It’s a question of restraint for teachers of autistic kids

Parents, others upset by use of excess force
By Barbara O’Brien NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 08/03/08 10:15 AM

Robert Kirkham/Buffalo News
Tim Miller, in a speech to his ninth grade classmates, said: “Here we are with hope in our hearts, we have made it through the good and bad times.”
ALLEGANY — Tim Miller has a lot of “what ifs” running through his head.

What if he had never been held facedown by teachers when he was in sixth grade?

What if he had had more friends? What if he had never had autism?

As the number of autistic kids in schools grows, there are signs that teachers and administrators are having difficulty controlling them and addressing their special needs.

That can lead to conflict, and in some cases, to federal court. That’s where Carole and John Miller turned after not getting satisfaction through the state’s special education hearing process.

Their son Tim, a student at Allegany- Limestone Central High School, remembers being restrained facedown when he was 12. There is evidence he was restrained more than 10 times over a four-month period in 2005.

“I thought maybe they were taking his wrist. I didn’t like the idea, but I figured, they know better, they’re the instructors, the teachers,” Carole Miller said. “I asked him what happened when he got home from school, and he would always just say, ‘They’re trying to kill me.’ I thought he was overreacting.”

Dealing with troublesome children leaves some teachers with their own questions:

How much physical force can be used in restraining an unruly child?

How much time and attention should be given to the special-needs child without neglecting others?

Are there better ways to control a frustrated child who has special needs?

Brenda Shepard, a parent advocate who learned to navigate the system while helping her own autistic son, said if children aren’t given the services they need, they can become behavior problems.

“Ninety-nine percent of the mistakes made with my autistic son was [that] the people working with my son were so unfamiliar with the disability and they would trigger an outburst,” she said.

In Tim Miller’s case, it’s important to get a federal court ruling, his parents say, because last September a staff member threw him to the ground three times when he tried to go into the principal’s office.

Allegany-Limestone school officials would not comment for this story.

“We take the privacy of our children very seriously,” said Superintendent Diane Munro. “In the interest of a child’s privacy rights, and in line with the fact this is a matter that is in litigation, I am unable to contribute.”

Tim, 15, is one of about 40 children in Cattaraugus County classified as autistic. The number has been increasing in recent years not just in Western New York but across the country.

In Erie County, the number of children with autism jumped 63 percent between 2003 and 2006. In New York State, the number went up 46 percent over the same time.

John Miller, a podiatrist, and Carole Miller, a pharmacist with multiple sclerosis, were angry when they learned their son had been held down, sometimes with one teacher lying ov er his back while another held his legs. They were outraged when they learned that children in institutional settings around the country have died from asphyxiation after being restrained in similar ways.

“I never dreamed, never dreamed, never in my wildest dream — nightmare — could I think that they could do that to him,” said John Miller. “To this day, we do not know how many times he was restrained during that period of time.”

The teachers’ logs he obtained tell a story of a disruptive 12-year-old and adults’ efforts to control him. His parents don’t dispute that Tim sometimes can be disruptive and difficult, but they say there are techniques that will prevent meltdowns. Other actions — like touching him and holding him down — often trigger them.

The issue of restraints is a touchy one, particularly for schools that must protect the student, sometimes from himself, as well as from other children and staff members.

“When it comes to restraining, the teachers are between a rock and a hard place,” said Philip Rumore, president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation.

Buffalo teachers deal with 9,400 students with disabilities, or about 19 percent of the student population.

“We’ve always advised teachers if you don’t have to, don’t — only if its an emergency. It’s just too easy for a child to get hurt,” Rumore said.

Great strides have been made in recent years in identifying children with autism, which helps them to get treatment earlier, said Lynda Quick, assistant superintendent of Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES.

“How to treat these children is more understood now,” she said, adding that restraints are a last resort. “But they are indeed sometimes necessary for professionals trained in how to do proper restraints.”

Margaret Jones-Carey, associate superintendent for Erie 1 BOCES, said training on how to administer restraints includes preventive measures and techniques on defusing a situation before the restraint becomes necessary to protect the student, other children, staff or property.

But there are better ways to deal with people, said Veronica Federiconi, executive director of Autistic Services.

“The use of restraints doesn’t really teach people anything, except to be afraid or to run away from people who practice it,” she said. “It doesn’t teach them the correct way of dealing with life.”

Still, restraints are allowed under New York State law.

“Restraints are an emergency practice,” said Patricia Geary, coordinator of special-education policy for the state Education Department. “They should never be a routine.”

Tim has Asperger’s syndrome, which is a form of autism. It’s marked by the same social challenges as autism — such as difficulty in reading body language — without the language or cognitive delays.

Ninth grade agreed with Tim for the most part. He was mainstreamed into regular classrooms and passed all his classes in June. He even spoke at an assembly held to motivate students to be more compassionate in dealing with others.

He apologized for getting agitated in front of his fellow students and invited them to a party at his house.

“It doesn’t matter if someone is popular or not, or being the smartest student in class, or is amazing at sports or electronics, but the only thing that does matter is to try hard and be nice,” he told his classmates.

While he hopes his arrival in heaven is many years away, he’s looking forward to it because his mother and others have told him all things are possible in heaven.

“I would definitely have a lot more friends,” Tim said. “I don’t know if it’s possible, I don’t know if it’s like this forever if you’re in heaven, but, you know what would be an amazing, incredible what if? What if I never had autism?”

bobrien@buffnews.com