly held that under the law, schools have no special "custodial relationship" with students in which they have a constitutional duty to protect them from themselves or others.
Only prisoners, arrestees and those who are involuntarily committed could sue on those grounds, Hartley said.
Hartley said that from 1976 until King’s death, there had been no suicides at the facility.
"No record exists that this is a chronic kind of problem that everyone would be on notice about," Hartley said.
Orr countered that "some 10 times a year there would be some mention of suicide," at the Alpine Psychoeducational Program.
Orr said the teen previously mentioned or expressed thoughts of suicide to school officials, but "the word did not pass back down" to the teacher aids who placed him in seclusion the day he hanged himself.
"He went into a seclusion room with a rope they gave him," Orr said. The suicide, he said, "happened because of their deliberate indifference to a known risk of suicide by Jonathan King."
Hartley said case law upholds his client’s position that they cannot be sued under the federal law.
"We have similar facts happen, unfortunately, all across the country, and the parents want to blame someone," Hartley said. "The courts have been clear, there is no right (to sue)."
Fuller has already dismissed the Georgia Department of Education from the suit.
Fuller, with the teen’s parents looking on from the plaintiff’s table, said the case represented "a very tragic set of facts," but that he must consider the law, and the "narrow interpretation of when you can pursue a claim" in making his decision.
"I’ll give great attention to the law," the judge said.
Fuller said he would try to rule soon after receiving final briefs from the parties.
POSTED July 9, 2008 11:52 p.m.
Lawyers for a Gainesville special-needs school where a troubled teen hanged himself in 2004 say his parents have no grounds to sue under a federal law.
The attorney representing the parents of 13-year-old Jonathan King said the case is important to the futures of "countless other severely behaviorally disordered children across the state" and what policies will be in place to protect them from themselves and others.
A Hall County Superior Court judge will decide if the civil case goes forward after hearing a motion for summary judgment Wednesday from an attorney for Pioneer Regional Educational Service Agency, or RESA, and Alpine Psychoeducational Program, the Athens Street facility where King hanged himself in a seclusion room for unruly students in November 2004.
The teen used a rope that was given to him by a school official earlier in the day to keep his pants up.
Attorney Phil Hartley, representing Pioneer RESA, asked Chief Judge C. Andrew Fuller to dismiss the suit on the grounds it does not meet the requirements of a specific federal civil rights law.
Don and Tina King sued Pioneer RESA, a 12-county entity that oversees the Alpine program and other special-needs schools, under a federal law that permits people to sue state government employees and others acting "under color of state law" for constitutional law violations. The law is commonly used in police brutality claims.
The Kings’ attorney, Wyc Orr, told Fuller in a lengthy oral argument that Pioneer RESA and the Alpine program’s failure to properly train employees in how to deal with suicidal students represented "a constitutionally infirm set of policies, practices and customs, and it cost Jonathan King his life."
Hartley, representing the school, said the Kings failed to show that policymakers knew of a risk of a constitutional violation and were "deliberately indifferent."
"They cannot point to the actions of anybody, much less Pioneer RESA, that shock the conscience of the court," Hartley said.
Hartley said that courts have repeatedly held that under the law, schools have no special "custodial relationship" with students in which they have a constitutional duty to protect them from themselves or others.
Only prisoners, arrestees and those who are involuntarily committed could sue on those grounds, Hartley said.
Hartley said that from 1976 until King’s death, there had been no suicides at the facility.
"No record exists that this is a chronic kind of problem that everyone would be on notice about," Hartley said.
Orr countered that "some 10 times a year there would be some mention of suicide," at the Alpine Psychoeducational Program.
Orr said the teen previously mentioned or expressed thoughts of suicide to school officials, but "the word did not pass back down" to the teacher aids who placed him in seclusion the day he hanged himself.
"He went into a seclusion room with a rope they gave him," Orr said. The suicide, he said, "happened because of their deliberate indifference to a known risk of suicide by Jonathan King."
Hartley said case law upholds his client’s position that they cannot be sued under the federal law.
"We have similar facts happen, unfortunately, all across the country, and the parents want to blame someone," Hartley said. "The courts have been clear, there is no right (to sue)."
Fuller has already dismissed the Georgia Department of Education from the suit.
Fuller, with the teen’s parents looking on from the plaintiff’s table, said the case represented "a very tragic set of facts," but that he must consider the law, and the "narrow interpretation of when you can pursue a claim" in making his decision.
"I’ll give great attention to the law," the judge said.
Fuller said he would try to rule soon after receiving final briefs from the parties.
Questions linger over school’s room
07:39 AM EDT on Monday, July 7, 2008
By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer
School officials created a room in the basement of the Block Island School as a last resort for a student with mental health and behavioral problems who needed a place to calm down, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The room was used four or five times with one or two school staff accompanying the student, two during more violent episodes, in which he was observed through a small window on the door,
Michael Healey said during a recent interview.
“Appearances notwithstanding, it seems to be a good-faith effort to try to deal with a young boy with special needs,” he said.
Working with the boy’s mother, the school created the room because options are limited on the island, he said.
“I don’t know if it was ever locked or not,” Healey said.
“We don’t see anything criminal about the conduct of anybody so far,” Healey said, adding it appeared staff never used the room to punish that child or any other.
The student occasionally asked to go to the room to “chill out;” another student liked to read there, he said.
Healey offered these preliminary observations when asked for the outcome of a visit to the school June 12 by state police detectives and Assistant Attorney General Susan Urso, chief of the juvenile division. They are working with the school district’s lawyer, Denise Myers, to get documents to corroborate the school’s official explanations about the room’s use and have interviewed staff and probably will speak with parents, he said.
The Journal first reported on the existence of the room, which until recently could be bolted shut from the outside, after receiving an anonymous letter raising questions about whether unruly students might have been sent there. In a DVD accompanying the letter, a camera slowly pans Room 20 showing door locks, pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint, and fingerprints smudging the walls. Plywood covers one window. The doorknob is missing.
The state police were very concerned by the letter and the DVD, said Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell. “Our concerns are greatly diminished” upon visiting the school, he said late last week.
Still, fire, building and education officials find news of such a room troubling.
“There should be no lock on the outside that someone could accidentally lock,” said William Howe, chief of inspections for the state fire marshal’s office.
Seclusion rooms at Butler Hospital and the school at Bradley Hospital, he said, have fail-safe designs using magnetic locks that can only be latched from the outside when someone presses a button. Once the button is released, the door unlocks.
“I’ve never seen one where they lock the kid in,” said Howe, who had not heard of the room at the Block Island School. Fire-safety inspections are done locally, he said.
Block Island’s building official, Marc Tillson, said he does a cursory inspection of the island’s only school every year. He did not notice exterior locks on the basement room during his inspection last August, but could have missed them, he said.
“If and when somebody put locks on that exterior, I have no knowledge of it,” he said. But, he would consider pursuing criminal charges against the person who placed the locks on the door, he said, if he learned who it was.
“I hope whoever put the locks on the exterior of the door learned their lesson and never does it again,” he said.
The locks were removed June 10, the same day a Journal reporter inquired about the room’s existence, according to Police Chief Vincent Carlone. The Journal’s request to see the room that
day was refused.
In response to a question about the locks on the door, Myers, the district’s lawyer, said by e-mail last Thursday, “It is unknown when the doorknob was removed and it is unknown when the slides were installed.” It remains unclear how long the room has been in place. Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, has said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Supt. Leslie Ryan, who doubles as the special-education director, took over in August 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”
Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, has said she had been told the room was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.”
Bradley has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Someone from Bradley consulted with the school in early 2007 about the educational and behavioral needs of a student, but “did not provide clinical recommendations on the design or development of a specific behavioral room” at the Block Island School, Jessica Grimes, spokeswoman at Bradley Hospital, reiterated late last week.
Asked for the name of the Bradley consultant who reportedly helped develop the room, Myers said: “At this time, the School Department will not comment further as to consultations regarding the room.”
Officials from the state Department of Education’s office for equality and access plan to visit the school, possibly in the fall, according to Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the department.
“From what we’ve heard, we’re very concerned,” Krieger said.
While locked time-out rooms are debated nationwide, they are not allowed in Rhode Island.
Schools may have designated areas to isolate violent or disturbed students, but cannot have rooms only for time-outs, he said.
State regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.
Krieger said he was not aware of any similar rooms in the state.
The department is awaiting reports from Block Island about students being physically restrained at the school, Krieger said. All districts are supposed to detail any time a school uses restraints, he said, and the department has not received such reports from the district.
“We’ll take a very close look at that when we get it,” Krieger said. The absence of reports from the district, he said, “is another reason why the [office for equality and access] wants to talk to the superintendent.”
A district would not have to file a report if restraint was not used, he said.
When reached last week, Superintendent Ryan said the letter and DVD and subsequent news reports have caused a great deal of anxiety on the island and have been harmful to staff and teachers.
“We have never nor would we ever take any action that in any way would be harmful to students,” she said.
She hoped the person who sent the anonymous letter and DVD would be “brought to some type of justice.”
Meanwhile, the district’s School Committee met June 16 and voted to assess the overall safety at the Block Island School in light of the controversy about the basement room.
The School Committee has agreed to hire one or two consultants to ensure that the school meets all state fire-safety codes and regulations, Myers said.
“The priority is to make sure going forward it is safe,” Myers said. Their findings, which will be made public, will not address use of the room before the date of their review, she said.
School Committee Chairman William Padien did not return a phone call seeking comment.
http://www.projo.com/ri/newshoreham/content/ROOM_20_folo_07-07-08_7SANU7O_v30.403cda2.html
kmulvane@projo.com
By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer
School officials created a room in the basement of the Block Island School as a last resort for a student with mental health and behavioral problems who needed a place to calm down, according to a spokesman for the attorney general’s office.
The room was used four or five times with one or two school staff accompanying the student, two during more violent episodes, in which he was observed through a small window on the door,
Michael Healey said during a recent interview.
“Appearances notwithstanding, it seems to be a good-faith effort to try to deal with a young boy with special needs,” he said.
Working with the boy’s mother, the school created the room because options are limited on the island, he said.
“I don’t know if it was ever locked or not,” Healey said.
“We don’t see anything criminal about the conduct of anybody so far,” Healey said, adding it appeared staff never used the room to punish that child or any other.
The student occasionally asked to go to the room to “chill out;” another student liked to read there, he said.
Healey offered these preliminary observations when asked for the outcome of a visit to the school June 12 by state police detectives and Assistant Attorney General Susan Urso, chief of the juvenile division. They are working with the school district’s lawyer, Denise Myers, to get documents to corroborate the school’s official explanations about the room’s use and have interviewed staff and probably will speak with parents, he said.
The Journal first reported on the existence of the room, which until recently could be bolted shut from the outside, after receiving an anonymous letter raising questions about whether unruly students might have been sent there. In a DVD accompanying the letter, a camera slowly pans Room 20 showing door locks, pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint, and fingerprints smudging the walls. Plywood covers one window. The doorknob is missing.
The state police were very concerned by the letter and the DVD, said Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell. “Our concerns are greatly diminished” upon visiting the school, he said late last week.
Still, fire, building and education officials find news of such a room troubling.
“There should be no lock on the outside that someone could accidentally lock,” said William Howe, chief of inspections for the state fire marshal’s office.
Seclusion rooms at Butler Hospital and the school at Bradley Hospital, he said, have fail-safe designs using magnetic locks that can only be latched from the outside when someone presses a button. Once the button is released, the door unlocks.
“I’ve never seen one where they lock the kid in,” said Howe, who had not heard of the room at the Block Island School. Fire-safety inspections are done locally, he said.
Block Island’s building official, Marc Tillson, said he does a cursory inspection of the island’s only school every year. He did not notice exterior locks on the basement room during his inspection last August, but could have missed them, he said.
“If and when somebody put locks on that exterior, I have no knowledge of it,” he said. But, he would consider pursuing criminal charges against the person who placed the locks on the door, he said, if he learned who it was.
“I hope whoever put the locks on the exterior of the door learned their lesson and never does it again,” he said.
The locks were removed June 10, the same day a Journal reporter inquired about the room’s existence, according to Police Chief Vincent Carlone. The Journal’s request to see the room that
day was refused.
In response to a question about the locks on the door, Myers, the district’s lawyer, said by e-mail last Thursday, “It is unknown when the doorknob was removed and it is unknown when the slides were installed.” It remains unclear how long the room has been in place. Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, has said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Supt. Leslie Ryan, who doubles as the special-education director, took over in August 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”
Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, has said she had been told the room was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.”
Bradley has repeatedly denied any involvement.
Someone from Bradley consulted with the school in early 2007 about the educational and behavioral needs of a student, but “did not provide clinical recommendations on the design or development of a specific behavioral room” at the Block Island School, Jessica Grimes, spokeswoman at Bradley Hospital, reiterated late last week.
Asked for the name of the Bradley consultant who reportedly helped develop the room, Myers said: “At this time, the School Department will not comment further as to consultations regarding the room.”
Officials from the state Department of Education’s office for equality and access plan to visit the school, possibly in the fall, according to Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the department.
“From what we’ve heard, we’re very concerned,” Krieger said.
While locked time-out rooms are debated nationwide, they are not allowed in Rhode Island.
Schools may have designated areas to isolate violent or disturbed students, but cannot have rooms only for time-outs, he said.
State regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.
Krieger said he was not aware of any similar rooms in the state.
The department is awaiting reports from Block Island about students being physically restrained at the school, Krieger said. All districts are supposed to detail any time a school uses restraints, he said, and the department has not received such reports from the district.
“We’ll take a very close look at that when we get it,” Krieger said. The absence of reports from the district, he said, “is another reason why the [office for equality and access] wants to talk to the superintendent.”
A district would not have to file a report if restraint was not used, he said.
When reached last week, Superintendent Ryan said the letter and DVD and subsequent news reports have caused a great deal of anxiety on the island and have been harmful to staff and teachers.
“We have never nor would we ever take any action that in any way would be harmful to students,” she said.
She hoped the person who sent the anonymous letter and DVD would be “brought to some type of justice.”
Meanwhile, the district’s School Committee met June 16 and voted to assess the overall safety at the Block Island School in light of the controversy about the basement room.
The School Committee has agreed to hire one or two consultants to ensure that the school meets all state fire-safety codes and regulations, Myers said.
“The priority is to make sure going forward it is safe,” Myers said. Their findings, which will be made public, will not address use of the room before the date of their review, she said.
School Committee Chairman William Padien did not return a phone call seeking comment.
http://www.projo.com/ri/newshoreham/content/ROOM_20_folo_07-07-08_7SANU7O_v30.403cda2.html
kmulvane@projo.com
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
State weighs limits on school 'timeouts,' restraints
DesMoinesRegister.com
By STACI HUPPshupp@dmreg.com
June 30, 2008
Iowa has joined a nationwide push to curb the use of physical force and "timeout" rooms in schools to discipline the most unruly students.
A proposal before the state Board of Education would limit how and when teachers can lock up children and would ban risky methods of restraint, including chokeholds.
Teachers also would be trained to use "positive" alternatives, such as talking through disputes with children.
"Teachers struggle with what's appropriate," said Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education. "This really provides additional guidance."
State law allows school officials to hold down and confine children who are a threat to themselves or others, just as group homes do. But critics say educators overdo it sometimes.
In 2006, a Waukee couple complained that their 8-year-old daughter was alone in timeout for more than three hours because she refused to finish a reading assignment. Waukee school officials have said they did nothing wrong, but an administrative law judge disagreed. The district's discipline policy has not changed.
"The problem that some of my colleagues have noted is an educationally inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint - 'You were disrespectful; go into the timeout room,' versus 'You were disrespectful; how can we help you be more respectful?' " said Thomas Mayes, an attorney for the education department.
Dave Wilkerson, Waukee's superintendent of schools, said he's open to input from state officials but questions that such a specific policy will work. "To try to put a policy in place that's going to fit every situation, I think, is going to be impossible," he said.
Other states have reviewed timeout in the face of lawsuits against school districts, researchers say.At the same time, studies have shown teachers confine students for the wrong reasons.
A James Madison University survey of teachers at one Minnesota school found that teachers were more likely to lock up children for minor misbehavior.
"Without any guidance and policies, they make very poor choices, and kids suffer the consequences of it," said Joseph Ryan, a Clemson University professor who worked on the 2004 survey.
How often teachers lock up students in Iowa is difficult to track because the state lacks a clear reporting system. That would change under the state proposal, which calls on educators to keep records of every incident.
The proposal would be part of Iowa's corporal punishment law, which has been in place since 1991. The law covers public and private schools and area education agencies.The state proposal also says educators:
- Can't hold a child face down or otherwise use force that hampers a child's ability to breathe.
- Must provide "continuous" supervision of children in timeout rooms.
- Must get permission from an administrator to confine a child for longer than an hour.
- Can't lock up or restrain children for "minor infractions."
- Can lock the door of a timeout room only if they hold the lock in position, or the lock automatically releases when school alarms go off or power is cut off.
- Must use timeout rooms that are safe and suitable for children of varying sizes, ages and conditions.
"It's kind of frightening, frankly, to see that you have to be this specific," said Susan Myers, a mother who heads the Access for Special Kids Family Resource Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.
"I don't believe that teachers or building administrators set out to be unkind or cruel or harmful to children. In the rare occasion that that happens, it happens really because of ignorance as to what to do. This should help alleviate any instance of that."
Iowans can weigh in on the state proposal at a public hearing July 8. Members of the state education board are expected to vote on it this fall.
A spokeswoman at the state's largest teachers union said she wasn't familiar enough with the proposal to comment about it.
Doug and Eva Loeffler, the parents who complained about the Waukee school district timeout policy, could not be reached for comment last week.
By STACI HUPPshupp@dmreg.com
June 30, 2008
Iowa has joined a nationwide push to curb the use of physical force and "timeout" rooms in schools to discipline the most unruly students.
A proposal before the state Board of Education would limit how and when teachers can lock up children and would ban risky methods of restraint, including chokeholds.
Teachers also would be trained to use "positive" alternatives, such as talking through disputes with children.
"Teachers struggle with what's appropriate," said Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education. "This really provides additional guidance."
State law allows school officials to hold down and confine children who are a threat to themselves or others, just as group homes do. But critics say educators overdo it sometimes.
In 2006, a Waukee couple complained that their 8-year-old daughter was alone in timeout for more than three hours because she refused to finish a reading assignment. Waukee school officials have said they did nothing wrong, but an administrative law judge disagreed. The district's discipline policy has not changed.
"The problem that some of my colleagues have noted is an educationally inappropriate use of seclusion and restraint - 'You were disrespectful; go into the timeout room,' versus 'You were disrespectful; how can we help you be more respectful?' " said Thomas Mayes, an attorney for the education department.
Dave Wilkerson, Waukee's superintendent of schools, said he's open to input from state officials but questions that such a specific policy will work. "To try to put a policy in place that's going to fit every situation, I think, is going to be impossible," he said.
Other states have reviewed timeout in the face of lawsuits against school districts, researchers say.At the same time, studies have shown teachers confine students for the wrong reasons.
A James Madison University survey of teachers at one Minnesota school found that teachers were more likely to lock up children for minor misbehavior.
"Without any guidance and policies, they make very poor choices, and kids suffer the consequences of it," said Joseph Ryan, a Clemson University professor who worked on the 2004 survey.
How often teachers lock up students in Iowa is difficult to track because the state lacks a clear reporting system. That would change under the state proposal, which calls on educators to keep records of every incident.
The proposal would be part of Iowa's corporal punishment law, which has been in place since 1991. The law covers public and private schools and area education agencies.The state proposal also says educators:
- Can't hold a child face down or otherwise use force that hampers a child's ability to breathe.
- Must provide "continuous" supervision of children in timeout rooms.
- Must get permission from an administrator to confine a child for longer than an hour.
- Can't lock up or restrain children for "minor infractions."
- Can lock the door of a timeout room only if they hold the lock in position, or the lock automatically releases when school alarms go off or power is cut off.
- Must use timeout rooms that are safe and suitable for children of varying sizes, ages and conditions.
"It's kind of frightening, frankly, to see that you have to be this specific," said Susan Myers, a mother who heads the Access for Special Kids Family Resource Center, a nonprofit advocacy group.
"I don't believe that teachers or building administrators set out to be unkind or cruel or harmful to children. In the rare occasion that that happens, it happens really because of ignorance as to what to do. This should help alleviate any instance of that."
Iowans can weigh in on the state proposal at a public hearing July 8. Members of the state education board are expected to vote on it this fall.
A spokeswoman at the state's largest teachers union said she wasn't familiar enough with the proposal to comment about it.
Doug and Eva Loeffler, the parents who complained about the Waukee school district timeout policy, could not be reached for comment last week.
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