Families Against Restraint and Seclusion Articles

Welcome to Families Against Restraint and Seclusion News Articles

2008-08-23T22:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to our blog! This blog is a continuation of Families Against Restraint and Seclusion, a national grass-roots organization that is working toward eliminating the overuse and unnecessary use of restraint and seclusion in public schools, and contains full news articles regarding restraint and seclusion use (and alleged overuse or unnecessary use) in public schools.

D.C. To Pay Middle School Students For Attendance, Behavior

2008-08-23T22:00:00.002-04:00

POSTED: 7:32 pm EDT August 21, 2008
UPDATED: 11:13 pm EDT August 21, 2008

WASHINGTON -- D.C. will pay middle school students for attendance and behavior in an effort to get them to focus on school.

The city plans to spend about $3 million on the pilot program. The money will go to about 3,000 students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee said it's during middle school when many students either learn the value of education or start down the road toward failing or dropping out.

"The middle school years are incredibly important," Rhee said. "We believe that this is the time for a radical intervention."

The pay-for-performance program will reward up to $100 every two weeks for attending classes, behaving well and achieving other goals.

"If this proposal and partnership seems a little bit outside of the box, it is," said D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Half of the city's 6,000 middle school students at 28 schools will be chosen for the program that will be run in part by a local bank and Harvard University.

The idea is not new. It's been practiced at different levels in many states.

Hardy Middle School Principal Patrick Pope said that some families with the means routinely reward students. Pope and Rhee said D.C. is just leveling the playing field for families that don't have those means.

"They have a lot of incentives to do the wrong thing outside of school, and what we need to do is counterbalance that," Rhee said.

http://www.nbc4.com/education/17259394/detail.html

Isolation room deemed to violate school, fire rules

2008-08-21T14:50:00.004-04:00

09:22 AM EDT on Thursday, August 21, 2008

By Katie Mulvaney
Journal Staff Writer

Read the New Shoreham Facility Report: http://www.projo.com/news/2008/pdf/new_shoreham_school_facility_report.pdf

BLOCK ISLAND — An isolation room set up in the basement of the Block Island School for students who needed to “chill out” violated state education regulations and the state fire code, according to a report by independent consultants.

The room violated regulations because its door had two sliding bolts on the outside, and also because staff members were unable to observe a student at all times through the small window in the door, the consultants concluded.

If a time-out room is needed for students in crisis, it should be a smaller, padded room that can be clearly observed, and equipped with a lock that disengages immediately when the person monitoring from the outside takes his or her hand away, the consultants said. The district should also develop clear policies for dealing with students who need crisis intervention, and all staff in the 150-student school should be trained in “de-escalation strategies.”

The School Committee called for the consultants’ review in June after the existence of the room –– referred to by some students as the “freak-out room” –– became public.

The Journal began asking questions about Room 20 after receiving an anonymous letter wondering whether it was being used for “unruly students.” In a DVD accompanying the letter, a camera slowly pans the corridor leading to Room 20 and shows a door with two bolts and a hole where a doorknob should be. The video also shows pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint, and fingerprints smudging the walls. One window is boarded up with plywood.

The locks were removed June 10, the same day the Journal first asked to see the room and was refused.

The consultants said a lever door handle was on the door to Room 20 the day they toured the school later the same month.

The School Committee was briefed on the consultants’ findings at a meeting Monday, after which Chairman William Padien said, “As you stated, Room 20 will now be used for something else.”

Referring to the report as “phase 1,” Padien said the board would continue its investigation into “the matters that led to us having to get this report.” He could not be reached yesterday to elaborate.

Supt. Leslie A. Ryan, who doubles as the special-education director, did not comment on the findings at the meeting.

According to the report, Room 20 was initially set up as a brightly painted space where teachers could work with students individually. It also served periodically as a place for students to go voluntarily to “chill out,” or de-escalate, in a controlled, low-sensory environment, sometimes with staff interacting with them. At some point, its use became “more restrictive” to handle an overly aggressive boy.

“[T]heir intent was to reduce the impact of the student’s behavior on other students and at the same time, prevent other students from watching him when he was having a difficult time,” the report reads. It also said the boy was placed in the room a few times when he became so aggressive that he couldn’t be safely held and staff members were being hurt.

Ryan told the consultants that she called the student’s mother on each occasion that “the room was used in a restrictive manner.”

Another parent told the consultants that her daughter was also sent to the room as a consequence of an “undesired behavior.”

The consultants were Susan Stevenson, director of autism spectrum disorder services with Gateway Healthcare, and Christopher Suchmann, maintenance director at The Groden Center. Their work included conversations with staff and the parents of two children.

The report states that the parents were concerned about the use of restrictive procedures and expressed a desire to be involved in decision making and informed about interventions. State regulations require parental consent before these approaches are used.

Other districts use time-out rooms, but not ones that can be bolted from the outside, Stevenson said yesterday. “You don’t expect, because of fire-safety regulations, to see locks on doors.”

The report says that state regulations differentiate between “seclusion restraint” and “time-out procedures.” Seclusion restraint is confining a student alone in a room without access to school staff. This is prohibited in Rhode Island’s public schools. Time-out is allowable because a staff member remains “accessible to the student.”

The consultants did not indicate whether the use of Room 20 was ever considered “seclusion restraint.”

After The Journal’s story, the state Department of Education asked Block Island officials to report on any student who had been physically restrained. All districts are supposed to detail any time a school uses restraints, and the department had not received such reports from the district.

The district filed a restraint report with the state Aug. 4 in which Ryan detailed one incident that occurred last Nov. 30. In a letter accompanying that report, school lawyer Denise Myers referred to the event as one that “required temporary use of a latch” because a student was “attacking staff and trying to punch through a glass door” and continued to push and kick to get out of the room.

Myers said in the letter that “we are not acknowledging that a physical restraint occurred, as defined by the regulations.”

Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the state did not agree with or dispute Myers’ representations. State education officials plan to visit the school for an on-site investigation this fall, he said.

In addition, state police detectives and Assistant Attorney General Susan Urso, chief of the juvenile division, are conducting their own investigation into the room after visiting the school in June in response to the DVD.

The attorney general’s office is still waiting for the district’s lawyer to get documents to corroborate the school’s official explanations about the room’s use, said Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general.

“The only thing we’re waiting for is documents to confirm what we heard out there,” Healey said.

Myers did not return two phone calls yesterday afternoon or respond to several questions posed by e-mail.

Healey and state police Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell said they did not think anything criminal had occurred.

kmulvane@projo.com
http://www.projo.com/education/content/ROOM_20_08-21-08_34B9VAH_v23.3e83332.html

Florida - Disturbing update to story about ESE teacher at Venice Elem in the Sarasota Herald Tribune

2008-08-20T15:38:00.003-04:00

Printed on page A1
Concern about teacher not new
Complaints of abuse date back to 2005

By Tiffany Lankes

Published: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 at 1:00 a.m.

Staff members at Venice Elementary School say special education teacher Diana O'Neill called her students "retards" and hit them on the head when they answered questions incorrectly.

In 2005, two co-workers said she pulled a child's hand out of his mouth so hard she left a mark on his chin. That same year, another teacher said an aide saw O'Neill hold a child's nose and mouth shut while trying to feed her.

An investigative report released Monday by the school district details instances dating back to 2005 involving O'Neill, who has been charged with four counts of child abuse on her students.

But before this year, concerns about O'Neill never triggered a formal investigation or call to the state abuse hot line, where school employees are legally required to report abuse suspicions. The school's principal, Theresa Baus, warned O'Neill to watch her behavior, and passed complaints about the teacher on to district officials who left it up to Baus to handle.

Some teachers who suspected abuse and reported it to Baus were reprimanded for spreading gossip. And O'Neill stayed in the classroom, responsible for the well-being of a handful of the most vulnerable students in the district.

The teacher was arrested in February, after two classroom aides came forward with a log in which they documented more than a dozen instances when they say O'Neill hit, kicked and slapped students in her class.

Parents say they cannot fathom why action was not taken sooner.

"If a teacher is abusing kids, or is even suspected of abusing kids, you'd think they would report it," said Randi Munsell, whose son is one of the students O'Neill allegedly abused. "Maybe it would never have got to where it got with our kids."

The district's investigation was done by a private investigator hired to look into the most recent allegations against O'Neill and determine whether she can still work for the district.

O'Neill, who has taught special education at Venice elementary for 18 years, has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been on administrative leave since her arrest.

School district spokesman Gary Leatherman said the district handled complaints about O'Neill appropriately. There was little evidence in the earlier cases to prove O'Neill physically harmed students, and none of the students in her class were injured.

"I don't know that anyone would have seen the previous reports as indicative of a pattern," Leatherman said. "Now, there's going to be a different perspective."

O'Neill's attorneys say that the aides mistook appropriate techniques for abuse.

They also point out that O'Neill is not accused of injuring any of the children. The attorneys say they have talked to former parents and students who speak highly of O'Neill's teaching abilities.

"There were numerous interviews with school employees and nurses who were in the classroom and never saw anything," said Peter Collins, one of O'Neill's attorneys.

According to the private investigator' s report, Baus said that O'Neill's aides may not have come forward sooner with their complaints about the teacher because they were afraid of the union.

"Diana is a senior union representative," Baus told investigators, the report says. "They were probably a little afraid of Diana, afraid of losing their jobs."

Pat Gardner, president of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association says she doubts the employees feared the union.

"I don't know why they would think that," Gardner said. "As far as we are concerned, that is ridiculous."

The union was paying O'Neill's defense attorneys after she was arrested. Gardner would not say whether the union continues to pay O'Neill's legal bills.

The first event in the private investigator' s report happened in February 2005, when another special education teacher and an aide told Baus that O'Neill yanked a child's hand out of his mouth so hard that it left a mark on his chin.

Baus told investigators that she contacted John Zoretich, the district's director of elementary schools, who told her to check the student for marks. Baus did not see any, so she warned O'Neill to watch her behavior and started spending more time observing her classroom.

The following school year, two different staff members went to Baus and reported that one of her aides had seen O'Neill forcefully feed a student, holding the child's mouth and nose shut in the process. Another time she made a boy stand behind his chair until he fell down, the staff members reported.

Baus told the investigator that she went and talked to the aide, who said she did not know anything. Baus reprimanded the two staff members for spreading gossip.

The principal fielded another complaint about O'Neill in October 2007 when the school nurse came to her with concerns about two students in O'Neill's class who had bruises and scratch marks on them.

Again, Baus contacted Zoretich and special education coordinator Kathy Devlin.

And again, Baus met with O'Neill and warned her that no one should be hurt in her classroom. O'Neill said some of the marks were caused by a belt she was using to help one of the children stand.

At that time, the principal also talked to O'Neill about whether she was feeling burnt out from the intensity of the job. O'Neill told her she would think about it, the report stated.

"In my mind, if she was rough, it wasn't intentional," Baus told investigators. "Because it didn't continue, I didn't think anything more of it."

After the October situation, the two aides in O'Neill's class started keeping a detailed log of instances when they thought the teacher was too rough with her students.

It was not until January 29, when O'Neill allegedly struck a student in the head, that the aides came forward to a school nurse, who went to Baus about it.

That is when Baus called the abuse hot line and reported O'Neill.

Baus told investigators that she did not question the aides about why they did not come to her sooner, but thought that it was because the abuse was not constant.

"The other thing they told me, as an example, on December 3, she smacked a kid in the head, well that may take three seconds out of a day that is 405 minutes long; the rest of the day may have been great ... and then you may have two or three days when nothing happens at all ...

"So it wasn't like it was a nonstop, constant abuse that was occurring every day," Baus said.

This story appeared in print on page A1

Former Waco ISD special education teacher charged in sexual assault case involving student

2008-08-16T15:13:00.005-04:00

By TIM WOODS
Waco Tribune-Herald

Thursday, August 07, 2008

A 26-year-old former Brazos Middle School special education teacher was arrested Wednesday after Waco police investigators alleged that she was having sex and smoking marijuana with a 14-year-old student from the school.

Tara Allison Hodges, now living in Katy, Texas, surrendered to police Wednesday morning and was charged with sexual assault of a child and improper relationship between educator and student, said Waco police Sgt. Melvin Roseborough.

Both charges are second-degree felonies. Hodges remained in the McLennan County Jail late Wednesday, held in lieu of $300,000 bond, a jail spokeswoman said.

Hodges' arrest warrant affidavit states that she "had sexual contact with (the 14-year-old boy) on at least 10 seperate occasions, and that during several of these encounters Tara Allison Hodges also smoked marijuana with (the boy)."

She was not charged with any drug-related offenses, officials said.

The affidavit says the sexual relationship lasted for about two months and specifically cites one occasion, on June 6, when Hodges picked the boy up in her car and took him to her apartment at Pecan Ridge Apartments, 2736 Lake Shore Drive, to have sex and smoke marijuana.

Hodges also gave the boy money and bought him shoes on at least two occasions, according to the affidavit.

Hodges' relationship with the boy extended until as recently as July 26, the affidavit says.

Waco Independent School District spokesman Dale Caffey said Wednesday he does not know whether the youth was a special education student.

Hodges had just completed her third year working for WISD as a special education inclusion teacher, he said. Inclusion teachers, as Caffey described, work with special education students to incorporate them into mainstream classrooms.

Caffey said Hodges resigned earlier this summer, telling WISD human resources that she had taken a teaching position in Katy. He said WISD officials learned of the police investigation last week.

"From the district's standpoint, when we learned of the investigation, we were shocked, extremely upset," Caffey said.

Caffey said the district does thorough background checks on all teaching hires, but acknowledged that it's not always possible to prevent such incidents, particularly when a job applicant's history gives no indication of threat.

"In this certain circumstance, I think it would have been hard to (foresee Hodges' alleged crimes)," Caffey said. "According to what I could see in her personnel file, this was her first professional teaching assignment."

Hodges' Web page on Facebook.com says she graduated from Texas State University in 2004 and lists her hometown as El Campo, Texas, just southwest of Houston. The page says she moved to Katy on Aug. 1.

Hodges' wrote on her Facebook page that her favorite TV shows included "Cops, I love shows about crime and I like watching prison, gang and drug documentaries for some reason!!!"

A current teacher at Brazos Middle School who asked to remain anonymous because he did not want his name associated with the story, said that he always knew Hodges as "a really nice person," and was surprised by the allegations. The teacher did not want to comment specifically about the charges.

http://www.news-journal.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/08/07/08082008__Teacher_charges.html

Featured Article: Boy suffocated during school punishment: Coroner's Report

2008-08-15T13:30:00.003-04:00

Graeme Hamilton, National Post, With Files From Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, June 20, 2008
Photos By John Kenney, Canwest News Service

MONTREAL - After nine-year-old Gabriel Poirier was discovered lifeless in his classroom last April 17, his parents were told their autistic son had stopped breathing after hiding under a heavy therapeutic blanket.

Now a coroner has revealed that Gabriel's teachers had tightly wrapped him in the buckwheat-stuffed blanket, leaving only the tips of his ears sticking out, as punishment when he became disruptive. They left him unsupervised in a corner for 20 minutes, returning when a timer sounded.

Gabriel was unconscious and blue in the face. He was rushed to hospital, where he died the following night surrounded by his family.

In a report published yesterday, Coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier concluded the child suffocated. She said the teachers at the special-needs school in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., failed to follow guidelines for the blankets, which are used commonly to calm autistic children.

"He was only 53 pounds, he was so small," Gilles Poirier, the boy's father said at a news conference yesterday. "How can they wrap him up like that in a 40-pound blanket? How can this treatment be tolerated?"

Ms. Rudel-Tessier said proper use of the blanket called for a child to be rolled at most once and for his head to be left uncovered. The blanket was to be used as a relaxation therapy, not as a punishment, and teachers were supposed to keep an eye on children using the blankets.

"A child rolled 'at least four times' in such a heavy blanket is under restraint," the coroner wrote.

Jean-Pierre Menard, a lawyer representing Gabriel's parents, is calling for changes to legislation to control the use of restraints in schools. The parents are also planning to sue the Hautes-Rivieres school board.

The coroner said use of the blankets should be ceased until clear guidelines are established. Basic rules would include ensuring the blanket is not too heavy for the child, never covering the child's head, ensuring that vital signs can always be observed, never rolling the child in the blanket and ensuring the child can get out if he wants to.

Kathleen Provost, executive director of the Autism Society of Canada, said weighted blankets can be calming for autistic children when used under the guidance of an occupational therapist.

"They have a therapeutic use and can be relaxing," she said.

Mr. Menard said the parents were surprised to learn Gabriel had been placed in the blanket as a punishment. The school board had initially said it was a natural death and that Gabriel had gone under the blanket on his own.

"The principal said they found Gabriel under the blanket and he wasn't breathing. The parents thought that something had happened while he was sleeping and that was how he died," Mr. Menard said. He said the school board later told the media that Gabriel had hidden under the blanket.

Mr. Poirier said he cannot understand why his child was placed in a restraint. "He was a very gentle boy," he said. "Sometimes he was loud, but he was never aggressive or violent. I just don't understand how this happened," he said, tears streaming down his face.

ghamilton@nationalpost.com

Fired Teacher Might Be Reinstated

2008-08-11T14:24:00.003-04:00

Jane Sesser was let go for 'stomping' on a student's foot
By Mackenzie Ryan • Statesman Journal

August 10, 2008

The Willamette Education Service District was ordered recently to reinstate a special-education teacher who was fired after she allegedly "stomped on the foot" and used other unnecessary force with an autistic 10-year-old who could not talk.

In a split vote, the state Employment Relations Board decided in July that Jane Sesser should be reinstated as a Life Skills Program teacher in Yamhill County. The program serves about 90 students with cognitive, physical and emotional disabilities.

The district board may consider appealing the order, attorney Mark Comstock said. The board will meet at 7 a.m. Tuesday in executive session to hear legal advice.

"What the Willamette Education Service District was faced with was concern by staff members on site that there was abuse of a child going on," Comstock said. "(They) took action as they were supposed to do."

The teachers' union argued that Sesser was not adequately trained and that firing her was not proportionate, attorney Monica Smith said.

"This was a brand new teacher who was in a classroom for about six weeks, who faced the challenges that many special education teachers face" Smith said. "…It's a very tricky aspect of the job, to learn what's the right physical contact."

Unfounded dismissal

The Employment Relations Board orders the district to reinstate Sesser, repay her for wages she would have earned and delete information about her dismissal from her personnel file.

The order said Sesser's firing was not based on evidence found during an investigation, and there was no indication that she injured and traumatized the child.

However, there were indications Sesser had "serious difficulties" with her assignment, the order said.

While the autistic child could not tell someone if Sesser hurt him, the ruling said the district could have questioned employees or the child's parents about if he suffered emotional or physical injuries.

A district investigation had concluded that Sesser used unreasonable physical force.

Dave Novotney, deputy superintendent for the district, declined to comment, saying it was an ongoing personnel matter.

Incident investigated

According to the 34-page Employment Relations Board document, Sesser was working with an autistic child that tried to hit, kick and scratch her Oct. 3, 2005.

Sesser said she thought the fourth-grader might injure a medically fragile student in her classroom at the time. To calm him, Sesser put his hands between hers and told him: "quiet hands."

As he raised his foot to kick her, Sesser said she put her foot on top of his. She had not seen that technique used before, but thought it was similar to the one used with the child's hands.

A colleague saw the incident and it was relayed to a supervisor. Sesser was subsequently placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into allegations of child abuse.

A Yamhill County Sheriff's Office investigation said a colleague saw Sesser "stomp" on the child's foot and "push" him to the seat.

Sesser also was seen on an outing holding the child's hands on a cart "so tightly that I could see her fingers turning white."

In December 2005, Sesser was charged with harassment, a misdemeanor.

Criminal charges were dismissed two years later. Her actions also were not sufficient to warrant losing her teaching certificate.

maryan@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6750

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

2008-08-04T15:14:00.002-04:00

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

Special Education Struggles In School

2008-08-01T16:04:00.005-04:00

By: Alysha Palumba (WIBV)
July 30, 2008 05:08 PM EDT
Updated: July 30, 2008 06:45 PM EDT
Video On Demand

Special education struggles in school
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - - Young people dealing with Autism or Asperger Syndrome often face an uphill battle in the classroom. One family's struggle with schooling and takes a look at how schools handle the challenge of teaching these special students.

When Tim Miller started coming home from school in sixth grade telling his parents horror stories, they didn't know what to think.

John Miller, Tim's Father, said, "Our son was coming home and telling us the school was trying to kill him - with his communication deficits at the time he didn't know how to say he was being restrained."

John Miller says his son, who has Asperger Syndrome or a higher functioning form of autism, was being put in prone restraints when he acted out in class. Although he admits Tim, then 12, had behavioral issues, he believes the school went too far.

Tim Miller, teen with Asperger Syndrome, said, "I remember they just grabbed me and put me into the room or whatever and I remember they had the mat and just threw me to the ground."

John Miller, Tim's Father, said, "Every time they restrained my son, they were stepping outside of their training."

Summit Educational Resources CEO Dr. Stephen Anderson says in general restraints are a last resort.

Dr. Stephen Anderson, Summit Educational Resources CEO, said, "Restraint is the emergency procedure, it's the back up, it's the thing you may have to do if all else fails and there's a risk to the individual or others."

But the Millers say the restraints were just part of their problem with the Allegany-Limestone Central School District.

John Miller, Tim's Father, said, "Crucial in this whole thing are the denied services. Allegany-Limestone Central Schools I believe intentionally mis-classified my son for six years."

Miller says if Tim had been classified as autistic when he was diagnosed, he would have received the social, behavioral, and educational services he needs.

But Dr. Anderson says that may not be the case in public schools.

Dr. Stephen Anderson, Summit Educational Resources CEO, said, "If a kid is achieving academically, I'm not sure what their responsibility is after that, we'd all like them to embrace and do more, but their resources are limited as well."

He says it's a difficult balance for schools to meet the needs of children with autism or Asperger Syndrome while not disrupting the education of other children.

Dr. Stephen Anderson, Summit Educational Resources CEO, said, "I don't think school districts have ever seen this with the frequency that they're starting to see it now because they're keeping kids with more challenging behaviors within the context."

Both the Allegany-Limestone Superintendent and the school's attorney would not comment because of privacy issues and because Tim Miller's case is currently in litigation.

An impartial hearing on the matter was overturned, and it is now headed to federal court.

Story by Alysha Palumbo (WIVB)
http://www.wivb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8762395

Charges against teacher tossed

2008-07-28T12:00:00.007-04:00

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.

Mom wants school to explain son's injuries

2008-07-26T17:01:00.003-04:00

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.

Substitute teacher gets probation for taping unruly student to seat

2008-07-20T00:12:00.004-04:00

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.

Restraint called common at school; Youths describe practices at facility where boy died

2008-07-19T23:08:00.002-04:00

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.

Autopsy: restraint killed student at Killeen school

2008-07-17T06:22:00.002-04:00

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."

St. Lucie School District sued by another mother claiming abuse

2008-07-16T22:48:00.003-04:00

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.

Calm Down or Else

2008-07-16T22:03:00.002-04:00

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.”

Principal's out to get me, charges teacher in 'Rubber Room' suit

2008-07-16T21:15:00.002-04:00

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.

After PSL Autistic boy's case, Attorney General weighing more complaints from parents

2008-07-13T03:54:00.002-04:00

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.

State agencies faulted over alleged abuse at Anderson School

2008-07-10T16:20:00.006-04:00

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.

Judge ponders lawsuit over teen’s hanging

2008-07-10T16:20:00.004-04:00

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.

Questions linger over school’s room

2008-07-10T04:43:00.002-04:00

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

State weighs limits on school 'timeouts,' restraints

2008-07-01T16:35:00.002-04:00

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.

Some California Schools Locking Children In Closets

2008-06-28T23:26:00.002-04:00

Jun 27, 2008 12:19 am US/Pacific
Anna Werner

(CBS 5) Locking children in closets doesn't sound like something that could possibly happen in California's school system. But CBS 5 Investigates has uncovered evidence that it is a hidden problem, not reported by schools, and unknown to many parents.

A closet in a classroom that brings the memories back for a student we will call Chris.

"The door is closed, it's totally dark. There is a little tiny beam of light that comes under the door, but that's it." Chris told CBS 5 Investigates. When he was asked if he was trapped, he responded, "Pretty much."

Chris was a 6th grader at Mendenhall Middle School in Livermore. Despite his high IQ, behaviors resulting from a diagnosis of ADHD landed him in a special education class. He quickly discovered that anything considered 'misbehavior', like getting up out of your chair or not completing class assignments meant a trip to the closet.

"You really don't understand what it's like until you actually go through it," Chris said.

He says he was put in the "Quiet Room" a lot, and there was no getting out. "They would sit on the door so you couldn't get out and then sometimes they would put a chair up against the door," Chris recalled. "I sat in there for a whole school day one time."

And once, he tried to resist going in and a teacher got physical.

"He twisted my arm up behind my back and then he just pushed me and I hit the wall pretty hard," Chris said. "I felt intimidated kind of, because I mean he is bigger than me and he knows that."

How can that happen? Most parents can't imagine it: Their child shut into a room, sometimes as small as a closet. Under California law, it's only supposed to happen if the child is a danger to themselves or others. But advocates tell CBS 5 Investigates it's happening far more frequently than that.

Leslie Morrison is an investigator with Protection and Advocacy Inc., a non-profit that works with the disabled. "I think it's an enormous problem," she said. "In all of the cases that we investigated, the underlying incident that triggered restraint and seclusion is non-compliance with staff direction. They didn't do what the teacher asked them to do."

For example, there is a fenced area that looks kind of like a dog run at the John F. Kennedy School near Modesto. A U.S. Department of Education investigation found children were left here without access to a toilet, water or food, even some who had medical conditions including diabetes, seizures and asthma.

"Seclusion is very psychologically traumatizing, especially for children. Children fear being locked in a closet," Morrison said.

And it's not just seclusion. Morrison said teachers also sometimes physically restrain children improperly. Such as a 6-year-old who came home with duct tape on his clothing. It was used to literally tie him into a chair at a school in Southern California.

And staff at many schools also engage in so-called "take downs." Morrison said, "The most common one is face down on the floor and then you lean into their back or sides so that they can't breathe."

But Morrison said without proper training, "As the child is struggling to breathe the person is holding them down on the floor to stop the struggling. And what happens is you actually stop them breathing."

Morrison's group is backing SB 1515, legislation by California State Senator Sheila Kuehl that would limit restraints and ban seclusion. But some who work in the field oppose it.

Carroll Schroeder heads the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, a lobbying group for non-profit providers which opposes SB 1515. "If and when the time comes, you need to have at least those two options available to you," Schroeder said. "If those kids don't have that option of that room, either the schools call the police, and the police will pick them up, or they will be suspended from school."

But not according to Frank Marone, a recognized behaviorist with B*E*T*A Behavior Education Training Associates. The group works with students with disabilities. "We have been able to illustrate that restraint is not necessary," he said.

They work with students such as Mario McMillan, who is autistic. "He would start hitting, throwing chairs, throwing his shoes," his mother Rufina McMillan told CBS 5 Investigates. At his former private school in Oakland, Spectrum, documents show teachers physically restrained McMillan on numerous occasions.

"I was very worried," Rufina McMillan said. "Maybe he would stop breathing."

But at the Via school, where Mario goes to school now, and where Marone trains teachers only positive behavior techniques and not to use restraint or seclusion, a big change. "He's calm now, totally calm," his mother said.

Meanwhile, Chris is now home-schooled and doing better. But he said that he can't forget that closet. "Human beings aren't supposed to be treating each other like that, you know," Chris said. "I mean it's just not supposed to happen."

After Chris's family filed a complaint, the Livermore School District shut his special education program down. John F. Kennedy School in Modesto said they have changed their practices as a result of the government investigation. As for Spectrum, they say they use safe and approved techniques to restrain students when there is danger.

Editor's Note: The following are statements from schools reacting to the CBS 5 Investigates report on children being restrained or shut into closets at California schools.

Statement by Chris Holmes
Regional Director, West
Spectrum Center Schools

The emotional and physical well-being of our students and staff are paramount and we do everything humanly possible to safeguard them. Our students have significant, complex needs and our staff is specially trained to respond to students in an appropriate therapeutic manner. For example, we redirect students' behavior by encouraging them to take a short break with a staff member or participate in some other activity that allows them to re-engage the required educational task. At times, the Individual Education Program (IEP) team, including parents and school district representatives, may determine that seclusion is necessary for occasions when a student is in severe crisis and may seriously injure himself or others.

In other cases, staff members employ safe and approved hands-on, non-mechanical techniques to help manage a student who is in danger of causing serious injury to himself or others. In all cases, these actions are taken with the student's safety, dignity and privacy as our most important priorities.

Statement by Jane Johnston
Assistant Superintendent
Stanislaus County Office of Education

We worked with an outside expert consultant to review practices at John F. Kennedy School (JFK). As a result we have increased documentation of responses to student behaviors and training for staff over the last year. While rarely used as a behavioral management strategy, escorting a student to an area where they can calm down rather than physically restraining them is often the best option. It is also often the most dignified and respectful option, as well as the safest for students and staff.

We continue to be very proud of our program which focuses on positive behavioral interventions. Our students (approximately 57 out of the 14,000 special education students in Stanislaus County) are severely handicapped and behaviorally challenged. While their behavior problems have impeded their ability to be successful in their home schools, they make significant progress at JFK.

Ruling: Hicksville improperly removed home instruction

2008-06-26T17:06:00.002-04:00

BY JOHN HILDEBRAND john.hildebrand@newsday.com
June 26, 2008
NewsDay.com

A state review officer has ruled that the Hicksville school system acted improperly in canceling home instruction for a developmentally disabled student whose case became a focus of statewide efforts to improve special-education services.

The student, Billy Schafer Jr., 17, made headlines two years ago, after his parents complained of his detention for misbehavior in a 5-by-6-foot "timeout" chamber at a Nassau BOCES center. The teen had been referred to the center by his home district.

A multimillion-dollar legal action filed by the parents against Hicksville and the Board of Cooperative Educational Services is pending in federal district court in Central Islip.

In their lawsuit, William and Janet Schafer accuse Hicksville of cutting off their son's home instruction and therapy in retaliation for their decision to withdraw the teen from the BOCES center. The son has since enrolled in a private school.

The Schafers also petitioned the state for restoration of educational services formerly provided for their son at home.

Following hearings on that petition that extended over nearly two years, a state review officer, Paul Kelly, granted the parents' request on Friday. Kelly ordered Hicksville to provide the son with three hours of weekly home instruction, along with behavioral, speech and physical therapy.

Hicksville's administrative assistant for community services, Catherine Knight, had no comment on the decision when contacted by Newsday.

Kelly's ruling did not deal directly with the retaliation issue. It did find, however, that the district "improperly removed" home services from Billy Schafer's education plan without advance notice to the parents and without their consent. Hicksville has not yet announced whether it plans to appeal.

The Schafers also petitioned the state for restoration of educational services formerly provided for their son at home.

Following hearings on that petition that extended over nearly two years, a state review officer, Paul Kelly, granted the parents' request on Friday. Kelly ordered Hicksville to provide the son with three hours of weekly home instruction, along with behavioral, speech and physical therapy.

Hicksville's administrative assistant for community services, Catherine Knight, had no comment on the decision when contacted by Newsday.

Kelly's ruling did not deal directly with the retaliation issue. It did find, however, that the district "improperly removed" home services from Billy Schafer's education plan without advance notice to the parents and without their consent. Hicksville has not yet announced whether it plans to appeal.

The Schafers also petitioned the state for restoration of educational services formerly provided for their son at home.

Following hearings on that petition that extended over nearly two years, a state review officer, Paul Kelly, granted the parents' request on Friday. Kelly ordered Hicksville to provide the son with three hours of weekly home instruction, along with behavioral, speech and physical therapy.

Hicksville's administrative assistant for community services, Catherine Knight, had no comment on the decision when contacted by Newsday.

Kelly's ruling did not deal directly with the retaliation issue. It did find, however, that the district "improperly removed" home services from Billy Schafer's education plan without advance notice to the parents and without their consent. Hicksville has not yet announced whether it plans to appeal.

Texas town reels from horrific abuse in its midst

2008-06-22T23:57:00.002-04:00

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jun 22, 5:44 PM ET

MINEOLA, Texas - In the windowless front rooms of a former day care center in a tiny Texas community, children as young as 5 were fed powerful painkillers they knew as "silly pills" and forced to perform sex shows for a crowd of adults.

Two people have already been convicted in the case. Now a third person with ties to the club, previously known in town only as a swingers group, is set to go on trial Monday not far from Mineola, population 5,100.

"This really shook this town," said Shirley Chadwick, a longtime resident of Mineola. "This was horrible."

Patrick Kelly, 41, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, tampering with physical evidence and engaging in organized criminal activity.

In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of the three siblings involved.

Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants, who were accused of grooming the kids for sex shows in "kindergarten" classes and passing off Vicodin as "silly pills" to help the children perform.

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison. Kelly also faces a life sentence if convicted, and Smith County prosecutors hope for another swift verdict.

Thad Davidson, Kelly's attorney, said his client passed a lie-detector test proving his innocence and worries about getting a fair trial in Tyler, 25 miles southeast of Mineola, which is in Wood County.

"I think it's impossible to get a fair trial within 80 miles of Smith County," Davidson said.

Mineola, about 80 miles east of Dallas, is a close-knit, conservative bean-processing town of with more than 30 churches. Residents there want to put the scandal behind them as quickly as possible.

The one-story building where prosecutors say four children — the three siblings, now ages 12, 10 and 7, and their 10-year-old aunt — were trained to perform in front of an audience of 50 to 100 once a week has been vacant since the landlord ousted the alleged organizers in 2004.

Down a slight hill is a retirement home, and even closer is the office of the local newspaper. Doris Newman, editor of The Mineola Monitor, said rumors of swinger parties spread around town but that no one mentioned children being involved.

Newman, who can see the building from her office window, said she remembers the parking lot filling up with more than a dozen cars at night.

In August 2004, an editorial under the headline "Sex In the City" opined that if the swingers left quietly, "we'll try and forget they've infiltrated our town with their set of moral standards."

"It's not that we're trying to look the other way," Newman said. "But there's a lot more to Mineola than that."

According to a Mineola police report, the department first investigated a complaint in June 2005 in which the siblings' foster mother said one of the girls described dancing toward men and another child saying that "everybody does nasty stuff in there."

In the second trial, Child Protective Services caseworker Kristi Hachtel testified, "I've seen a lot and I never in my wildest dreams imagined this. They were preyed upon in probably one of the most heinous ways possible."

The children are now doing better, the welfare agency said.

"Through counseling and therapy sessions, these children are now finally feeling secure and safe," agency spokeswoman Shari Pulliam wrote in an e-mail.

Permanent custody of the three siblings was given to John and Margie Cantrell. This week, prosecutors in California charged John Cantrell with sexually assaulting a child in the state 18 years ago. Margie Cantrell said her husband is innocent.

Kelly's attorney moved Friday asking to postpone the trial in light of the allegations against Cantrell, a state witness. Texas Child Protective Services said it would be "common" for the agency to investigate.

The Rev. Tim Letsch is opening a church in the yellow-plastered building where the children were abused. He acknowledges that building a congregation might be difficult because of the stigma attached to the property.

"You got to decide whether you're willing to forgive those kind of things," Letsch said. "It's a hard deal. Especially for a spiritual person to walk in and say, 'This happened here.'"

Boy suffocated during school punishment - UPDATE

2008-06-21T16:14:00.002-04:00

Coroner's Report
Graeme Hamilton, National Post, With Files From Canwest News Service
Published: Friday, June 20, 2008

MONTREAL - After nine-year-old Gabriel Poirier was discovered lifeless in his classroom last April 17, his parents were told their autistic son had stopped breathing after hiding under a heavy therapeutic blanket.

Now a coroner has revealed that Gabriel's teachers had tightly wrapped him in the buckwheat-stuffed blanket, leaving only the tips of his ears sticking out, as punishment when he became disruptive. They left him unsupervised in a corner for 20 minutes, returning when a timer sounded.

Gabriel was unconscious and blue in the face. He was rushed to hospital, where he died the following night surrounded by his family.

In a report published yesterday, Coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier concluded the child suffocated. She said the teachers at the special-needs school in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., failed to follow guidelines for the blankets, which are used commonly to calm autistic children.

"He was only 53 pounds, he was so small," Gilles Poirier, the boy's father said at a news conference yesterday. "How can they wrap him up like that in a 40-pound blanket? How can this treatment be tolerated?"

Ms. Rudel-Tessier said proper use of the blanket called for a child to be rolled at most once and for his head to be left uncovered. The blanket was to be used as a relaxation therapy, not as a punishment, and teachers were supposed to keep an eye on children using the blankets.

"A child rolled 'at least four times' in such a heavy blanket is under restraint," the coroner wrote.

Jean-Pierre Menard, a lawyer representing Gabriel's parents, is calling for changes to legislation to control the use of restraints in schools. The parents are also planning to sue the Hautes-Rivieres school board.

The coroner said use of the blankets should be ceased until clear guidelines are established. Basic rules would include ensuring the blanket is not too heavy for the child, never covering the child's head, ensuring that vital signs can always be observed, never rolling the child in the blanket and ensuring the child can get out if he wants to.

Kathleen Provost, executive director of the Autism Society of Canada, said weighted blankets can be calming for autistic children when used under the guidance of an occupational therapist. "They have a therapeutic use and can be relaxing," she said.

Mr. Menard said the parents were surprised to learn Gabriel had been placed in the blanket as a punishment. The school board had initially said it was a natural death and that Gabriel had gone under the blanket on his own.

"The principal said they found Gabriel under the blanket and he wasn't breathing. The parents thought that something had happened while he was sleeping and that was how he died," Mr. Menard said. He said the school board later told the media that Gabriel had hidden under the blanket.

Mr. Poirier said he cannot understand why his child was placed in a restraint. "He was a very gentle boy," he said. "Sometimes he was loud, but he was never aggressive or violent. I just don't understand how this happened," he said, tears streaming down his face.

ghamilton@nationalpost.com

Autistic boy likely suffocated: coroner's report

2008-06-20T01:30:00.002-04:00

Brett Bundale , The Gazette
June 19, 2008

A coroner's report released today revealed suffocation as the probable cause of the death of a nine-year-old autistic boy.

The boy's parents described the reports findings as a "shock" because the school told them he had passed away "naturally and calmly."

The boy, Gabriel Poirier, attended a specialized school in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in the Montérégie region of Quebec.

On April 17, Gabriel began to disturb his class with loud sounds. After being told repeatedly to calm down by a teacher, he was rolled in a weighted blanket. With his arms by his side, he was left on his stomach for over 20 minutes with only his toes exposed.

When the teacher went to check on him, he was "listless and blue in the face," the Coroner's report said. The teacher called 911 but the boy was already in a deep coma and passed away the next day in the Sainte-Justine hospital.

"He was a very gentle boy. Sometimes he was loud, but he was never aggressive or violent," Gilles Poirier, the boy's father, said today.

The parents' lawyer, Jean-Pierre Ménard, said vulnerable children like Gabriel need better protection.

"We're asking Minister Courchesne to implement a legal framework to regulate how these children are handled," Ménard said.

Weighted blankets are custom-made blankets filled with a specific material that gives the blanket added weight. They are considered an effective tool for helping calm down high-energy children, especially autistic children who respond well to sensory therapy.

"They have a therapeutic use and can be relaxing," said Kathleen Provost, executive director of the Autism Society of Canada.

But occupational therapists have developed a set of rules and protocols that must be followed when using a weighted blanket, Provost said.

bbundale@thegazette.canwest.com

Zero Tolerance: The School Woodshed

2008-06-19T18:30:00.002-04:00

Published Online: June 9, 2008
Published in Print: June 11, 2008

By Rhonda B. Armistead

A 1st grader is disciplined for “sexual harassment” after smacking a classmate’s bottom on the playground and the police are called in; a high school student is expelled after a butter knife brought to school accidentally falls out of her locker; a 17-year-old is arrested and expelled for shooting a paper clip with a rubber band.

Few policies in education have proven to be as universally ineffective—even counterproductive—as “zero tolerance.” Brought to prominence in 1994 when Congress enacted the Gun-Free Schools Act to address weapons-based school violence and drug problems, zero-tolerance edicts have become the virtual woodshed of school discipline: They are solely punitive, and lack any positive connection to schools’ primary purpose—learning and development.

A zero-tolerance program’s goal is to act as a deterrent and provide swift intervention for misconduct, sending a strong, “one strike and you’re out” message to students. It prescribes non-negotiable punishment (typically, suspension or expulsion) for a specified behavior, regardless of the extent or context of the infraction. Possession of a butter knife and possession of a switchblade, for instance, automatically receive the same punishment, even though common sense indicates a different intention and degree of risk...

Father sues over face-down restraint of autistic boy

2008-06-19T16:15:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Ocean View School District, teachers named in suit claiming boy's broken nose, emotional wounds.

By ANNIE BURRIS
The Orange County Register

HUNTINGTON BEACH The father of an 8-year-old autistic child has filed suit against the Ocean View School District, two teachers and the city, claiming that a restraint technique used on the boy resulted in emotional and physical damage.

Robert Velasquez alleges negligence, civil rights violations and false imprisonment in the suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court. He also claims the teachers did not have the proper training to use the "prone restraint'' on his son in the Sept. 6 incident.

Former Lake View Elementary School teacher Gina Messig and assistant teacher Mai Vo used a prone restraint to control the boy, a special education student, when he started throwing objects in the classroom and hitting teachers, a school report said.

Velasquez said his child had scratches, bruises and a broken nose after the incident.

District officials said all of the special education teachers are trained adequately for their jobs. They declined to comment on the lawsuit. Messig and Vo could not be reached for comment. City officials said they anticipate being dismissed from the case.

Velasquez said his son has been agitated and had trouble sleeping because of nightmares since the incident.

"He is never going to be my baby like he was," he said. "No child deserves prone restraint."

Prone restraint – which means the person is held face down – is rarely used and is usually the last resort to control a child, experts say.

According to a report by Messig, the boy, then 7, was running in his classroom, trying to escape out the door and attempting to knock over a wheelchair. The boy then grabbed a girl by the hair and pulled her to the ground, Messig wrote.

The teachers tried to calm the boy and eventually dismissed the rest of the children from the classroom to play outside, the report said.

Velasquez said his son continues to go to Lake View but works with a new teacher. He said he has been trying to get his son transferred to the Speech and Language Development Center in Buena Park and is waiting to hear back from the school on whether the switch is approved.

He is asking for least $25,000, according to the suit filed last month. Velasquez also told The Register he would like to see cameras put in special education classes to prevent similar situations.

A bill proposed by state Senator Sheila Kuehl from Los Angeles and Ventura counties that limits physical restraint techniques is set to go before a committee on Wednesday. The bill would require teachers to "avoid the deliberate use of prone restraint techniques whenever possible.''

Contact the writer: aburris@ocregister.com or 714-445-6696

Block Island officials defend room in school basement

2008-06-18T16:22:00.001-04:00

10:23 AM EDT on Saturday, June 14, 2008

By Katie MulvaneyJournal Staff Writer

NEW SHOREHAM — Room 20 in the basement of the Block Island School is small and bare. Its concrete floor is painted green, its ceiling sky blue with white clouds, its main window covered with plywood. And, until earlier this week, its knob-less door had double bolts on the outside.

An anonymous letter raising questions about the room and a DVD showing it arrived at The Providence Journal, three television stations, and the attorney general’s office last week. In the brief video, a camera silently pans the room, showing the locks. It also shows pillows and blankets in a jumble on the floor, an open utility outlet, chipped paint and fingerprints smudging the walls. The letter makes no allegations, but raises questions about whether unruly children might have been sent there.

On Tuesday, Davida Irving, principal of the two-story school since last July, acknowledged that there might be such a room, but didn’t know its location. She said she had been told it was developed in consultation with Bradley Hospital as a space for a child “to chill out.” Asked if there were external locks, she went to look, returning perplexed. “I’ve never seen a student locked in there since I’ve been here,” she said.

During the interview, she placed a call to Supt. Leslie A. Ryan, who was off island. Ryan told her not to let a reporter see the room.

When the superintendent, who doubles as special-education director, returned on the 3 p.m. ferry, she said the school lawyer would issue a statement the next day as she stormed to her car.
Calls that evening to all five School Committee members were not returned. Teachers reached for comment said they knew nothing of the room, or were reluctant to talk. One said it was a special-education issue and she didn’t have the authority to discuss it.

Jack Lyle, the school’s previous superintendent, said there was no such room when he led the district from 2004 until Ryan took over in 2006. “That wouldn’t have happened on my watch,” Lyle, now a practicing lawyer, said. “That would go against every fabric of my being.”

An official at Bradley Hospital denied any involvement. “There is not a chance. Nobody would have worked on a room like that,” said Dr. Dale Radka, director of Bradley School who oversees all consultation with school districts. “Bradley doesn’t consult anybody about these kinds of locked facilities.”

It is common, he said, to have focus rooms in which students can quietly calm down, but a locked seclusion room would only be used as a last resort to prevent a very disturbed child from endangering him or herself or others. But, he added, there should be stringent policies and a highly trained staff in place first.

He speculated that more districts would turn to such approaches as budget cutbacks sway them to integrate high-needs children into public schools.

The Journal returned to the Block Island school Wednesday morning, and Ryan again rebuffed attempts to view the room, saying she had to protect students. She handed out a statement that read:

The Block Island School excels in providing support and appropriate education to all of its students. We have never taken punitive action involving locked doors or any other archaic practice. Specifics of behavior plans designed for special-needs students are confidential and, on this island, can prompt immediate identification of the student. We have a team of qualified and caring teachers and therapists who advocate every single day for every single child.”

Ryan refused to answer questions. “I’ve given you a statement and that’s the end.”

She referred the reporter to Vincent Carlone, the island’s chief of police.

In his office looking out on Old Harbor, where the ferries come in, Carlone said that he investigated the room Tuesday after a television reporter asked about it. He concluded there were no safety concerns, adding that the two outside locks had already been removed.

The district created the room, he said, as a way to keep a specific child with violent tendencies on the island, instead of being sent to a residential facility away from family. A difficulty of living on an island is having limited access to services readily available on the mainland, he said.

Asked why a police chief was talking about an education matter, he said school officials were restricted by “confidentiality laws.”

The superintendent told him, he said, that one or two aides always accompanied the child. The room was used “infrequently” and had not been used “recently,” he said. He was unable to be more specific. He said he had heard nothing about any other children being placed in the room.

“I don’t know if they locked that lock,” he said. But, he said, the child enjoys the room.

“No one’s in danger,” the chief said. School officials “go out of their way to help the kids.”

He emphasized that the superintendent told him the room had been set up in consultation with Bradley, an East Providence hospital specializing in children facing emotional, mental and behavioral challenges.

Told that Bradley denied any involvement with the room, the chief said, “They [school officials] wouldn’t lie to me.”

Repeated efforts to get the name of the Bradley contact were denied. School lawyer Denise Myers said, through the chief, that such disclosure would violate a federal law that protects the privacy of personal health information.

After getting clearance from Myers, Carlone took The Journal to see the room. A Journal photographer, however, was barred from taking pictures.

A thin floor mat lay in one corner with a pile of fabric resembling a blanket on top. The plywood on the window is there to prevent a student from striking the glass, Carlone said. The door has a small rectangular window and holes where the locks had been removed.

“If they made a mistake, they made a mistake with the locks,” the chief said. “But they certainly didn’t do it to hurt anyone.”

The wife of a School Committee member reprimanded the reporter, saying it was a private matter.

The state police and a prosecutor from the attorney general’s office visited the school Thursday. They will discuss their evaluation with state education officials, Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell said later.

The investigation is expected to conclude in the next few weeks, according to Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general.

“It looks like the room was used as some sort of time-out space,” Healey said. “I really doubt we’re talking about anything of a criminal nature.”

After The Journal inquired about regulations involving locked isolation rooms, Marvin Abney, the assistant to the education commissioner for equality and access, called school officials Thursday. He was assured that the locks had been taken off the room, Elliot Krieger, spokesman for the Department of Education, said.

Rhode Island regulations do not allow unobserved time-out rooms or rooms used solely for time-outs. They also do not allow a student to be confined alone in a room without access to school staff.

“Any kid in a locked room would concern the state — period,” Krieger said. “That seems to be a safety problem.”

Yesterday afternoon, the School Committee met in closed session to discuss the issue. Chairman Bill Padien could not be reached for comment.

The individual behind the DVD and the letter sought anonymity yesterday, saying he feared there would be retribution against his family for blowing the whistle on the locked room in the basement.
kmulvane@projo.com

School of Shock

2008-06-16T16:41:00.003-04:00

Eight states are sending autistic, mentally retarded, and emotionally troubled kids to a facility that punishes them with painful electric shocks. How many times do you have to zap a child before it's torture?

Jennifer Gonnerman June 13, 2008 Features
The Texas Observer

Rob Santana awoke terrified. He'd had that dream again, the one where silver wires ran under his shirt and into his pants, connecting to electrodes attached to his limbs and torso. Adults armed with surveillance cameras and remote-control activators watched his every move. One press of a button, and there was no telling where the shock would hit—his arm or leg or, worse, his stomach. All Rob knew was that the pain would be intense.

Every time he woke from this dream, it took him a few moments to remember that he was in his own bed, that there weren't electrodes locked to his skin, that he wasn't about to be shocked. It was no mystery where this recurring nightmare came from—not A Clockwork Orange or 1984, but the years he spent confined in America's most controversial "behavior modification" facility.

In 1999, when Rob was 13, his parents sent him to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, located in Canton, Massachusetts, 20 miles outside Boston. The facility, which calls itself a "special needs school," takes in all kinds of troubled kids—severely autistic, mentally retarded, schizophrenic, bipolar, emotionally disturbed—and attempts to change their behavior with a complex system of rewards and punishments, including painful electric shocks to the torso and limbs. Of the 234 current residents, about half are wired to receive shocks, including some as young as nine or ten. Nearly 60 percent come from New York, a quarter from Massachusetts, the rest from six other states and Washington, D.C. The Rotenberg Center, which has 900 employees and annual revenues exceeding $56 million, charges $220,000 a year for each student. States and school districts pick up the tab.

The Rotenberg Center is the only facility in the country that disciplines students by shocking them, a form of punishment not inflicted on serial killers or child molesters or any of the 2.2 million inmates now incarcerated in U.S. jails and prisons. Over its 36-year history, six children have died in its care, prompting numerous lawsuits and government investigations. Last year, New York state investigators filed a blistering report that made the place sound like a high school version of Abu Ghraib. Yet the program continues to thrive—in large part because no one except desperate parents, and a few state legislators, seems to care about what happens to the hundreds of kids who pass through its gates.

In Rob Santana's case, he freely admits he was an out-of-control kid with "serious behavioral problems." At birth he was abandoned at the hospital, traces of cocaine, heroin, and alcohol in his body. A middle-class couple adopted him out of foster care when he was 11 months old, but his troubles continued. He started fires; he got kicked out of preschool for opening the back door of a moving school bus; when he was six, he cut himself with a razor. His mother took him to specialists, who diagnosed him with a slew of psychiatric problems: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Rob was at the Rotenberg Center for about three and a half years. From the start, he cursed, hollered, fought with employees. Eventually the staff obtained permission from his mother and a Massachusetts probate court to use electric shock. Rob was forced to wear a backpack containing five two-pound, battery-operated devices, each connected to an electrode attached to his skin. "I felt humiliated," he says. "You have a bunch of wires coming out of your shirt and pants." Rob remained hooked up to the apparatus 24 hours a day. He wore it while jogging on the treadmill and playing basketball, though it wasn't easy to sink a jump shot with a 10-pound backpack on. When he showered, a staff member would remove his electrodes, all except the one on his arm, which he had to hold outside the shower to keep it dry. At night, Rob slept with the backpack next to him, under the gaze of a surveillance camera.

Employees shocked him for aggressive behavior, he says, but also for minor misdeeds, like yelling or cursing. Each shock lasts two seconds. "It hurts like hell," Rob says. (The school's staff claim it is no more painful than a bee sting; when I tried the shock, it felt like a horde of wasps attacking me all at once. Two seconds never felt so long.) On several occasions, Rob was tied facedown to a four-point restraint board and shocked over and over again by a person he couldn't see. The constant threat of being zapped did persuade him to act less aggressively, but at a high cost. "I thought of killing myself a few times," he says.

Rob's mother Jo-Anne deLeon had sent him to the Rotenberg Center at the suggestion of the special-ed committee at his school district in upstate New York, which, she says, told her that the program had everything Rob needed. She believed he would receive regular psychiatric counseling—though the school does not provide this.

As the months passed, Rob's mother became increasingly unhappy. "My whole dispute with them was, 'When is he going to get psychiatric treatment?'" she says. "I think they had to get to the root of his problems—like why was he so angry? Why was he so destructive? I really think they needed to go in his head somehow and figure this out." She didn't think the shocks were helping, and in 2002 she sent a furious fax demanding that Rob's electrodes be removed before she came up for Parents' Day. She says she got a call the next day from the executive director, Matthew Israel, who told her, "You don't want to stick with our treatment plan? Pick him up." (Israel says he doesn't remember this conversation, but adds, "If a parent doesn't want the use of the skin shock and wants psychiatric treatment, this isn't the right program for them.")

Rob's mother is not the only parent angry at the Rotenberg Center. Last year, Evelyn Nicholson sued the facility after her 17-year-old son Antwone was shocked 79 times in 18 months. Nicholson says she decided to take action after Antwone called home and told her, "Mommy, you don't love me anymore because you let them hurt me so bad." Rob and Antwone don't know each other (Rob left the facility before Antwone arrived), but in some ways their stories are similar. Antwone's birth mother was a drug addict; he was burned on an electric hot plate as an infant. Evelyn took him in as a foster child and later adopted him. The lawsuit she filed against the Rotenberg Center set off a chain of events: investigations by multiple government agencies, emotional public hearings, scrutiny by the media. Legislation to restrict or ban the use of electric shocks in such facilities has been introduced in two state legislatures. Yet not much has changed.

Rob has paid little attention to the public debate over his alma mater, though he visits its website occasionally to see which of the kids he knew are still there. After he left the center he moved back in with his parents. At first glance, he seems like any other 21-year-old: baggy Rocawear jeans, black T-shirt, powder-blue Nikes. But when asked to recount his years at the Rotenberg Center, he speaks for nearly two hours in astonishing detail, recalling names and specific events from seven or eight years earlier. When he describes his recurring nightmares, he raises both arms and rubs his forehead with his palms.

Despite spending more than three years at this behavior-modification facility, Rob still has problems controlling his behavior. In 2005, he was arrested for attempted assault and sent to jail. (This year he was arrested again, for drugs and assault.) Being locked up has given him plenty of time to reflect on his childhood, and he has gained a new perspective on the Rotenberg Center. "It's worse than jail," he told me. "That place is the worst place on earth."

One Punishment Fits All

The story of the Rotenberg Center is in many ways a tale of two schools. Slightly more than half the residents are what the school calls "high functioning": kids like Rob and Antwone, who have diagnoses like attention-deficit disorder, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other emotional problems. The other group is even more troubled. Referred to as "low functioning," it includes kids with severe autism and mental retardation; most cannot speak or have very limited verbal abilities. Some have behaviors so extreme they can be life threatening: chomping on their hands and arms, running into walls, nearly blinding themselves by banging their heads on the floor again and again.

The Rotenberg Center has long been known as the school of last resort—a place that will take any kid, no matter how extreme his or her problems are. It doesn't matter if a child has been booted out of 2, 5, 10, or 20 other programs—he or she is still welcome here. For desperate parents, the Rotenberg Center can seem like a godsend. Just ask Louisa Goldberg, the mother of 25-year-old Andrew, who has severe mental retardation. Andrew's last residential school kicked him out after he kept assaulting staff members; the Rotenberg Center was the only place willing to accept him. According to Louisa, Andrew's quality of life has improved dramatically since 2000, when he was hooked up to the shock device, known as the Graduated Electronic Decelerator, or ged.

The Rotenberg Center has a policy of not giving psychiatric drugs to students—no Depakote, Paxil, Risperdal, Ritalin, or Seroquel. It's a policy that appeals to Louisa and many other parents. At Andrew's last school, she says, "he had so many medicines in him he'd take a two-hour nap in the morning, he'd take a two-hour nap in the afternoon. They'd have him in bed at eight o'clock at night. He was sleeping his life away." These days, Louisa says she is no longer afraid when her son comes home to visit. "[For him] to have an electrode on and to receive a ged is to me a much more favorable way of dealing with this," she says. "He's not sending people to the hospital."

Marguerite Famolare brought her son Michael to the Rotenberg Center six years ago, after he attacked her so aggressively she had to call 911 and, in a separate incident, flipped over a kitchen table onto a tutor. Michael, now 19, suffers from mental retardation and severe autism. These days, when he comes home for a visit, Marguerite carries his shock activator in her purse. All she has to do, she says, is show it to him. "He'll automatically comply to whatever my signal command may be, whether it is 'Put on your seatbelt,' or 'Hand me that apple,' or 'Sit appropriately and eat your food,'" she says. "It's made him a human being, a civilized human being."

Massachusetts officials have twice tried to shut the Rotenberg Center down—once in the 1980s and again in the 1990s. Both times parents rallied to its defense, and both times it prevailed in court. (See "Why Can't Massachusetts Shut Matthew Israel Down?" page 44.) The name of the center ensures nobody forgets these victories; it was Judge Ernest Rotenberg, now deceased, who in the mid-'80s ruled that the facility could continue using aversives—painful punishments designed to change behavior—so long as it obtained authorization from the Bristol County Probate and Family Court in each student's case. But even though the facility wasn't using electric shock when this ruling was handed down, the court rarely, if ever, bars the Rotenberg Center from adding shock to a student's treatment plan, according to lawyers and disability advocates who have tried to prevent it from doing so.

Since Evelyn Nicholson filed her lawsuit in 2006, the Rotenberg Center has faced a new wave of criticism and controversy. (See "Nagging? Zap. Swearing? Zap," page 41.) And again, the facility has relied heavily on the testimonials of parents like Louisa Goldberg and Marguerite Famolare to defend itself. Not surprisingly, the most vocal parent-supporters tend to be those with the sickest children, since they are the ones with the fewest options. But at the Rotenberg Center, the same methods of "behavior modification" are applied to all kids, no matter what is causing their behavior problems. And so, while Rob would seem to have little in common with mentally retarded students like Michael and Andrew, they all shared a similar fate once their parents placed them under the care of the same psychologist, a radical behaviorist known as Dr. Israel.

Dr. Israel's Radical Behavior

In 1950, matt israel was a Harvard freshman looking to fill his science requirement. He knew little about B.F. Skinner when he signed up for his course, Human Behavior. Soon, though, Israel became fascinated with Skinner's scientific approach to the study of behavior, and he picked up Walden Two, Skinner's controversial novel about an experimental community based on the principles of behaviorism. The book changed Israel's life. "I decided my mission was to start a utopian community," he says. Israel got a Ph.D. in psychology in 1960 from Harvard, and started two communal houses outside Boston.

One of the people Israel lived with was a three-year-old named Andrea, the daughter of a roommate. The two did not get along. "She was wild and screaming," Israel recalls. "I would retreat to my own room, and she'd be trying to pull away and get into my room, and I'd have to hold the door on one side to keep her from disturbing me." When company would come over, he says, "She would walk around with a toy broom and whack people over the head."

Through experiments with rats and pigeons, Skinner had demonstrated how animals learn from the consequences of their actions. With permission from Andrea's mother, Israel decided to try out Skinner's ideas on the three-year-old. When Andrea was well behaved, Israel took her out for walks. But when she misbehaved, he punished her by snapping his finger against her cheek. His mentor Skinner preached that positive reinforcement was vastly preferable to punishment, but Israel says his methods transformed the girl. "Instead of being an annoyance, she became a charming addition to the house."

Israel's success with Andrea convinced him to start a school. In 1971, he founded the Behavior Research Institute in Rhode Island, a facility that would later move to Massachusetts and become known as the Judge Rotenberg Center. Israel took in children nobody else wanted—severely autistic and mentally retarded kids who did dangerous things to themselves and others. To change their behavior, he developed a large repertoire of punishments: spraying kids in the face with water, shoving ammonia under their noses, pinching the soles of their feet, smacking them with a spatula, forcing them to wear a "white-noise helmet" that assaulted them with static.

In 1977, Israel opened a branch of his program in California's San Fernando Valley, along with Judy Weber, whose son Tobin is severely autistic. Two years later, the Los Angeles Times reported Israel had pinched the feet of Christopher Hirsch, an autistic 12-year-old, at least 24 times in 30 minutes, while the boy screamed and cried. This was a punishment for soiling his pants. ("It might have been true," Israel says. "It's true that pinches were being used as an aversive. The pinch, the spank, the muscle squeeze, water sprays, bad taste—all those procedures were being used.") Israel was in the news again in 1981, when another student, 14-year-old Danny Aswad, died while strapped facedown to his bed. In 1982, the California Department of Social Services compiled a 64-page complaint that read like a catalog of horrors, describing students with bruises, welts, and cuts. It also accused Israel of telling a staff member "to grow his fingernails longer so he could give an effective pinch."

In 1982, the facility settled with state officials and agreed to stop using physical punishments. Now called Tobinworld, and still run by Judy Weber, it is a $10-million-a-year organization operating day schools near Los Angeles and San Francisco. The Rotenberg Center considers itself a "sister school" to Tobinworld, and Israel makes frequent trips to California to visit Weber. The two were married last year.

Despite his setback in California, Israel continued to expand on the East Coast—and to generate controversy. In 1985, Vincent Milletich, an autistic 22-year-old, suffered a seizure and died after he was put in restraints and forced to wear a white-noise helmet. Five years later, 19-year-old Linda Cornelison, who had the mental capacity of a toddler, refused to eat. On the bus to school, she clutched her stomach; someone had to carry her inside, and she spent the day on a couch in a classroom. Linda could not speak, and the staff treated her actions as misbehaviors. Between 3:52 p.m. and 8 p.m., staffers punished her with 13 spatula spankings, 29 finger pinches, 14 muscle squeezes, and 5 forced inhalings of ammonia. It turned out that Linda had a perforated stomach. She died on the operating table at 1:45 a.m.

The local district attorney's office examined the circumstances of Vincent's death but declined to file any charges. In Linda's case, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation investigated and found that while Linda's treatment had "violated the most basic codes and standards of decency and humane treatment," there was insufficient evidence to prove that the use of aversives had caused her death.

The local district attorney's office examined the circumstances of Vincent's death but declined to file any charges. In Linda's case, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Retardation investigated and found that while Linda's treatment had "violated the most basic codes and standards of decency and humane treatment," there was insufficient evidence to prove that the use of aversives had caused her death.

Israel purchased a shock device then on the market known as sibis—Self-Injurious Behavior Inhibiting System—that had been invented by the parents of an autistic girl and delivered a mild shock that lasted .2 second. Between 1988 and 1990, Israel used sibis on 29 students, including one of his most challenging, Brandon, then 12, who would bite off chunks of his tongue, regurgitate entire meals, and pound himself on the head. At times Brandon was required to keep his hands on a paddle; if he removed them, he would get automatic shocks, one per second. One infamous day, Brandon received more than 5,000 shocks. "You have to realize," Israel says. "I thought his life was in the balance. I couldn't find any medical solution. He was vomiting, losing weight. He was down to 52 pounds. I knew it was risky to use the shock in large numbers, but if I persevered that day, I thought maybe it would eventually work. There was nothing else I could think of to do...but by the time it went into the 3,000 or 4,000 range, it became clear it wasn't working."

This day was a turning point in the history of Israel's operation—that's when he decided to ratchet up the pain. The problem, he decided, was that the shock sibis emitted was not strong enough. He says he asked sibis's manufacturer, Human Technologies, to create a more powerful device, but it refused. "So we had to redesign the device ourselves," he says. He envisioned a device that would start with a low current but that could increase the voltage if needed—hence its name, Graduated Electronic Decelerator or ged—but he abandoned this idea early on. "As it turns out, that's really not a wise approach," he says. "It's sort of like operating a car and wearing out the brakes because you never really apply them strongly enough. Instead, we set it at a certain level that was more or less going to be effective for most of our students."

Thirty years earlier, O. Ivar Lovaas, a psychology professor at ucla, had pioneered the use of slaps and screams and electric jolts to try to normalize the behavior of autistic kids. Life magazine featured his work in a nine-page photo essay in 1965 with the headline, "A surprising, shocking treatment helps far-gone mental cripples." Lovaas eventually abandoned these methods, telling cbs in 1993 that shock was "only a temporary suppression" because patients become inured to the pain. "These people are so used to pain that they can adapt to almost any kind of aversive you give them," he said.

Israel encountered this same sort of adaptation in his students, but his solution was markedly different: He decided to increase the pain once again. Today, there are two shock devices in use at the Rotenberg Center: the ged and the ged-4. The devices look similar and both administer a two-second shock, but the ged-4 is nearly three times more powerful—and the pain it inflicts is that much more severe.

The Mickey Mouse Club

Ten years ago, Israel hung up a Mickey Mouse poster in the main hall, and he noticed that it made people smile—so he bought every Mickey Mouse poster he could find. He hung them in the corridors and even papered the walls of what became known as the Mickey Mouse Conference Room. Entering the Rotenberg Center is a bit like stepping into a carnival fun house, I discovered during a two-day visit last autumn. Two brushed-aluminum dogs, each nearly 5 feet tall and sporting a purple neon collar, stand guard outside. Giant silver stars dangle from the lobby ceiling; the walls and chairs in the front offices are turquoise, lime green, and lavender.

Israel, 74, still holds the title of executive director, for which he pays himself nearly $400,000 in salary and benefits. He appears utterly unimposing: short and slender with soft hands, rounded shoulders, curly white hair, paisley tie. Then he sits down beside me and, unprompted, starts talking about shocking children. "The treatment is so powerful it's hard not to use if you have seen how effective it is," he says quietly. "It's brief. It's painful. But there are no side effects. It's two seconds of discomfort." His tone is neither defensive nor apologetic; rather, it's perfectly calm, almost soothing. It's the sort of demeanor a mother might find comforting if she were about to hand over her child.

Before we set off on our tour of the facility, there's something Israel wants me to see: Before & After, a homemade movie featuring six of his most severe cases. Israel has been using some of the same grainy footage for more than two decades, showing it to parents of prospective students as well as visiting reporters. They've already mailed me a copy, but Israel wants to make sure I watch it. An assistant slips the tape into the vcr, Israel presses the remote, and we all stare at the screen:

1977: An 11-year-old girl named Caroline arrives at the school strapped down onto a stretcher, her head encased in a helmet. In the next shot, free from restraints, she crouches down and tries to smash her helmeted head against the floor.

1981: Janine, also 11 years old, shrieks and slams her head against the ground, a table, the door. Bald spots testify to the severity of her troubles; she's yanked out so much hair it's half gone.

Both girls exhibit autistic behaviors, and compared with these scenes, the "After" footage looks almost unbelievable: Janine splashes in a plastic pool, while Caroline grins as she sits in a chair at a beauty salon. "Most people haven't seen these pictures," Israel says, setting down the remote. "They haven't seen children like this, so they cannot imagine. These are children for whom positive-only procedures did not work, drugs did not work. And if it wasn't for this treatment, some of these people would not be alive." The video is extremely persuasive: The girls' self-abuse is so violent and so frightening that it almost makes me want to grab a ged remote and push the button myself. Of course, this is precisely the point.

Considering how compelling the "After" footage is, I am surprised to learn that five of the six children featured in it are still here. "This is Caroline," one of my escorts says an hour or two later as we walk down a corridor. Without an introduction, I would not have known. Caroline, 39, slumps forward in a wheelchair, her fists balled up, head covered by a red helmet. "Blow me a kiss, Caroline," Israel says. She doesn't respond.

A few minutes later, I meet 36-year-old Janine, who appears in much better shape. She's not wearing a helmet and has a full head of black hair. She's also got a backpack on her shoulders and canvas straps hanging from her legs, the telltale sign that electrodes are attached to both calves. For 16 years—nearly half her life—Janine has been hooked up to Israel's shock device. A couple years ago, when the shocks began to lose their effect, the staff switched the devices inside her backpack to the much more painful ged-4.

Rogue Science

In 1994, matthew israel had just 64 students. Today he has 234. This astonishing rate of growth is largely the result of a dramatic change in the types of students he takes in. Until recently, nearly all were "low functioning," autistic and mentally retarded people. But today slightly more than 50 percent are "high functioning," with diagnoses like add, adhd, and bipolar disorder. New York state supplies the majority of these students, many of whom grew up in the poorest parts of New York City. Yet despite this change in his population, Israel's methods have remained essentially the same.

Israel has long faced criticism that he has not published research about his use of electric shocks in peer-reviewed journals, where experts could scrutinize it. To defend his methods, he points to a bibliography of 110 research articles that he's posted on the Rotenberg Center website. This catalog seems impressive at first. Studied more closely, however, it is not nearly so convincing. Three-quarters of the articles were published more than 20 years ago. Eight were written or cowritten by Lovaas, the ucla-affiliated behaviorist. One of America's leading autism experts, Lovaas long ago stopped endorsing painful aversives. And Lovaas' old studies focus primarily on children with autism who engage in extreme self-injury—not on troubled teens who have been diagnosed with adhd or add.

But then, it would be hard for Israel to find contemporary research supporting his program, because the practice of treating self-abusive kids with pain has been largely abandoned. According to Dr. Saul Axelrod, a professor at Temple University and an expert on behavior modification, "the field has moved away from painful stimuli because of public outcry and because we've devised better techniques," including determining the cause of an individual's self-abuse.

Another expert Israel cites several times is Dr. Brian A. Iwata, a consultant on the development of sibis, the device Israel modified to create his ged. Now a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Florida, he's a nationally recognized authority on treating severe self-abuse among children with developmental disabilities. Iwata has visited the Rotenberg Center and describes its approach as dangerously simplistic: "There appears to be a mission of that program to use shock for problem behaviors. It doesn't matter what that behavior is." Iwata has consulted for 25 states and says there is little relationship between what goes on at Israel's program and what goes on at other facilities. "He may have gotten his Ph.D. at Harvard, but he didn't learn what he's doing at Harvard. Whatever he's doing, he decided to do on his own."

Paul Touchette, who also studied with B.F. Skinner, has known Israel since the 1960s when they were both in Cambridge. Like Israel, Touchette went on to treat children with autism who exhibit extreme self-abuse, but he isn't a fan of Israel's approach either. "Punishment doesn't get at the cause," says Touchette, who is on the faculty of the University of California-Irvine School of Medicine. "It just scares the hell out of patients."

Over the decades, Touchette has followed Israel's career and bumped into him at professional conferences. "He's a very smart man, but he's an embarrassment to his profession," Touchette says. "I've never been able to figure out if Matt is a little off-kilter and actually believes all this stuff, or whether he's just a clever businessman."

Big Reward Store

At the rotenberg center, an elaborate system of rewards and punishments governs all interactions. Well-behaved kids can watch TV, go for pizza, play basketball. Students who've earned points for good behavior visit a store stocked with dvd players, cds, cologne, PlayStation 2, Essence magazine, knockoff Prada purses—anything the staff thinks students might want. But even more prized is a visit to the "Big Reward Store," an arcade full of pinball machines, video games, a pool table, and the most popular feature, a row of 42-inch flat-screen TVs hooked up to Xbox 360s.

Students like the "brs" for another reason—it's the only place many can socialize freely. At the Rotenberg Center, students have to earn the right to talk to each other. "We had to wait until we were in brs to communicate with others," says Isabel Cedeño, a 16-year-old who ran away from Rotenberg in 2006 after her boyfriend, a former student, came and got her. "That was the only time you really laughed, had fun, hung around with your friends. Because usually, you can't talk to them. It was basically like we had to have enemies. They didn't want us to be friendly with nobody."

Students live grouped together in homes and apartments scattered in nearby towns and are bused to the facility's headquarters every morning. They spend their days in classrooms, staring at a computer screen, their backs to the teacher. They are supposed to teach themselves, using self-instruction programs that include lessons in math, reading, and typing. Even with breaks for gym and lunch, the days can be incredibly dull. "On paper, it does look like they're being educated, because we have lesson plans," says former teacher Jessica Croteau, who oversaw a classroom of high-functioning teens for six months before leaving in 2006. But "to self-teach is not exciting. Why would the kids want to sit there and read a chapter on their own without any discussion?"

Croteau says teachers have to spend so much time monitoring misbehaviors there's often little time left for teaching. Whenever a student disobeys a rule, a staff member must point it out, using the student's name and just one or two rote phrases like, "Mark, there's no stopping work. Work on your task, please." Each time a student curses or yells, a staffer marks it on the student's recording sheet. Teachers and aides then use the sheet to calculate what level of punishment is required—when to just say "No!" and when to shock.

Employees carry students' shock activators inside plastic cases, which they hook onto their belt loops. These cases are known as "sleds," and each sled has a photo on it to ensure employees don't zap the wrong kid.

Behaviorism would seem to dictate that staff shock students immediately after they break the rules. But if employees learn about a misbehavior after it has occurred—by, say, reviewing surveillance footage—they may still administer punishment. Rob Santana recalls that Mondays were always the most stressful day of the week. He would sit at his desk all day, trying to remember if he had broken any rules over the weekend, waiting to see if he'd be shocked.

Employees are encouraged to use the element of surprise. "Attempt to be as discreet as possible and hold the transmitter out of view of the student," states the employee manual. This way, students cannot do anything to minimize the pain, like flipping over their electrodes or tensing their muscles. "We hear the sound of [a staffer] picking up a sled," says Isabel, the former student. "Then we turn around and see the person jump out of their seat."

Employees shock students for a wide range of behaviors, from violent actions to less serious offenses, like getting out of their seats without permission. In 2006, the New York State Education Department sent a team of investigators, including three psychologists, to the Rotenberg Center, then issued a scathing report. Among its many criticisms was that the staff shocked kids for "nagging, swearing, and failing to maintain a neat appearance." Israel only disputes the latter. As for nagging and swearing? "Sometimes a behavior looks innocuous," he says, "but if it's an antecedent for aggression, it may have to be treated with an aversive."

New York officials disagreed, and in January 2007 issued regulations that would prohibit shocking New York students for minor infractions. But a group of New York parents filed a federal lawsuit to stop the state from enforcing these regulations. They prevailed, winning a temporary restraining order against the state, one that permits the Rotenberg Center staffers to continue using shock. The parents' case is expected to go to trial in 2008.

When they talk about why they use the shock device, Israel and his employees like to use the word "treatment," but it might be more accurate to use words like "convenience" or "control." "The ged—it's two seconds and it's done," says Patricia Rivera, a psychologist who serves as assistant director of clinical services. "Then it's right back to work." By contrast, it can take 8 or 10 employees half an hour or longer to restrain a strong male student: to pin him to the floor, wait for him to stop struggling, then move his body onto a restraint board and tie down each limb. Restraining five or eight kids in a single day—or the same student again and again—can be incredibly time-consuming and sometimes dangerous.

When they talk about why they use the shock device, Israel and his employees like to use the word "treatment," but it might be more accurate to use words like "convenience" or "control." "The ged—it's two seconds and it's done," says Patricia Rivera, a psychologist who serves as assistant director of clinical services. "Then it's right back to work." By contrast, it can take 8 or 10 employees half an hour or longer to restrain a strong male student: to pin him to the floor, wait for him to stop struggling, then move his body onto a restraint board and tie down each limb. Restraining five or eight kids in a single day—or the same student again and again—can be incredibly time-consuming and sometimes dangerous.

"Our Students Have a Tendency to Lie"

Rotenberg staff place the more troubled (or troublesome) residents on 1:1 status, meaning that an aide monitors them everywhere they go. For extremely violent students, the ratio is 2:1. Soon after I arrived, right before I set off on my tour, a small crowd gathered—it seemed that almost the entire hierarchy of the Rotenberg Center was going to follow me around. That's when I realized I'd been put on 5:1. As I began to roam around the school with my escorts, my every move monitored by surveillance cameras, I realized it would be impossible to have a private conversation with any student. The best I could hope for would be a few unscripted moments.

Ten years ago, a reporter visiting Israel's center would have been unable to talk to most students; back then few of them could speak. These days, there are more than 100 high-functioning kids fully capable of voicing their views, and Israel has enlisted a few in his campaign to promote the ged. "If we had only [severely] autistic students, they couldn't talk to you and say, 'Gee, this is really helping me,'" Israel says. "Now for the first time we have students like Katie who can tell you it helped them."

In the world of the Rotenberg Center, Katie Spartichino is a star. She left the facility in the spring of 2006 and now attends community college in Boston. Around noon, a staff member brings her back to the facility to talk to me. We sit at an outdoor picnic table away from the surveillance cameras but there's no privacy: Israel and Karen LaChance, the assistant to the executive director for admissions, sit with us.

Katie, 19, tells me she overdosed on pills at 9, spent her early adolescence in and out of psych wards, was hooked up to the ged at 16, and stayed on the device for two years. "This is a great place," she says. "It took me off all my medicine. I was close to 200 pounds and I'm 160 now." She admits her outlook was less rosy when she first had to wear the electrodes. "I cried," she says. "I kind of felt like I was walking on eggshells; I had to watch everything I said. Sometimes a curse word would just come out of my mouth automatically. So being on the geds and knowing that swearing was a targeted behavior where I would receive a [GED] application, it really got me to think twice before I said something disrespectful or something just plain-out rude."

As Katie speaks, LaChance runs her fingers through Katie's hair again and again. The gesture is so deliberate it draws my attention. I wonder if it's just an expression of affection—or something more, like a reward.

"Do you swear anymore?" I ask.

"Oh, God, all the time," Katie says. She pauses. "Well, I have learned to control it, but I'm not going to lie. When I'm on the phone, curse words come out."

The hair stroking stops. LaChance turns to Katie. "I hope you're not going to tell me you're aggressive."

"Oh, no, that's gone," Katie says. "No, no, no. The worst thing I do sometimes is me and my mom get into little arguments."

For Israel, of course, one drawback of having so many high-functioning students is that he cannot control everything they say. One afternoon, when I walk into a classroom of teenagers, a 15-year-old girl catches my eye, smiles, and holds up a sheet of paper with a message written in pink marker: HELP US. She puts it back down and shuffles it into her stack of papers before anyone else sees. When I move closer, she tells me her name is Raquel, she is from the Bronx, and she wants to go home.

My escorts allow me to interview Raquel while two of them sit nearby. Raquel is not hooked up to the ged, but she has many complaints, including that she has just witnessed one of her housemates get shocked. "She was screaming," Raquel says. "They told her to step up to be searched; she didn't want to step up to be searched, so they gave her one." After 20 minutes, my escorts cut us off. "Raquel, you did a great job—thank you for taking the time," says Patricia Rivera, the psychologist.

Once Raquel is out of earshot, Rivera adds, "Some of the things she said are not true, some of them are. Our students obviously have a tendency to lie about things." She explains that a staff member searches Raquel's housemate every hour because she's the one who recently stabbed an employee with a pencil.

The Rotenberg Center does not have a rule about how old a child must be before he or she can be hooked up to the ged. One of the program's youngest students is a nine-year-old named Rodrigo. When I see him, he is seated outside at a picnic table with his aide. Rodrigo's backpack looks enormous on his tiny frame; canvas straps dangle from both legs.

"He was horrible when he first came in," Rivera says. "It would take five staff to restrain him because he's so wiry." What was he like? "A lot of aggression. A lot of disruptive behavior. Whenever he was asked to do a task that he didn't feel like doing, he would scream, yell, swear. The stuff that would come out of his mouth you wouldn't believe—very sexually inappropriate."

"Rodrigo, come here," one of my escorts says.

Rodrigo walks over, his straps slapping the ground. He wears a white dress shirt and tie—the standard uniform for male students—but because he is so small, maybe 4 feet tall, his tie nearly reaches his thighs. "What's that?" he asks.

"That's a tape recorder," I say. "Do you want to say something?"

"Yeah."

"That's a tape recorder," I say. "Do you want to say something?"

"Yeah."

The Employee-Modification System

To understand how the Rotenberg Center works, it helps to know that it runs not just one behavior-modification program, but two—one for the residents, and one for the staff. Employees have no autonomy. If a staffer believes it's okay to shock a kid who is smashing his head against a wall, but it's not okay to shock someone for getting out of his chair without permission, that could spell trouble. "There's pressure on you to do it," a former teacher told me. "They punish you if you don't."

I met this former teacher at a restaurant, and our meeting stretched on for six hours. At times it felt less like an interview than a confession. "The first time you give someone a ged is the worst one," the teacher said. "You don't want to hurt somebody; you want to help. You're thinking, 'This has got to be okay. This has got to be legal, or they wouldn't be doing this.'" At the Rotenberg Center, it's virtually impossible to discuss such concerns with coworkers because there are cameras everywhere, even in the staff break room. Staff members who want to talk to each other without being overheard may meet up in the parking lot or scribble notes to each other. But it's hard to know whom to trust, since Israel encourages employees to file anonymous reports about their coworkers' lapses.

In addition, staff members are prohibited from having casual conversations with each other. They cannot, for example, say to a coworker, "Hey, did you see the Red Sox game last night?" "We don't want them discussing their social life or the ball games in front of the students or while they're on duty," Israel says. "So we'll sometimes actually have one staffer deliberately start a social conversation with another and we'll see whether the other—as he or she should—will say, 'I don't want to discuss that now.'" Monitors watch these setups on the surveillance cameras and punish staffers who take the bait.

Former employees describe a workplace permeated with fear—fear of being attacked by students and fear of losing their job. There are so many rules—and so many cameras—it's not easy to stay out of trouble. Employees quit or are fired so often that two-thirds of the direct-care employees remain on the job for less than a year.

New employees must sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to talk about the Rotenberg Center—even after they no longer work there. Of the eight ex-employees I interviewed, most did not want to be identified by name for fear of Israel suing them; all were critical of how the ged is used. Maybe, says one, the use of shocks was justified in a few extreme self-injurious cases, but that's all. "Say you had a hospital that was the only hospital in the nation that had chemotherapy, and they were treating people who had the common cold with it," she says. "I think the extreme to which they abuse their power has outweighed what good they do."

The Hard Lessons of Connie Chung

Matthew Israel has been fielding questions from journalists since the 1970s, but few have examined his operation as thoroughly—and critically—as the producers at Eye to Eye with Connie Chung did. In 1993, they spent six months investigating the facility. They even found an employee willing to go inside with a hidden camera. But Israel ended up getting the last laugh. As he recounts the story for me, he can barely contain his glee. "We refused to meet with her unless the parents could be in the same room," he says, grinning. "She talked to the parents, and they really gave it to her." This is no exaggeration: When Chung tried to ask him tough questions, his parent-supporters shouted her down.

Throughout this raucous meeting, Israel had his own camera rolling, too, which turned out to be a brilliant move. Before cbs got its 40-minute story on the air, Israel launched a national campaign to discredit both Chung and her report. He accused her of being "biased" and "hostile," and to prove it, he distributed edited videotapes of her interview to media critics and cbs affiliates. It worked. A New York Times television critic savaged cbs, accusing it of using "shabby tricks of the trade." Suddenly the story was not about whether the school had abused students—but whether cbs had abused the school.

"I don't think it was a positive thing for her career," says Israel, still smiling. It's late in the day, right near the end of my visit, and I'm starting to wonder why he's brought up this topic.

By now I've spent 22 hours with Israel and his staff—wandering around the facility, meeting parents they've brought in for me to interview. But before I depart, there's one more place I want to see, the room where they repair the geds. Israel and Glenda Crookes, an assistant executive director, agree to take me there. It is just past 7 p.m. and drizzling as we climb into Israel's Lexus for a short drive to the maintenance building.

There, Crookes and Israel lead me down a hall, past storerooms filled with red helmets, ged sleds, batteries and their chargers. The room at the end of the hall looks like it could be a repair shop for any sort of electronics equipment: scissors, screwdrivers, industrial-grade glue, a Black & Decker Pivot Driver. On one desk, I spot a form called a ged Trouble Report. The report explains that someone dropped off Duane's shock device because it was "making rattling noises." Crookes explains, "Anytime a screw is loose or anything is wrong with the device, it's automatically sent back here."

A Trouble Report on another desk suggests a more serious problem: "Jamie Z was getting his battery changed, Luigi received a shock." "What does this mean?" I ask. Crookes picks up the paper, reads it, then hands it to Israel and walks away. Her gesture seems to say, I cannot believe we just spent two days with this reporter and now this is the last thing she sees.

Israel stares at the report, then reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pair of reading glasses. Nobody says anything. Outside, one car after another races by, the tail end of the evening commute.

After a minute or two, Israel says, "Well, I don't understand the whole of it." He is still staring at the paper in his hand. "But there was apparently a spontaneous activation." The ged, in other words, delivered a shock without anyone pressing its remote.

This moment reminds me of something Israel told me earlier about the premise of Skinner's Walden Two, that by changing people's behaviors you can help them have a better life. But, Israel was careful to add, "The notion was that you needed to have the whole environment under control. With a school like this, we have an awful lot. Not the whole environment, but an awful lot."

He was right; he controls nearly every aspect of his facility. But all of his surveillance cameras and microphones and paperwork and protocols had failed to protect Luigi, a mentally retarded resident who had done nothing wrong.

Oregon teacher placed on paid leave after taping student to chair

2008-06-05T00:35:00.003-04:00

Wednesday, June 4, 2008 3:49 PM PDT
By The Associated Press

OAKRIDGE, Ore. — A teacher in the Oakridge School District has been placed on paid administrative leave after allegedly taping a student to a chair because he wouldn't sit down.

Superintendent Don Kordosky declined to identify the teacher Tuesday, but confirmed she was removed from her Oakridge Elementary School classroom last week after the mother of a 9-year-old boy reported the May 28 incident.

The boy's mother, Becky Faile, does not have a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment Tuesday night. In interviews with local television stations, she said the teacher taped her son from his knees to his chest after he refused requests to sit down.

Faile said her son's poor behavior was not a strong enough reason for him to be humiliated in front of his peers. Faile said she has contacted a lawyer.

Under Oregon law, "a teacher may use reasonable physical force upon a student when and to the extent the teacher reasonably believes it is necessary to maintain order in the school or classroom."

It's unclear if masking tape is considered reasonable.

On the advice of her Oregon Education Association legal counsel, the Oakridge teacher is not commenting on the incident until district officials have provided her with the results of their investigation, said Dan Fisher, president of the Oakridge Teachers Association.

"It's a shame that the process has worked this way with the media coverage, because it's been almost a guilty until proven innocent thing," he said. "Even if she is totally cleared, she may never get her good name back."

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/06/04/breaking_news/doc4846bfd72a0ea265914603.txt

Police: Teacher's Aide Attacks Autistic Student

2008-06-01T18:37:00.002-04:00

POSTED: 10:11 pm EDT May 30, 2008
UPDATED: 10:28 pm EDT May 30, 2008

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. -- A Coconut Creek teacher's aide is under investigation after an autistic student was attacked with a metal chair at school earlier this month, police said.

The 17-year-old student's mother, Sandy Teich, said her world has been turned upside down after hearing what happened to her son, Michael.

The incident happened at Monarch High School on May 6, police said. According to Teich and police, a teacher's aide threw a chair at the boy during a confrontation in the gym.

Teich said her son's injuries were minor, but the incident has taken an emotional toll. She said she has asked the school board to remove Michael from the school.

Police said they have turned the case over to prosecutors and have recommended the aide be charged with child abuse.

Lee County Teacher Accused of Hitting Child Agrees to Settlement

2008-05-27T17:23:00.001-04:00

May 25, 2008

news-press.com

The Florida Department of Education has agreed to a settlement with a Lee County teacher it was investigating on allegations she had hit at least two disabled students while she worked in Charlotte County.

Catherine Hile, 42, who teaches autistic students in kindergarten through second grade at Gulf Elementary in Cape Coral and the department agreed to the settlement Tuesday, according to the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed. It could not be determined Sunday whether Hile’s employment status with the Lee County School District was affected by the settlement.

The division itself closed the case Friday and canceled hearings that had been scheduled for this week in Port Charlotte.

The state investigation, which came to light in January, cost Hile a shot at the coveted Golden Apple Award, one of the highest honors a Lee County public school teacher can receive. She had been named a finalist in that competition, but her name was withdrawn after the school district informed the Foundation for Lee County Public Schools of the state probe.

The foundation runs the Golden Apple Teacher Recognition Program, which honors six Lee County teachers every year.

Hile was placed on paid suspension in the fall of 2005 while she taught at Charlotte Harbor Center, a school for children with disabilities run by the Charlotte County School District.

The News-Press reported in 2005 that Hile had been given a letter of reprimand in April 1994 when she was accused of using inappropriate language and hitting a student in the face. She also had been given a memo in November 1994 about her classroom environment. The memo said it appeared to be “unsafe.”

The Charlotte school board voted in December 2005 to accept her resignation. Assistant Superintendent Doug Whittaker said the district’s investigation produced more than enough evidence that Hile struck a student. She was accused of hitting a student three times after that child struck an autistic classmate the same number of times.

No criminal charges were filed against Hile in Charlotte County.

Hile then was hired as an exceptional student education liaison at DeSoto Middle School in Arcadia in January 2006. She was fired in March 2006 without cause under a state rule that allows teachers to be fired for any reason, or none, in their first 97 days of employment, DeSoto County schools Superintendent Adrian Cline said. That rule also allows teachers to leave a school district with no notice or reason in their first 97 days.

Teacher lets Morningside students vote out classmate, 5

2008-05-26T23:18:00.001-04:00

By Colleen Wixon (Contact)
Saturday, May 24, 2008
TCPalm.com

PORT ST. LUCIE — Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son's kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class.

After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son,

Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said.

By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class.

Melissa Barton filed a complaint with Morningside's school resource officer, who investigated the matter, Port St. Lucie Department spokeswoman Michelle Steele said. But the state attorney's office concluded the matter did not meet the criteria for emotional child abuse, so no criminal charges will be filed, Steele said.

Port St. Lucie Police no longer are investigating, but police officials are documenting the complaint, she said.

Steele said the teacher confirmed the incident took place.

Portillo could not be reached for comment Friday.

Steele said the boy had been sent to the principal's office because of disciplinary issues. When he returned, Portillo made him go to the front of the room as a form of punishment, she said.

Barton said her son is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism. Alex began the testing process in February at the suggestion of Morningside Principal Marcia Cully.

Children diagnosed with Asperger's often exhibit social isolation and eccentric behavior..

Alex has had disciplinary issues because of his disability, Barton said. After the family moved into the area and Alex and his sibling arrived at the school in January, Alex spent much of the time in the principal's office, she said.

He also had problems at his last school, but he did not have issues during his two years of preschool, Barton said.

School and district officials have met with Barton and her son to create an individual education plan to address his difficulties, she said. Portillo attended these meetings, Barton said.

Barton said after the vote, Portillo asked Alex how he felt.

"He said, 'I feel sad,' " Barton said.

Alex left the classroom and spent the rest of the day in the nurse's office, she said.

Barton said when she came to pick up her son at the school Wednesday, he was leaving the nurse's office.

"He was shaken up," she said.

Barton said the nurse told her to talk with Portillo, who told her what happened.

Alex hasn't been back to school since then, and Barton said he won't be returning. He starts screaming when she brings him with her to drop off his sibling at school.

Thursday night, his mother heard him saying "I'm not special" over and over.

Barton said Alex is reliving the incident.

The other students said he was "disgusting" and "annoying," Barton said.

"He was incredibly upset," Barton said. "The only friend he has ever made in his life was forced to do this."

St. Lucie School's spokeswoman Janice Karst said the district is investigating the incident, but could not make any further comment.

Vern Melvin, Department of Children and Families circuit administrator, confirmed the agency is investigating an allegation of abuse at Morningside but said he could not elaborate.

Teacher's aide charged with bruising 6-year-old student in Virginia

2008-05-24T20:00:00.002-04:00

The boy's grandmother said both of his shoulders were "completely black and blue."
May 23, 2008
By Donna Alvis-Banks

A teacher's aide at Falling Branch Elementary School has been charged with a misdemeanor amid allegations he bruised a student.

Jesse Lamont Crutchfield, 34, of Blacksburg was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor Tuesday after a May 14 incident. The charge is punishable by a maximum of 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.

The 6-year-old kindergartner at the school was in a special education class, where Crutchfield served as a teacher's aide, according to the boy's grandmother and legal custodian, Debra Long.

Long said her grandson has Hirschsprung's disease, an intestinal disorder that causes an inability to control bowel movements. Long said she had informed the school earlier in the year that the boy had special needs regarding bathroom access. Long said she had noticed that her grandson's underpants were stained with dried feces in recent weeks. Long said she received a call about 1 p.m. May 14 from a school nurse who told her that her grandson "might have a little tiny bruise on his arm because one of the teachers had to get him by the arm to get him where he was supposed to go." Long said the boy told her the aide would not allow him to go to the bathroom.

"I did not think a whole lot about it," she said, noting that she did not become concerned until her grandson was getting into his pajamas later that afternoon. When he removed his shirt, she said "both of his shoulders were completely black and blue."

Long said she called the Christiansburg Police Department that evening. Police spokesman Barry O'Rourke could not be reached for comment Thursday.

"The school saw pictures of my grandson. The school board saw the pictures, also," Long said. "I went down to the school this past Monday and he [Crutchfield] was still there." Long said she is furious that the aide was allowed to remain at the school after the incident. She said she was told that he had been assigned to another classroom.

Mark Pasier, human resources director for Montgomery County schools, confirmed Thursday that Crutchfield had submitted his resignation, effective for the next school year. He said the aide, paid $9.70 per hour, had worked for the school system since August 2006.

He would not say if Crutchfield was on paid leave but did say the school was working with authorities on the matter. Pasier said he could not comment further on a personnel matter.

Falling Branch Principal Julie Vanidestine sent a letter home with students Wednesday in reference to "an incident that is a personnel matter." She said in the letter that she could not comment for that reason.

Someone answering phones at the school said Crutchfield was not there Thursday.

Oldham County school at odds with parents of autistic boy

2008-05-20T17:55:00.001-04:00

May 19, 2008

Charges met by countercharges
By Deborah Yetter
mailto:mdyetter@courier-journal.com

Oldham County school officials say they will seek truancy charges against a Centerfield couple who removed their autistic son from his public elementary school after learning he'd been locked repeatedly in a small "time-out" room.

Jeanie Montgomery, who pulled her 9-year-old son, Matthew, from Crestwood Elementary on March 31, had requested home educational services for him for the rest of the school year, citing his medical and psychological problems, as well as concerns about cuts and scrapes he received at school. She said she has reported those concerns to state child-abuse authorities.

State law allows school districts to provide homebound services for children whose families prove that an illness or disability makes it inadvisable for them to go to school.

But Oldham officials rejected Montgomery's request, and on May 8 they sent her and her husband, Robert, a "final notice" warning that school officials would take them to court if Matthew wasn't returned to school, according to a copy of the letter the family provided The Courier-Journal.

Jeanie Montgomery said she and her husband have no plans to comply.

"I don't think Matthew needs to be in that environment," she said. "I think it's been very damaging to him."

Oldham County school spokeswoman Rebecca DeSensi confirmed that the school system plans to seek charges. She said school officials don't believe Matthew qualifies for home services and said state child-abuse investigators have not reported that he is in any danger if he returns to finish out the school year, which ends June 5.

"That's why we are expecting him to be in school," she said.

Oldham County policy deems a student truant after six unexcused absences. Matthew has accumulated 22 unexcused absences from March 31 through May 7, according to the school system's May 8 final notice to Montgomery.

DeSensi said the school system applies the policy to all children.

"The state says kids must be in school," she said.

But Montgomery said she believes Matthew was mistreated at school, including being placed nearly 80 times in the time-out room last fall, sometimes locked in. On his last day of school, March 28, Montgomery said Matthew came home with injuries including abrasions that Kosair Children's Hospital reported to authorities as possible abuse.

DeSensi said state investigators have not told the school system anything about their investigation -- including whether they have reached any conclusions. State officials have told

The Courier-Journal they can't comment because of confidentiality laws.

DeSensi and Anne Coorssen, general counsel for the Oldham school system, discussed many specifics of Matthew's case in an interview Wednesday, including the decision to deny him home services.

But they said they could provide more information if Matthew's mother would sign a release. Montgomery declined, saying she has lost trust in the school system and isn't willing to sign any documents they produce.

Oldham County Attorney John Fendley, who handles truancy prosecutions, said the case hasn't reached his office. But generally, he said, parents reported to him by the school system are charged with the misdemeanor offense of unlawful transaction with a minor.

The penalty is up to one year in jail and a $500 fine.

"These are not easy cases, believe me," said Fendley, adding that he evaluates each case before deciding how to proceed. "This autism situation is going to be a difficult one."

Matthew is considered severely autistic and has limited speech, but his private therapists who work with him at home say he is intelligent and capable of learning. Matthew had been in a class with other autistic students at Crestwood Elementary but recently had been receiving much of his instruction alone in a separate classroom, according to his mother and therapists.

Position elicits surprise

The school system's intent to seek charges against the parents shocked Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates and a former educator and high school principal.

"That's amazing," he said. "I would hope that the school system would reconsider its position and focus on the best interests of the child."

State law gives local school districts broad discretion on whether to offer home services, said Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the state Education Department.

"It's all about what's appropriate for the particular child's need," she said. "It really is a local issue."

In Jefferson County, about 4,200 of the public school system's 98,000 students -- about one out of 23 -- received home educational services this year, according to school officials.

In Oldham, 35 of the system's 12,000 students -- about one out of 340 -- were approved for home services this year, DeSensi said.

To receive home services, state law requires a signed physician's statement that the child's condition "prevents or renders inadvisable attendance at school."

Montgomery said she has provided two such letters from Matthew's pediatricians, the last one asking for more time for an independent psychological examination of the child.

A March 28 letter from Dr. Jeff Wampler, with All Children Pediatrics, cited Matthew's autism and other health issues, including allergies and gastrointestinal problems, as a reason for requesting temporary homebound services. On an application the school requested, Wampler also cited "investigation for abuse at school."

In a follow-up letter to Oldham school officials on May 1, Dr. Jeffrey Burton said he believes Matthew may be suffering from fear and stress over his experiences at school and requested time for a psychologist's evaluation.

"I would encourage you to allow Matthew's parents more time and latitude before you start any type of legal proceeding," Burton wrote.

But Coorssen said the school system does not believe the physicians' letters adequately detailed Matthew's medical problems.

"Those are just blanket statements you can get from anybody," she said.

School defends itself

DeSensi said Oldham school Superintendent Paul S. Upchurch would not comment on the case because he does not talk to reporters. But she said he believes the district has handled
Matthew's case appropriately.

"The superintendent believes that all Oldham County schools are safe," DeSensi said. "We have excellent services for all of our special-needs children."

Montgomery disagrees.

"Everyone's got such a wonderful perception of Oldham County schools," she said. "If you have a special-needs kid, they are not doing their job, as far as I'm concerned."

Montgomery said she met with school officials repeatedly to try to resolve the situation before deciding to remove Matthew. She said she, her lawyer and a therapist met again with school officials for about 10 hours over two days last week in an unsuccessful attempt to agree on an educational plan.

Montgomery said school officials offered to transfer Matthew to another school -- but only if the same special-needs teacher accompanied him. Montgomery said she wouldn't agree to that.

She said school officials also insisted they needed to continue use of a time-out room for misbehavior, which Montgomery and Meghan Launius, a therapist who works with Matthew at home, said is nothing more than an empty, poorly lit closet.

School officials cited Matthew's aggressive behavior -- hitting, scratching or trying to bite staff -- as the reason they need to continue use of the time-out room, said Montgomery and Launius, who also attended the meeting.

"They seem to believe that because his behaviors are getting worse, it's okay to be more punitive," Launius said. "I think he's acting that way because they are acting more punitive."
School records the family obtained showed that Matthew had been placed in the time-out room nearly 80 times last fall.

School officials removed a lock on the room after Montgomery observed a teacher releasing Matthew from there during an unexpected visit to his classroom in November.

Before that, Montgomery said she hadn't realized Matthew was being locked in the small room and thought time-out meant he was being isolated in his classroom.

Coorssen said in April that school officials didn't know who put the lock on the time-out room door, but had ordered it removed and were investigating how it got there. She said Wednesday the investigation is continuing.

Montgomery said her next step is to pursue a formal complaint with the state Education Department, alleging Matthew is being denied appropriate educational services.

Meanwhile, she said she is prepared to defend herself against possible truancy charges.

"I really think they thought I was going to be scared of them, but I'm not," she said. "I know they've made some huge mistakes."

Reporter Deborah Yetter can be reached at (502) 582-4228.

Down But Not Out

2008-05-09T21:56:00.001-04:00

Family continues fighting for special-ed students’ rights despite investigations vindicating local schools
By By Erin Frustaci
efrustaci@fortcollinsnow.com

Daniel and Susan Swearingen were hopeful that months of frustration and ongoing discord with Poudre School District would finally end now that two investigation into their complaints that teachers improperly used seclusion and restraint techniques on their son have been completed.

But those investigations didn’t support their allegations.

They view it as just another hurdle to overcome; by now, the Swearingens have become accustomed to disappointment.

The couple submitted two complaints of discrimination on behalf of their 12-year-old son Ryan last spring: One to the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and another to Colorado’s Department of Regulatory Agencies’ Division of Civil Rights (DORA).

Among the allegations, the Swearingens said teachers at Johnson Elementary School improperly restrained and secluded Ryan, who displays symptoms of autism and was diagnosed this month with Pervasive Developmental Disorder.

OCR completed its investigation in November and concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to support the Swearingens’ claims of discrimination.

The family hoped DORA would report in their favor, but that agency also found no violations in the case. They were informed of the investigation’s result last week. Undaunted, they say they plan to file an appeal to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. (See the related article, “PSD Vindicated by Oversight Agencies,” by typing the title into the search bar.)

Susan said the family is considering all of their options, which could include legal action.

“We do plan on finding ways to hold the district accountable and if that is through civil action, then that is our plan,” Daniel added.

Laura Richardson, PSD’s director for integrated services, said that DORA’s findings show that there was no wrongdoing on the district’s part.

These results mark the third time the family has failed to get oversight agencies to see things their way. They contacted The Legal Center for People With Disabilities and Older People after writing letters of complaint to state and federal politicians. The Legal Center told them there wasn’t enough evidence to launch an investigation into their claims. But as reported in Fort Collins Now on April 25, the Swearingens’ complaints led the watchdog group to investigate the claims of other families with similar complaints. It found that two PSD elementary schools violated strict rules governing how and when teachers can physically restrain and seclude children.

Among other findings, The Legal Center found that Werner and Linton elementary schools failed to properly document when children were restrained and secluded, and failed to inform their parents when such techniques were used.

Those same complaints are at the heart of the Swearingens’ allegations as well.

***

The family of four moved to Fort Collins from Red Feather Lakes in August of 2003 and Ryan enrolled in Johnson Elementary school. His parents say the first year went pretty well overall, but as time went on things seemed to slide. Because Ryan has special needs, his parents worked with educators to develop what’s called an Individualized Education Program, or IEP. Meetings to discuss Ryan’s educational needs with special education teachers, the principal and other staff members became part of their normal routine. They kept abreast of his progress through the use of a communication notebook which was sent back and forth between the teacher or paraprofessional and the parents.

Susan says the comments in the notebook were often quite positive. However, Ryan was not without his bad days and the number of those bad days began to increase, a circumstance his parents said may have been exacerbated by turnover among the school’s specialized staff.

Soon, Ryan began trying to leave school—a new and worrisome behavior that eventually escalated to more serious incidents, including physical confrontations with teachers.

Susan said the documentation of incidents or outbursts did not always explain why they occurred or how the school handled them. She also said she was not always informed of the incidents. In fact, the Swearingens say they did not have a clear picture of what was really happening between Ryan and his teachers until they requested copies of their son’s file from the school last April. Though it was a long process, they began collecting bits and pieces of documentation on their son through the school and the district.

They were alarmed by what they learned.

“We realized something serious was going on,” Susan said. “You are realizing how much your child was going through. If we had known, at least we could have explained why these things were happening and there could have been a different outcome for him. It was quite disturbing.”

One incident that stood out to the Swearingens occurred on Dec. 8, 2004. According to the Swearingens, Ryan left school and Teresa Matzdorff, the moderate-needs teacher, followed him to where they lived just more than a block from the school and then restrained him in order to get him back to school. Documenting the incident, school staff wrote, “They were coming back—Ryan in a hold and resisting.” That documentation also says the parents were informed of what happened.

But the Swearingens say not only were they never told of this incident, but Ryan’s IEP plan did not include restraint as an option to dealing with his behaviors. They also say they were not informed that that school resource officer was notified and that Ryan was placed on in in-school suspension for a day for leaving school grounds.

Such discrepancies between the school’s accounts of incidences and the Swearingens’ have become a common theme, making it difficult to sort out the truth of many events involving Ryan. Adding to the complication are two very different pictures painted of the same child. Often, the school’s reports—copies of which were obtained by FC Now from the Swearingens, who got them from the school and the district—depict an aggressive, confrontational and belligerent child who kicked his teachers and threatened to bring a knife to school.

His parents, on the other hand, say he is the victim in the situation.

“It’s not just us that sees a different child” from the one depicted in the school’s accounts, Daniel said. He admits that Ryan gets frustrated and yells at times, but nothing more than any other child.

“Any provider or outside person who works with him sees the same child we see,” he said. “What district employees put on paper is that he is an out of control, disruptive behavioral and social problem. We definitely have dueling stories.”

Despite continuing to work with the school to fine-tune Ryan’s educational plan, the breaking point came in March 2007 when Ryan tried to leave the school again. His teacher and a paraprofessional grabbed him by the wrists, apparently afraid he was going to run into oncoming traffic. The school alleges that one of his arms broke free and he punched his teacher in the ribs. They brought Ryan back in and placed him in the time-out room. Ryan was ticketed for assaulting his teacher. After a few trips to court and a competency evaluation, the case was dismissed last June.

Based on past conflicting reports, Ryan’s parents aren’t convinced things happened the way the school described. They are also concerned that at the time of this restraint, not everyone who was involved was properly certified in how to apply the techniques safely.

“It was absolutely horrible,” Susan said of the incident. “He was terrified. ... The experience was unbelievable, to put thing nicely.”

Since then, Ryan has not attended Johnson. He’s now on the homebound program, where a teacher employed by the district comes to the home to work with him individually.

Although the Swearingens put the blame for Ryan’s situation squarely on the school district, the investigating agencies concluded that the school did nothing wrong and in fact took “extra steps” to try and accommodate Ryan.

Richardson, the district’s director for integrated services, agreed that there may be different perceptions at work. Richardson is relatively new to the position and wasn’t working for the district when many of the disputed incidents took place. She joined PSD in January; coming out of retirement after 18 years with the Windsor School District to replace Chris Schott, who retired after serving for three years.

“Coming in new to the district, I was impressed with the professionalism,” she said of the special-ed program. “The focus is always on what’s best for the students. That really impresses me.”

Gail Follett, Ryan’s homebound teacher, said although there were significant problems when Ryan attended Johnson, he hasn’t been a problem in the homebound setting.

“He’s very attentive,” she said. “He wants to learn a lot. He is extremely cooperative and willing. He is a joy to work with and never caused a moment of trouble or stress at all. He’s a teacher’s dream student, at least with me in homebound.”

She also said he is the type of child that really benefits from the one on one setting and given his developmental problems, could have difficulties functioning in a classroom with quite a few kids.

Though his parents are seeing improvement, they are still set on bringing about some kind of change within the school and the district.

“Parents need to be aware that they are not alone,” Susan said. “This is not an isolated incident. It’s widespread.”

That’s exactly what Jennifer Taylor, a mother of four discovered after hearing about the Swearingens’ story. Her 10-year-old daughter, Gracie, was diagnosed with epilepsy. The family moved from Utah when Gracie was in second grade. She attended Zach Core Knowledge school. Taylor said the staff restrained Gracie when she was having complex partial seizures even though she repeatedly told them her doctor said this is the worst thing to do.

Last year, the situation had gotten so bad that Taylor considered moving out of Fort Collins. She said she was watching her daughter deteriorate in front of her eyes. She said she just wanted the district to do the right thing.

“She’s a good kid and doesn’t deserve what’s happened to her,” Taylor said. “I’m not saying she’s 100 percent easy. That’s never been my claim, but I’ve also tried to give them ways to deal with things. All we want is for her to have an opportunity to be educated like every other kid—nothing special.”

Like Ryan, Gracie is on a homebound education program, and her placement will be reevaluated for the next school year. After hearing the stories of other families, Taylor also recently filed a complaint with The Legal Center.

“It’s a system that desperately needs some kind of check and balance in place,” Daniel Swearingen said. “One of the greatest motivators for us is seeing justice is righted for our son and other kids.”

The district defends its staff as highly qualified and constantly working collaboratively with parents in the best interest of the students.

“We all have different perceptions that can get in the way,” Richardson said. “We will continue to work with them in the best interest of their child and hope we can collaborate to have a great education for their child.”

Richardson said one thing that is being considered that could strengthen communication with parents is developing some trainings for parents. She said overall, there are good open lines of communication within the special education program.

Still, the Swearingens maintain that more needs to be done.

“Either we are a couple of crackpots, or we are telling the truth,” Daniel said.

Correction: In the first article in this series published April 25, “When Time-Out Goes Too Far,” FCN incorrectly reported that the investigation by the Office of Civil Rights was ongoing. In fact, it had been completed.

http://www.fortcollinsnow.com

Senate passed a bill to address the growing problem of Restraint and Seclusion in Tennessee Public Schools

2008-05-02T17:43:00.001-04:00

State legislators take a something-is-better-than-nothing approach to protecting special education students from seclusion and restraint

by Elizabeth Ulrich
May 1, 2008

Disability advocates who have spent more than a year trying to convince Tennessee legislators about the troubling fact that special education students are being physically restrained, strapped to chairs and locked in janitor closets hit a small landmark last week as the state Senate passed a bill to address a growing problem in classrooms across the state.

Designed to limit the unchecked use of physical restraint and isolation, the bill offers only a few modest regulations. But disability advocates see the mere acknowledgment of the problem as “gargantuan,” considering their struggle to get lawmakers even to accept that teachers are using such methods on the most vulnerable of students.

Nearly 40 families across the state recently weighed in with horrific tales of the use of restraint and isolation in public schools in a survey commissioned by the state Disability Coalition on Education (DCE). Perhaps the most heart-wrenching tale was that of an 11-year-old autistic boy whose Williamson County teacher locked him in a dark janitor’s closet for up to three hours at a time on several occasions. The teacher even held him down in restraints for behavior she described as not “as much autistic as...ornery” (“Physical Education,” Jan. 24).

Teachers never told the boy’s family about the incidents. Once the otherwise happy boy began to dread school, and as his behavior escalated into unusual fits of screaming and acting out, the family knew something was up. Unlike many of his counterparts, the boy was eventually able to articulate what had transpired. Holly Lu Conant Rees, the director of DCE, says such stories, coupled with the well-publicized death of Omega Leach, made the danger of the ungoverned use of restraint impossible to ignore. A Philadelphia boy undergoing treatment at Chad Youth Enhancement Center, a Clarksville facility for troubled kids, Leach mysteriously died on the floor of his dorm room, away from the watchful eye of the facility’s surveillance cams. The state medical examiner ruled his death a homicide by strangulation after Chad counselors restrained and roughed him up.

Interestingly, the new Senate bill passed April 24 does little to protect kids such as Leach, perhaps because lawmakers see the children in these facilities as criminals. The bill, however, does establish guidelines for the use of restraint and isolation with special education students so long as they don’t have a rap sheet. Specifically, it prohibits schools from using chemical restraint via shots of sedatives to control violent behavior, noxious substances such as pepper spray, locked seclusion and prone restraint, a controversial hold method that can lead to asphyxia—none of which has been expressly outlawed by the state for disabled youth in private treatment facilities. It also requires schools, for the first time ever, to keep records of these incidents. But at this point, the bill gets a little hazy.

Though Sen. Diane Black, who sponsored the bill, says she and other members of the Senate Select Committee on Children and Youth were moved by testimony from special education parents, the original fiscal note for the bill, which Conant Rees put at a staggering $50 million, was too large to be viable. So training teachers on the proper use of restraint went out the window—along with many other provisions advocates had hoped for—in the quest to get the fiscal note down to $50,000, where it now remains.

But Black says the bill is a good starting point. “This at least brings consistency and does bring something that everybody is going to be using across the state, and that’s really important,” she says.

But is it enough to protect students? Conant Rees says the legislation does not completely ban the use of mechanical restraint. This is troublesome to the activist, who has seen students strapped to chairs with lap and shoulder belts or placed in stationary chairs as a means of classroom crowd control. Some of these contraptions look like a hybrid between a high-end toddler car seat and an electric chair, and at least one Tennessee family has told Conant Rees that their elementary-age child has spent hours on end in one of these chairs because teachers deemed the student “a runner.”

School District Under Investigation For Restraint And Seclusion Use

2008-04-30T22:25:00.001-04:00

By Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
April 29, 2008

FORT COLLINS, COLORADO--A Fort Collins school district is being investigated by Colorado's protection and advocacy system, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, and the Department of Regulatory Affairs over the use of restraints and seclusion on elementary students with intellectual disabilities.

The Legal Center for People with Disabilities and Older People released a report earlier this month from its first investigation, in which it found that Werner and Linton elementary schools, both in the Poudre School District, did not properly use, or properly document, instances when students were restrained or placed in "time-out."

In fact, according to Fort Collins Now, the agency found it difficult to make many conclusions about when, how, and why children were restrained or secluded because of the lack of documentation. "It becomes 'he said she said,' or a guessing game," said Thom Miller, Special Education Program Coordinator for The Legal Center.

Interviews with parents led investigators to believe that some students were being restrained more often then needed, were placed in "time-out" for long periods of times, and may have been locked into seclusion rooms and not monitored properly when they were inside.

The report did conclude that teachers used these techniques to punish or discipline students. While the state's education department only allows restraint or seclusion to keep students from hurting themselves or others, the district's policy allowed teachers to use them to maintain discipline.

District officials publicly disagreed with the Legal Center's findings, but said they would work on implementing some of its recommendations.

Queens boy still out of school

2008-04-22T22:49:00.001-04:00

BY CARRIE MELAGO Monday, April 21st 2008, 4:00 AM

Dennis Rivera, 5, is still waiting to get back in the classroom.

He was handcuffed, hauled out of his kindergarten - and then left sitting home for months without any way to get an education.

Three months after a school safety agent ignited an uproar by shackling a 5-year-old Queens boy for throwing a tantrum in kindergarten, Dennis Rivera is still waiting for a seat at a new school.

"His education has basically been put on the back burner because what he needs, he's not receiving," said Dennis' mom, Jasmine Vasquez. "My son is falling behind."

After Dennis, now 6, was handcuffed and sent to a psych ward for misbehaving at Public School 81 in Ridgewood, his mother withdrew him from the school and had him evaluated for special education services. Then she waited. The family is still waiting for the city Education Department to get Dennis help.

When called by the Daily News, the Education Department said it had found an appropriate school for Dennis, but insisted it would take a few more days before it mailed the information to his parents. The officials said they must first notify Dennis' new school.

A spokeswoman said that under state law, the Education Department has 60 school days to find an appropriate special education placement after a case is opened. For Dennis, that period would end May 7.

That's not soon enough for Vasquez, who is concerned her son is missing out on much-needed physical, occupational and speech therapy.

Just days after the Jan. 17 handcuffing - which occurred after Dennis knocked items off a principal's desk - officials began creating an "individualized education program" for him to address his special needs.

His mom was excited after a Feb. 6 meeting with educators, who said they'd place her son in a smaller setting that could help him deal with his problems.

"Nothing has happened. It's been going on three months, and I haven't gotten anything in the mail. I haven't even gotten courtesy calls," she said.

A schools spokeswoman said the state provides the 60-day window because making a good match can be complicated.

"If a student needs a variety of services, we have to make sure the school can provide them," said Maibe Gonzalez-Fuentes. "A number of arrangements have to be made. It takes time."
Dennis has been attending a Head Start program at the Grand Street Settlement program in Brooklyn while waiting for a classroom seat.

"Unfortunately, we see far too many children who suffer from delays in placement. It's particularly sad in a case like this where the child has been through so much trauma," said Kim Sweet, executive director of Advocates for Children.

Autistic students at center of schools battle

2008-03-15T22:34:00.001-04:00

Emily Gersema - Mar. 14, 2008 Phoenix, AZ

A 5-year-old autistic boy has been physically restrained four times this school year at Settler's Point Elementary in Gilbert, despite his mother's repeated requests for the staff to stop it.

The mother, Amy Eddy, told the Gilbert Republic she has asked the district to stop sharing sensitive, extended family medical history that is in her son's student file in spite of federal health privacy laws. In an e-mail response, officials refused.

Another Gilbert parent, Juliet Chapman, complains that Finley Farms Elementary in Gilbert continually assigns her autistic son to occupational therapy to teach him skills such as tying his shoes even though he already has tested out of it. She adds that the school also continues to ignore her suggestions to set higher goals for her son in his Individual Education Plan.

Eddy and Chapman are among about a dozen parents of autistic children in various Gilbert Public Schools who are demanding that the district provide better training to staff to help address their concerns and ensure their kids can succeed.

Some parents are afraid to speak publicly because they fear that the school staff or administrators will retaliate against their children, placing them in self-contained classrooms where they'll be isolated from typical children and denied the opportunity to develop the social skills they lack as part of their disorder.

Parents of autistic children have been raising these concerns with the Gilbert district for more than a year, according to district e-mails and documents and interviews with the Republic. Some are so frustrated they've formed a local support group, Supporting Autism Now through Education, which also has been lobbying at the Statehouse for better coverage of health problems related to autism.

District officials complain that the parents are involved in an organized effort against GPSchool.

But the parents say they wouldn't have come together if they weren't experiencing similar problems that persist despite their efforts to work with staff and administrators to address their children's individual struggles in the classroom. They've even offered to pool their money to pay for teacher training.

Melissa Van Hook and Holly Reycraft are two parents who have filed formal complaints for which state education officials found there were no violations.

Reycraft is a former special-education teacher for GPS. Among her allegations is that the school district failed to ensure she and her ex-husband were both present at the planning meeting for her son Hunter, then 10.

Van Hook had a similar complaint, saying that she and her husband were not given the opportunity to provide input on their son's plan. Their son is a fifth-grader at Ashland Ranch Elementary.

She later filed a notice of claim through an attorney, essentially a placeholder that leaves her the option of filing a civil rights complaint against the district.

Both women say they took the step of making a formal complaint because they got nowhere with district officials. After several meetings with staff, and then administrators, Van Hook says she and other parents who've tried to work with the district have felt treated like they're troublemakers.

And now, membership in their organization, SANE, is increasing as more parents come to them for help with their problems.

"I don't understand why it has to be so adversarial," said Van Hook, who has two boys with autism disorders. "Why can't they listen to these parents and get a clue that maybe they have some merit?"

The district launched an investigation into parents' complaints about special education, hiring Mesa attorney Richard Lyons to interview Van Hook, Reycraft and others about their concerns.
He was paid through a special insurance program retained by the school. His report refers to their complaints as "the conspiracy." Van Hook says the investigation seemed biased to start with. Lyons has represented school districts in civil rights complaints. Despite Lyons' ties to school districts, Dave Allison, GPS associate superintendent, says he believes the report was fair.

Reycraft says she feels the district needs some sort of representation of families with special-needs children, and has applied for the board seat left open by Traci Klein, who resigned last month without explanation.

High Court Says No to Dismissing Panel from Suit

2008-03-15T22:00:00.001-04:00

Saturday, March 15, 2008
By BOB LOWRY
Times Staff Writer bob.lowry@htimes.com
The Huntsville Times

Madison County Ed Board must face rape case

MONTGOMERY - The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday refused to dismiss the Madison County Board of Education as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by girl who claimed she was raped in 2002, when she was 11 years old, by her physical education teacher.

However, the high court did dismiss the board's personnel director, Jim Nash, as a defendant.

The Board of Education and Nash had claimed immunity under state agency immunity, the 11th Amendment to the Constitution and qualified immunity.

But in overturning a ruling from Madison County Circuit Judge Karen Hall, the Supreme Court said the Board of Education could not be considered an arm of the state, and was not entitled to constitutional protection.

In Nash's case, the tribunal said his actions were "at most negligent and ... he is entitled to qualified immunity."

The case revolved around a suit filed in 2005 by a Madison County family against a former coach and teacher and Madison County school officials. They alleged the teacher, William Ford Reaves, raped their daughter, a special education student at Madison County Elementary School.

The lawsuit says school officials knew about Reaves' background of inappropriate behavior toward young girls but failed to protect them. The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages to be determined by a jury.

The incident didn't come to light until May 2004 when the girl, at the urging of her girlfriends, notified a counselor at Riverton Middle School.

"It appears that over a period of 16 years before they became aware of this allegation, school and/or board officials had investigated various allegations of inappropriate conduct by Reaves on five occasions and had placed written reports in Reaves' file," the Supreme Court said.

Reaves, who was 52 at the time, was reprimanded in some form in response to each allegation, but on the advise of the board's lawyer it was decided there was insufficient evidence to fire
Reaves, who was a tenured teacher, the court said.

The court said Reaves retired before a decision was made to fire him and criminal charges against him were dropped.

Reaves, who had been employed by the county school system since 1983, was a coach at Madison County Elementary School during the 2002-03 school year.

Parents Outraged Over Discovery at Buffalo School #67

2008-03-15T21:30:00.001-04:00

Updated: March 13, 2008 06:40 PM EDT

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Parents wanted to give the school board an earful at Wednesday night's meeting about alleged sexual abuse of a student.

News 4's Alysha Palumbo reports parents had to just sit on their hands.

Parents outraged at the allegations of sexual abuse at School 67 took their concerns to the Buffalo School Board Wednesday night, but they weren't heard because the deadline to speak was Tuesday.

Concerned parent Mike Digiacomo said, "We were told that a public discussion would be available on April 9th. In my opinion, that is far too long."

News 4 has confirmed that a teacher at School 67 discovered the alleged abuse in November when a five-year-old autistic boy was taking a long time in the bathroom.

Buffalo Teachers Federation President Phil Rumore said, "She went in and saw, I think it was the teacher aide, holding the autistic boy's private parts."

Now four months later, parents got this letter from the school's principal, not saying what happened, but that it would be dealt with swiftly and severely.

Digiacomo said, "If it was due to be handled swiftly and severely, the alleged perpetrator should have been removed from the school immediately."

_________________________________________________________

Story by Alysha Palumbo, WIVB.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - - Parents and community members are furious that they've just found out about sexual abuse allegations at School 67, four months after the alleged incident happened.

Rev. Kinzer Pointer, former District-Parent Coordinator, "The reality that this has taken several months to get to this point scares the hell out of me."

News 4 has confirmed that a teacher at School 67 discovered the alleged abuse in November when a five-year-old autistic boy was taking a long time in the bathroom.

Phil Rumore, BTF President, "She went in and saw, I think it was the teacher aide, holding the autistic boy's private parts."

Now four months later, parents got this letter from the school's principal, not saying what happened, but that it would be dealt with swiftly and severely.

Mike DiGiacomo, concerned parent, "If it was due to be handled swiftly and and severely, the alleged perpetrator should have been removed from the school immediately."

Dawn Darling, parent, "I thought you were here to protect our children and obviously not."

Parents took their concerns to the Buffalo School Board tonight, but they weren't heard because the deadline to speak was Tuesday.

Mike DiGiacomo, concerned parent, "We were told that a public discussion would be available on April 9th, in my opinion that is far too long."

_________________________________________________________

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - - Some Buffalo Public School parents are outraged by what allegedly took place in a bathroom at Discovery School 67 in South Buffalo.

Ed Bednarz, parent, "Cause I have kids. A 4 year-old and a 6 year-old. If indeed that's what's happening. It just makes you sick to your stomach."

News 4 has confirmed a teacher became concerned when a 5 year-old autistic child seemed to be in a bathroom little too long.

Phil Rumore, Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) President, "She went in and saw, I think it was the teacher aide, holding the autistic boy's private parts."

The alledged incident involving the aid took place in a bathroom in November, and now many parents are wondering why it took so long to come to light.

Dawn Darling, parent, "I'm furious. Furious. And you knew about this how many months ago?"

Almost 4 months later, parents are just now getting letters about the allegation.

Dawn Darling, parent, "I thought you were here to protect our children and obviously not."

BTF President Phil Rumore says the teacher reported what she saw right away to the principle, the teacher writes the adult was not suspended and charged with sexual abuse. Without another witness to support my statements and the abuser's denial of my charges, my allegations were labeled unfounded.

Phil Rumore, Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) President, "You don't touch a young boy's private parts."

Until a few days ago, the aide was in the same classroom with the teacher and the student.

Rumore wonders why, if the allegation had been made against a teacher.

Phil Rumore, Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) President, "That teacher would have been immediately sent home and put on administrative leave."

The Buffalo Police Department's sex offense squad is investigating and may turn over its findings to the District Attorney's Office in the next week or so.

There are questions about whether proper procedures were followed by the school. The school board may take up the matter Wednesday evening.

Athens educator put on leave for allegedly striking special education student

2008-03-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

By Rich Flowers
March 11, 2008
Athens Daily News, Athens, TX

An Athens Middle School teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave while the school district investigates an allegation she struck a middle school student. Superintendent Dr. Fred Hayes did not identify the teacher under investigation, but said the complaint involves a special education teacher with 17 years experience and a 13-year-old boy.

“The allegation is that the teacher struck the student after he head-butted her. She popped him in the back of the head with an open hand,” Hayes said. “We take it very seriously. We’re dealing with it.”

The teacher was not escorted from the campus, but has been removed from the classroom. Hayes said there had been no prior allegations of student abuse concerning the teacher.

“She will remain on paid leave until we complete the investigation,” Hayes said. “The investigation involves one particular incident and one particular student. Even though it’s very important, I don’t want anyone to think th ere was widespread abuse going on.”

The incident allegedly occurred March 5 and the investigation began the following afternoon. Hayes is conducting the probe in conjunction with the special education department.

“I’m anticipating that probably by Wednesday we should have it wrapped up,” Hayes said of the investigation. “We never like to deal with anything like this. You hope that no teacher would ever strike a student even if it’s a reaction like to being head-butted. In a special ed situation where the student is more apt to hit you, sometimes there’s a response. But if there is, there’s a consequence.”

The complaint came from a nurse who said she witnessed the incident. He said the nurse meets with the child in the classroom a couple of times a week. The nurse told the parents, who in turn told the principal. From there the message was relayed to Hayes.

“Anytime you have something like this, there are rumors out there that are rampant. I would like to have people understand that our job is to keep your child safe,” Hayes said. “We’re going to do everything we can to do that. Sometimes, unfortunately, that means removing the teacher from the classroom, such as in this case.”

If the investigation should result in the termination of the teacher, Hayes said, the information would be forwarded to the state agency that governs teacher employment. The agency would make the determination concerning whether the teacher could be employed elsewhere.

Suits ask Mason schools be held liable for teacher's abusive actions

2008-03-14T20:06:00.001-04:00

3/14/2008 7:00 AM

By Lawrence Smith -Mason Bureau
The West Virginia Record

POINT PLEASANT - The Mason County Board of Education has been named as a co-defendant in two civil suits alleging responsibility for injuries two special needs students suffered at the hands of their teacher.

That teacher, who is named a co-defendant, has a pending suit against the Board challenging an administrative law judge's decision upholding the Board's decision terminating her for the alleged acts.

On Dec. 19, two Mason County residents, identified only as M.F. and A.C., filed separate lawsuits alleging their children, identified only as C.F. and J.C., respectively, were improperly disciplined by their New Haven Elementary preschool teacher, Katherine Parrish. According to the suits, which are identical in wording expect for the names involved, the infants suffered "physical and emotional abuse" as a result of Parrish's actions.

In their complaint and suit, filed with the assistance of Matthew L. Clark, with the Point Pleasant law firm of Kayser, Layne and Clark, the residents allege that Parrish on several occasions between August and December 2006, "placed the infant [C.F/J.C] into a body sock, which brutally restrained [C.F./J.C.] in an abusive manner inconsistent with the child's Individualized Educational Plan or any accepted teaching practice."

Also, the suits allege Parrish, "covered the infant's face and head in an unreasonable manner for an undetermined amount of time while [C.F./J.C.] was restrained in the body sock." During the time they were each restrained, eyewitnesses observed Parrish leave the room.

Likewise, eyewitnesses observed Parrish "pick up [C.F./J.C.] and slam [C.F/J.C] down on the bleachers in an abusive manner." Because of the "physical and mental abuse [C.F./J.C.] suffered at the hands of Katherine Parrish, [C.F./J.C.] frequently recalls the abusive events and becomes frightened, and utters phrases consistent with the abuse endured," the suits allege.

According to court records, Parrish's actions where not halted until Susan Howard, a teacher's aide, reported it to the Board on Dec. 14, 2006. However, Clark says the school's principal, Robert Vaughan, was alerted to this matter a week earlier, but did nothing."

Defendant, Principal Robert Vaughan's inaction allowed the emotional and physical abuse of Defendant, Katherine Parrish, to continue until the Mason County Board of Education suspended and eventually terminated the employment of Defendant, Katherine Parrish," Clark said.

Because of his alleged inaction, Vaughan is named a co-defendant in the suits.

According to court records, the Board terminated Parrish, who lives in Ripley, on Jan. 18, 2007. On July 9, the West Virginia Education and State Employees Grievance Board upheld the school board's decision.

In the suit, Clark alleges that the actions of the three defendants has resulted in the infants to incur "Physical pain and suffering; Medical bills and costs; Mental pain, Suffering and anguish; Anxiety; and Loss of ability to enjoy life."

As compensation, Clark is asking that the three defendants be held jointly and severally liable for their actions so the infants may be awarded "an amount above and beyond the jurisdictional limits of this Honorable Court with prejudgment interest at the legal rate set forth by statute, post judgment interest, costs and attorneys fees incurred in the prosecution of this action."

"Further," Clark added, "Plaintiff[s] demand judgment against Defendant Katherine Parrish, for exemplary and punitive damages in an amount to be decided by a jury, and such further relief as the Court may order just and proper."

Teacher challenging termination

Though the suit was filed in December, neither of defendants has filed a reply. However, in a separate lawsuit, Parrish has challenged her termination.

As first reported by the West Virginia Record, Parrish, with the assistance of James M. Casey and Jeremy Vickers of the Casey Law Offices in Point Pleasant, filed an appeal of the Grievance Board's decision to Mason Circuit Court on Aug. 8. Casey and Vickers challenged personal observations Denise M. Spatafore, the administrative law judge, made in her ruling as "arbitrary, capricious and characterized by abuse of discretion and clearly warranted exercise of discretion."

Other than the Board via its attorney Gregory W. Bailey with Bowles, Rice, McDavid, Graff and Love's Morgantown office filing a motion to dismiss on Aug. 13, and Casey and Vickers submitting the entire record of the Grievance Board's finding into the court record on Oct. 25, no new action has been taken in the case.

All three cases are before Mason Circuit Judge David W. Nibert.

Mason Circuit Court, Case Nos. 07-C-191 (M.F., as guardian and next of kin to C.F.), 07-C-192 (A.C., as guardian and next friend of J.C.) and 07-AA-119 (Parrish)

Lawsuit: Readington school aides failed to report abuse by teacher

2008-03-09T21:14:00.001-04:00

by Ralph R. Ortega/The Star-Ledger
Wednesday March 05, 2008, 5:41 PM

Paraprofessionals and school aides failed to report the alleged physical and emotional abuse of special needs children by a teacher at a Hunterdon County school over a two-year period, according to a lawsuit filed by parents of one of the students.

According to the lawsuit, the child was struck, grabbed, pushed, pinched, restrained, assaulted, battered and locked in a bathroom while attending a morning preschool autism class at the Readington School District during the 2004 and 2005 academic years.

The teacher accused of causing the abuse resigned after the problem was eventually reported to the administration of the Three Bridges School, according to the suit.

The suit, filed Tuesday at the Hunterdon County Courthouse in Flemington, does not detail how many children were allegedly abused. The suit claimed paraprofessionals and school aides witnessed the alleged abuse over the two-year period and failed to report it because they had not been trained on how to do so.

Readington Superintendent Jorden Schiff said a reporting system is now in place, but declined to comment specifically on the suit.

State regulations require that child abuse be reported to the Division of Youth and Family Services. Lisa Eastwood, an attorney for the parents who filed the suit, said a complaint against the teacher was made with DYFS after the alleged abuses were reported, but that finding of abuse was reversed on Friday.

The parents who filed the suit still maintain there was abuse, Eastwood said.

Read more in Thursday's Star-Ledger.

Teen Says Teacher Threw Him to the Floor

2008-03-08T20:27:00.001-05:00

March 8, 2008
By NATALIA MIELCZAREK
Staff Writer
The Tennessean.com

The parents of a 14-year-old boy say he sustained face injuries, including carpet burns and swelling, after his teacher threw him to the floor Wednesday morning.

Donovan Marshall has attended Genesis Academy in Nashville since July, said his mother, Angelique Harris. The 24-year-old private school works with students who have emotional, mental and behavioral issues.

The school's executive direc tor, Terry Adams, declined to comment on the particulars of the case, citing privacy laws. He said the school investigates all incidents.

"I don't think anything was done deliberately, and I certainly think that the employee in this position feels incredible remorse (and) is very dedicated to kids," Adams said. "We're taking very strict disciplinary actions. We don't take it lightly whenever there's a parent complaint."

Adams declined to elaborate on what disciplinary actions have been taken toward the teacher, known only as "Mr. Bolton" because of privacy laws. Harris did not know the teacher's first name.

Adams confirmed Bolton is still employed at the school, and said school officials will meet with the family Monday.

Police report filed

Donovan has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder, his mother said. Bolton told the boy Wednesday morning to go to seclusion because he paced, which is a way for him to relieve stress, Harris said. Bolton allegedly threw him to the floor when he wouldn't go.

"I don't know if Donovan pulled away from him, but he didn't put up a fight," Harris said. "Donovan doesn't lie; if he did something wrong he would have said it. … I want that teacher to not be able to work with kids."

Harris filed a police report after her son got home. Metro police's youth services division is investigating the case, said Kristin Mumford, police spokeswoman. Investigators will interview Bolton at the school. He hasn't been charged with any crime, she said.

Police Say Florida Teacher Abused Students

2008-02-22T22:00:00.003-05:00

Staff Report
Published Friday, Feb. 22, 2008

VENICE, FL — A Venice Elementary School teacher is under arrest this morning, charged with the abuse of mentally handicapped students in her classroom. Venice police say Diana Z. O'Neill hit students on more than one occasion, kicked a child and twisted a child's arm behind his back. Two teacher aides in O'Neill's classroom came forward because they were concerned that the students were in danger, according to police. One of the aides gave school officials a written log of the incidents of alleged abuse.Police documents list four of the five students in O'Neill's classroom as victims in the case. The school district placed O'Neill on administrative leave last week. She turned herself in at the Venice Police Department on Thursday. She's charged with four counts of aggravated child abuse. Police reports say that O’Neill routinely hurt four of the students in her class.

Girl, 7, punished with "body sock"
Parents of a 7-year-old girl, who has the motor skills of an 11- to 14-month-old child, say the teacher’s physical abuse caused their daughter to lose enthusiasm. She had trouble sleeping and became quick-tempered, police reports state.

Aides reported O’Neill had kicked the girl in the legs, hit her in the head with objects, pushed her to the floor and used a “weighted blanket” and a “body sock” — two therapy tools that restrict movement — to punish her.

The aides told police that O’Neill told the girl to get out of a chair on Oct. 12 and gave her “a good push,” causing the girl to trip and hit her head on the floor so hard she started to cry, although she rarely cries.

The girl went to the school nurse, who filled out an incident report based on what O’Neill told her — that the girl “tripped on chair leg — fell backwards on floor,” police records state.

The aides told police O’Neill struck the girl numerous times in December, including three times with a board and with her hand on Dec. 5; with her hand, an arm brace and twice with a binder on Dec. 12; with an arm brace on Dec. 17; and with a water bottle on Jan. 14.

When O’Neill pushed the girl on Jan. 18, she hit her head on a metal door frame and caused a lump, but O’Neill reported the girl “fell into a wall” and had “zero sign of head injury, applied ice,” police said.

A week later, O’Neill got out a blue weighted blanket and wrapped up the girl from head to toe with her hands at her side, and then let her go, one aide told police.

The girl lost her balance and hit her head as she fell to the floor, police reported. As she tried to free herself, she hit the base of a swing, and O’Neill chuckled, the aide told police.

O’Neill also used the body sock to cover the girl, pinning her arms to her sides, then gave her a little push, and the girl fell into a shelf and hit her head, the aide told police.

The girl’s parents told police that since O’Neill was removed from the classroom, the girl has been happier, more verbal, more social, a better sleeper and less aggressive when agitated.

Autistic boy allowed to hit head on wall
A boy in O’Neill’s class who is diagnosed with autism, seizure disorder and developmental delay, has the abilities of a 15- to 24-month-old child, police reports said. His mother says the boy does not know right from wrong in most cases, and has little understanding of consequences.

Aides told police that O’Neill would wheel his chair into the corner when the boy acted up at lunch, leaving him there. The boy would respond by hitting his head on the wall and O’Neill would say sarcastically, “don’t hit your head,” but allowed him to continue.

Once in the corner of the cafeteria, out of sight of most people, O’Neill would also twist his arm behind him or twist fingers until he cried out in pain, the aides said.

There is a chair the boy can be restrained in as an alternative way to control him, the aides said.

The boy has his own nurse with him at all times because of a seizure disorder, but O’Neill would not allow the nurse in the classroom because she said he is a distraction to learning, the aides said.

Girl backhanded in head, reports say
An 11-year-old girl who is in a wheelchair, who had half of her brain removed when she was 11 months old, still has a soft spot in her head where the sections of the skull do not meet. She is also prone to seizures.

O’Neill backhanded the girl in the head, fed her in a rough manner that caused the girl’s lip to bleed and degraded her in front of others, according to police reports.

An aide told police that O’Neill was feeding the girl on Jan. 28 and backhanded her in the head when the girl did not follow prompts to choose between a bite of food or a sip of her drink.The aide said O’Neill would ram the spoon in the girl’s mouth during meals so hard that her gums bled.

Boy, 8, came home with bruises
An 8-year-old boy in O’Neill’s class has Down syndrome and a seizure disorder. His mother told police he has come home from school with bruises on the back of his thighs.

The aides told police O’Neill has hit him in the head with a variety of objects, kicked him in the buttocks, slapped him and pulled a rag from his mouth so hard that it removed a tooth.

O’Neill also used a gait belt as a leash that left bruises and scratches on the boy’s back and neck.The boy just learned to walk and gets tired, and one day O’Neill placed a cloth belt across his chest and under his arms when he sat down on the floor to rest, the aides told police.

O’Neill used the belt to yank the boy to his feet several times, telling him, “You’re going to stand,” aides told police.

Another time, the boy bit down on a wash cloth O’Neill was using to clean out his mouth and she yanked it out so hard that a bottom tooth went flying over her right shoulder, the aides told police.

Last modified: Friday, Feb. 22, 2008 at 2:51 p.m.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080222/BREAKING/338604838/-1/news

Sarasota School District reacts to child abuse charges

2008-02-22T21:42:00.002-05:00

Updated: Feb 22, 2008 11:35 AM EST

VENICE - Sarasota County School Board releases statement about charges of child abuse at Venice Elementary School:

Venice Elementary School teacher Diana O'Neill surrendered to Venice police Thursday evening in connection with allegations that she may have physically abused students in her class.

Other staff members at the school reported that they had witnessed O'Neill engaging in behavior with students that could be considered abusive. Principal Theresa Baus reported the allegations to the Florida Department of Children and Families in late January. O'Neill was placed on administrative leave immediately, pending further investigation. The Sarasota County School district cooperated fully with the Venice Police and DCF investigations.

The results of the DCF investigation indicated that charges were warranted. A probable cause affidavit was issued Feb. 21 by the Florida State Attorney's office.

Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Gary Norris said the district typically suspends any administrative inquiry during a DCF or police investigation to avoid interfering with those proceedings. Once the police investigation is concluded, the district conducts an investigation to determine if disciplinary action is warranted independent of the resolution of the legal case.

"Action may be necessary to respond to professional misconduct even in cases where an individual is not convicted of a crime," Norris said. "Obviously teachers and other school staff must be held to the highest possible standards in matters of student safety and well-being."

Requests for information about criminal charges against O'Neill are being referred to Captain Tom McNulty of the Venice Police Department

Boy with autism died 'while care workers brought drinks and shopping'

2008-02-18T19:40:00.001-05:00

Boy with autism died 'while care workers brought drinks and shopping'

NISKAYUNA, New York State, USA: A 13-year-old boy with autism died on February 15 after police say two care workers for the disabled drove him around for 90 minutes - running errands, buying beverages and shopping - when he stopped breathing in their van.

The men, one of whom allegedly used an improper physical restraint on the boy, Jonathan Carey, were both charged with manslaughter.

Colonie Police said the workers did not seek or offer medical help during the drive on February 15. Instead, the employees of the O.D. Heck Developmental Center in Niskayuna allegedly stopped to buy beverages, then a computer game and then dropped the game off at one man's home.

Edwin Tirado, 35, of 1634 6th Ave., Schenectady, and Nadeem Mall, 32, of 9 Plaske Drive, Schenectady, reported the boy needed medical attention only once they had finally returned to the O.D. Heck Center where the child, who was also mentally retarded, lived, police said.

The child, identified by police as Jonathan Carey, had been with the Niskayuna centre since his parents moved him from a Dutchess County facility they believed had abused him.

We are devastated," sobbed Mike Carey as he and his wife, Lisa, waited for an plane to bring them home. "He was such a special human being."

The Glenmont couple was on a long-awaited vacation together, having left their younger son with friends. It was to be a respite from the constant advocacy for Jonathan.

"We can't believe it," they sobbed from the St. Thomas airport in the Virgin Islands. "We are in total shock."

The accused O.D. Heck employees are being held in Albany County jail without bail.

Police said Mall was driving a van to take Jonathan Carey and a 14-year-old client, whose identity has not been made public, from O.D. Heck to Crossgates Mall, Colonie Police Chief Steven Heider said in a news conference on February 16.

Along the drive, Mall stopped for cash from an ATM and when he returned to the van, according to Heider, Tirado had the boy in the illegal hold. "The two adults rendered no aid and they did not return to O.D. Heck for an hour and a half," Heider said.

Efforts were made to revive the boy at the centre, and he was taken to St. Claire's Hospital in Schenectady, where he was pronounced dead. Police cannot say the boy died in the van because a person is not ruled dead until pronounced so by a hospital or medical examiner, the chief said. An autopsy is set for today.

"The 13-year-old succumbed to what we're alleging were improper and wrongful holds placed on him," Heider said.

Niskayuna Police were called first, but their investigation indicated the boy had been suffocated while being driven around Colonie, he said. Police said the 14-year-old client is verbal and was able to give them a description of the events.

"The bottom line is the Niskayuna police and the first responders did a fantastic job here in being able to pick apart their story," said Albany County District Attorney David Soares. "You couldn't ask for anything better."

Soares said the case would be put to a grand jury for indictment as soon as results of the autopsy are received. Although current information supports the charges of manslaughter, Soares said, he would not rule out the possibility of increased charges.

"It's too early to tell," he said. "At this point in time, my thoughts are with the Carey family."

The state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, which oversees the centre, issued a statement on February 16 expressing sadness over the boy's death.

"Officials have been and will continue to work closely with law enforcement as they piece together what happened," the statement said, adding the agency provides "intensive staff training, monitoring and follow-up of any use of behavioural interventions and, given the current situation, these protocols will once again be reviewed."

Spokeswoman Deborah Sturm Rausch said she was not sure if she could find information about what Mall and Tirado's exact job titles were, or whether they had to be, or were, licensed.

Tirado, who had worked at the agency for six years, was the person restraining the boy but Mall had an equal responsibility for failing to provide or get medical assistance, Heider said. He declined to specify what hold was used but said the boy suffocated.

A woman answering the door with an infant at Mall's Schenectady home declined to comment. There was no answer when a reporter approached Tirado's home.

Since 2004, the Carey family has fought for legislation to force state agencies to disclose information they said could prove abuse of patients like their son. In October that year, Mike said he found Jonathan, then 11, naked, covered in bruises and lying in his own urine in the Anderson School in Dutchess County. The father had popped in unexpectedly to visit his son and took him home the same day.

The Careys said they never knew what their son endured because Jonathan was non-verbal and could not tell them himself. He was moved to O.D. Heck where the Careys said in December he was doing well.

The Careys described the fawn-haired boy with huge cerulean eyes as a good son who loved his father and mother. "He loved to watch Jesus films," Mike said softly. "He loved people and wanted to be around people. He loved horses. There was just so much love in his heart."

Jonathan was a regular visitor of the New Horizons stable on Pearse Road. When he was riding horses, Jonathan seemed happy, his parents said.

The Careys sued Anderson School in 2005, in state Supreme Court in Albany, claiming the institution and its staff violated Jonathan's right to safety and nourishment.

In December, Mike Carey said, "No parent or guardian should ever have to go through what Lisa and I have had to endure just to get answers. We would have been arrested if what happened to Jonathan had happened at home."

Since then, the couple has fought to get sealed records opened that they believe could reveal who had physically abused the boy as well as who knew it but did nothing to prevent it or report it. He said he hoped his son's death would enable the family to get the law changed.

"This is what we had been concerned about, what we have been fighting for," Mike said, of his son's death. "We really felt compelled, like a God-given responsibility, to help other children, to get changes and reform to help prevent something like this from happening."

Jonathan's death is prompting county lawmakers to renew calls for the passage of Jonathan's Law. The Rensselaer County Legislature is now calling on state lawmakers to take action and pass the Bill. If it passes, the law would give parents the right to access their children's records. Right now, that information cannot be released and acts of abuse can be concealed from families.

Jonathan's family has been trying to get a law passed since 2004, after they said their son was being mistreated at a Dutchess County facility.

(Source: Albany Times Union, February 17, 2007)

Teacher Accused Of Duct-Taping Boy To Desk

2008-02-12T22:07:00.001-05:00

Middle School Teacher Gets 10-Day Suspension
POSTED: 11:12 pm EST February 12, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A middle school teacher accused of using duct tape to bind a student to his desk was suspended for more than a week without pay for the alleged incident.

The Duval County School Board voted on Tuesday to suspend Kasey Goodin for 10 days without pay.

The school board made its decision after hearing the teacher's version of what happened inside the Kirby-Smith Middle School classroom, WJXT reported.

The district said Goodin told investigators the taping incident was a joke.

However, board members didn't think it was funny.

"It's just not funny for a child to be taped, whether it's in jest or it's a disciplinary measure," said school board chair Betty Burney.

In Goodin's written account of what happened in the classroom, the teacher said, "There was a light-hearted mood in the class as I walked to the supply closet and removed a roll of purple duct tape and a roll of masking tape … The class was laughing. I was laughing. The student was laughing."

WJXT was told Goodin took that duct tape and taped the student's leg to his desk before she used the masking tape to tape his hands and his face.

"The masking tape was applied to the student's hands. The student immediately removed it, laughing throughout the incident. Within the next few minutes, the 'play' was over, the tape was removed," the teacher wrote in her statement.

She ended her account stating, "This incident, was in reality, an opportunity to have fun with the students while getting a message to them. Looking back, I know that it was inappropriate for me to break the lines of formality."

The student involved has since been removed from Goodin's classroom.

"The reason why we didn't go for something as severe as dismissal, it did appear at least it started out as something more lighthearted," said Duval County Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals.

Board members said the teaching position at Kirby is the teacher's first job and she has shown good behavior in the past.

"I understand that it was a young teacher. I just felt that we needed to send a stronger message," said Burney.

Burney was the only board member who voted against Goodin's 10-day suspension, saying she didn't think the punishment was harsh enough.

Board members also voted that the teacher should get counseling.

http://www.local6.com/news/15287294/detail.html

Parents Battle Special Ed. Program After Student is Seriously Injured

2008-02-10T22:53:00.001-05:00

Updated: Feb 8, 2008 12:16 AM EST
By Natalie Arnold

A group of parents is refusing to send their children back to the special education program at a Neenah elementary school after one student was seriously injured by a teacher.

So far everyone agrees it was an accident but the parents say this was not the first time their children have been hurt, and they are demanding a change.

Even though her daughter is ten, Ann Lutz feels that day care would be much better for Nicole than a Neenah public school.

"I've lost complete trust in the school, the staff, and actually the school district," Lutz said.

Two months ago, a teacher at Coolidge Elementary broke Nicole's jaw when he tried to remove her from a piece of equipment that helps disabled children stand.

"Nicole's teeth, gum, and the bone that the teeth are into completely came out of her mouth," Lutz described.

As soon as two other parents found out, they took their children out of school, too. All say their kids have been hurt in the past.

"I told Ann I would not send Brittany back to school until something is done. Something has to be done," parent Christine Becker said.

Despite claims to the contrary, as far as the district is concerned, what happened to Lutz's daughter was an isolated incident. Officials defend the teacher and the program.

Anne Lang is director of pupil services. "There really wasn't anything that was done wrong in terms of, as I said, negligence of that sort. We really feel that the teacher has been doing a great job. The educational assistants have been spoken to."

The parents say that's just not true. They won't bring their kids back until there's a change. The best option, they believe, would be a complete change in staff.

"I'm just amazed at the response of the school system. I'm really disappointed," Lutz said.

SJ School Police Handcuff Autistic Boy

2008-01-31T21:35:00.003-05:00

Gunnar Moody, 11, told NBC11 that it all started when he was singing a song while doing sit-ups in physical education class.

"She was like, 'Gunnar, you have to leave now.' I didn't do anything wrong. Why do I have to leave? Everyone else is being loud; why do I have to get in trouble?' Then she said it three more times and then she handcuffed me. And it was kind of humiliating because it was in front of all those kids and she was, like, picking me up and dragging me out," Gunnar said.

Gunnar's parents said what happened at Bret Harte Middle School is unacceptable.

"The bottom line he's in phys ed. And all the kids are making noise yelling, screaming and talking and he gets singled out for going 'la-la-la?'" Michael Moody, Gunnar's father, said.

His mother, Laura Moody, asked a campus police officer if Gunnar had threatened anyone.

"I specifically asked the officer, 'did he threaten you?' She said no. I said, 'did he threaten any other child?' And she said no. I think there should be a better line drawn on what kind of force to use. And especially with children with disabilites," Laura Moody said.

NBC11 obtained a copy of Gunnar's behavior support plan that outlines what to do if he misbehaves in school. Using physical force is not one of them.

The San Jose Unified School District issued the following statement: The officer's actions helped to maintain a safe atmosphere for the other 30 students in the class.

The use of restraints is extremely rare and would only be used when deemed absolutely necessary by the officer for the protection of the student and his other classmates.

Gunnar's parents plan to meet with school district leaders Friday to talk about what happened.

Gunnar is suspended for three days.

Asked if he want to go back to Bret Harte Middle School, Gunnar said, "No. Because the kids will like pick on me and stuff. Because that happened."

http://www.nbc11.com/news/15183731/detail.html

Physical Education

2008-01-24T20:34:00.001-05:00

When special-ed teachers seclude and restrain students, the state says no one needs to know
by Elizabeth Ulrich
Nashville Scene.com
January 24, 2008

Rob Zimmerman’s son Jack is the kind of smart, happy child who loved school. But two years ago, Jack’s dad says, that suddenly changed. When the now 11-year-old moved to another special-ed classroom at his Williamson County school, Zimmerman says Jack’s new teacher did not believe he was “as much autistic as he was ornery.”

The teacher told the family that Jack was “trying to trick her.” Jack’s behavior changed, as he began to dread school and act out—screaming and spiraling out of control.

Zimmerman and his wife were shocked to learn why: Jack’s teachers had taken him down the hall to a janitor’s closet, placed him inside and shut the door, leaving the boy to sit alone in the dark for up to three hours at a time on more than one occasion. “They said he liked it better when it was dark,” an animated Zimmerman told a group of state lawmakers Tuesday. “We’re talking about human life—my son’s life,” Zimmerman said.

And it wasn’t long before Jack told his parents that his teachers were also “umphing him,” describing the groaning sound his teachers made as they held him down for “ornery” behavior. In his own way, Jack alerted his parents to a growing problem in special-ed classrooms all over the state: the unreported, undocumented use of seclusion and restraint.

Jack’s case is rare in the sense that he was able to tell his parents he had been restrained and stuffed into a closet that his father says school employees called a “calming room.” Many autistic children are not as verbally developed as Jack and are therefore incapable of reporting abuse.

Often, these are children who, as Zimmerman puts it, are “set up for abuse.”

After reports like Zimmerman’s began to trickle in, the Disability Coalition on Education (DCE), a statewide organization of educators, advocacy groups and families, reviewed state law and found that there are no guidelines to regulate how—or if—schools should report such incidents or document how often they occur.

To push state lawmakers to draft legislation to require such oversight, representatives from several advocacy organizations for the disabled and mentally ill met Tuesday with a House-Senate study committee. They discussed the methods of restraint and seclusion now used with Tennessee special-ed students.

The committee also heard a tearful Gary Hassell talk about his son, a special-education student with autism at Oakmont Elementary in Dickson County, who had been physically restrained, face-down, on the classroom floor. School employees held his son down for an hour in what is called the “prone” position, a controversial hold that some experts say can result in asphyxia in as few as six minutes.

Similar methods of seclusion and restraint have led to the deaths of two teens at Chad Youth Enhancement Center, a residential treatment facility for troubled youth just outside of Clarksville (“Handle With Care,” Nov. 8) and have been key components in claims of abuse and neglect at Hermitage Hall, a Nashville private residential facility that treats male sex offenders (“Bad Medicine,” Dec. 13).

State records for Chad and Hermitage Hall, both of which are licensed by the state’s Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (DMHDD), describe hundreds of cases where young residents are physically restrained, often violently, by facility staff. Neither DMHDD nor the Department of Children’s Services finds anything out of the ordinary or troubling about these incidences, according to interviews with officials there, and Gov. Phil Bredesen’s office also has been unswayed by reports of abuses at these juvenile facilities, directing questions back to the departments.

But Tennessee public schools are not required to report incidents of seclusion and restraint to the state—or even to parents such as Zimmerman. Carol Westlake, the executive director of the Tennessee Disability Coalition, told the study committee that, while state law requires in-patient facilities and residential juvenile programs to report how often such incidents occur, public schools remain one of the only places in the state without that mandate.

And, while facilities such as Chad and Hermitage Hall purport to have stringent requirements for teaching workers how to properly administer restraint holds, schools are not legally required to train employees.

DCE Chair Holly Lu Conant Rees says her organization has repeatedly requested a copy of the Metro schools’ policy on seclusion and restraint but has received nothing.

Conant Rees tells the Scene that her organization has started to collect data from parents across the state to push state lawmakers to draft legislation.

Thirty families, several of whom have students in Metro public schools, completed a DCE survey saying that their children have experienced multiple incidents of restraint and seclusion in the classroom. DCE describes the findings as “uniformly disturbing.”

Of those families reporting incidents to DCE, 40 percent said school staffers injured their children, who showed signs of bruising, contusions, abrasions and nail and grip marks. And 60 percent of families reported that their children experienced significant psychological and behavioral setbacks after being restrained or secluded. The children had acted out with violent tantrums and experienced anxiety, night terrors and psychosis.

It’s a familiar story to parents like Zimmerman, who says it only takes one encounter with a “bad apple” in the special-education classroom to change a child’s life forever. “If you don’t have documentation, you don’t have accountability.”

Two teachers charged with abusing student

2008-01-20T22:18:00.002-05:00

By Will Richmond
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Jan 17, 2008 @ 08:13 PM

Westport —
Two Macomber Elementary School teachers have been summonsed into court to face charges they physically abused a special education student.

Teacher Renee Rego, 47, of 91 Horton St., Fall River, is being charged with a single count of caretaker who permits or commits an assault and battery, and mistreatment or neglect on a disabled person. Assistant teacher Linda Liberty, 46, of 9 Sylvania St., Westport, is facing two counts of simple assault and battery on a mentally retarded child. All three charges are felonies.

Both women have been scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 5 in Fall River for their arraignments.

Superintendent Linda Galton offered few comments on the matter, but did say both women are still teaching at the Macomber School and will continue to do so unless further allegations should lead to their removal.

“At this time we have completed our investigation, and the staff remains in place,” Galton said.

Prior to that comment Galton said, “We really don’t comment on these sorts of things. They involve staff and staff matters are confidential under state law. “Whenever issues like this are brought to our attention we take them very seriously and investigate and make assessments, and we have done that.”

Westport Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jeffrey Majewski, in a brief statement before referring comments to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, said the investigation was thorough and justified the bringing up the charges.

District Attorney’s Office spokesman Gregg Miliote said that office will pick up where the Westport police left off.

“We are investigating this alleged incident, and once they’re in for arraignment we can proceed with the case,” Miliote said. In the meantime, the father of the child — whose identity is being withheld by The Herald News to protect the identity of the child — is keeping his out of school.

“My son is not returning until those teachers are removed, but I’m told they are not taking any disciplinary action” the father said. “I’m concerned for his emotional well-being in the classroom and I fear of him getting some kind of action put on him for doing something wrong. My son is autistic, he can’t come home and say ‘Daddy my teachers hurt me.’”

The father said a meeting has been scheduled with School Department officials to take place this morning, though, he was not sure who from the School Department would be in attendance. He said he is not yet sure if his family will take any legal action against the school or teachers.

For now, though, the father is not happy with the way this matter has been handled.

“I feel that we’ve been left totally in the dark and ignored,” he said. “I’m chasing them (school officials) and it’s almost like from their point of view that it’s not a big thing and we should just let it go. They have no sense of urgency. ... I would expect the school to be more willing to fix this than to say there’s nothing wrong here.”

According to a police report filed in District Court by Westport Police, Jill Alberto, a substitute teacher employed in a special education classroom on Jan. 8 and 9, witnessed the two teachers participate in what the report described as “disturbing events.”

During the course of the two days, Alberto said she observed Liberty stepping on the feet of a student who kept removing his shoes due to sensory issues related to the child’s disability.

“Ms. Alberto explained that she witnessed Ms. Liberty step on (the child’s) feet at least ‘twenty times’ during both days while she was wearing sneakers on her feet,” the report penned by Majewski reads. “Ms. Alberto told me that (the child) was visibly in pain while Ms. Liberty was stepping on his feet.”

Alberto alleged that Rego forced the child to go over to the class fish tank and feed the fish even though the child has an aversion to water.

The allegations also include a paraprofessional reporting that she witnessed Liberty grabbing the same student by the arm as the he exited a bathroom. Lucy Cordeiro told police Liberty pulled the child “so forcefully that she ‘thought it had the possibility of dislocating his shoulder.”

The report continues to state that “Ms. Liberty looked mad when she grabbed and pulled (the child).”

According to the report, the child’s parents were told his shoes were taken off because the child had food on his feet and that the staff didn’t put his shoes back on because the child thought it was funny.

Rego also told police that one of the strategies to keep the child from removing his shoes was to “go over to him and ‘tap his feet with their feet.’”

However, the child’s mother told police that the foot tapping was not part of the student’s individual education plan.

In regard to the bathroom incident, Liberty, according to the police report, said the child had begun to run and she simply put her arm up to stop him from getting away.

Under a later round of questioning, however, Cordeiro, according to the report, said the child “was not doing anything wrong” when the child turned his head and Liberty “grabbed his arm and pulled him hard.” After further questioning about whether the incident could have been as Liberty described it, Cordeiro continued to deny that could be the case. “Ms. Cordeiro was adamant that was not the case and that there was no need to grab and pull (the child) the way Liberty had done,” the report states. Alberto also accused Rego of placing her fingers in a jar of peanut butter and then proceeding to put them in the mouth of another child.

The report states that Alberto said this caused the child discomfort and resulted in a lot of peanut butter in and around the child’s mouth and that the tactic was done right after the child had acted out in class. Alberto said in the report that this was done as a form of punishment because the child had eating issues and basically required food be in a pureed form. According to the police report police were stonewalled by Westport school officials.

The report indicates that the parents of one child had spoken with Special Education Coordinator Ralph Tripp III and were told by him that he was unaware of any allegations, only for the parents to then learn that a meeting between Tripp, Principal Sue Wilkinson and Galton had taken place the previous day.

Both Galton and Tripp responded that they were at the school on an unrelated matter.

During initial questioning during a phone conversation, Tripp allegedly told police he was not going to comment on the matter.

“With no disrespect, I am not going to speak with you any further about this,” Tripp told police, the report states.

Galton also told Majewski that she had filed a complaint with Town Administrator Michael Coughlin because the police chief had not notified her of the investigation. In that conversation, Galton told Majewski that the School Department had conducted its own investigation and determined there was no wrongdoing.

Galton would not comment Thursday about allegations of School Department officials refusing to cooperate with police.

http://www.heraldnews.com/homepage/x1151548247

"This Abuse Must Stop!"

2008-01-02T20:50:00.001-05:00

Parents pull son from school over restraint issue

By Donna C. Gregory NEWS EDITOR

Priscilla and Chip Greene share some family time with their three sons (from left), Travis, 6, Coleman, 9, and Parker, 11.

December 19, 2007 - A Clover Hill Elementary second-grader is getting a longer than normal holiday break after his parents withdrew him from school amid claims of physical abuse.

Chip and Priscilla Greene have removed their son, Coleman, from Clover Hill following a series of incidents where he was allegedly physically restrained by a special education aide. The situation escalated on Nov. 30 when the Greenes received a call from school, asking them to come pick up Coleman, who suffers from Down's Syndrome and ADHD. When Chip Greene arrived at school, a staff member who the family chose not to identify, advised him to check Coleman for bruises. A physician later confirmed bruising on Coleman's back, shoulder and chest and a scratch on his neck. Coleman has not been back to school since.

This is not the first time Coleman has been injured due to the use of physical restraint, says Priscilla Greene. While attending Hopkins Elementary School as a kindergartener, Coleman was physically restrained by a teacher in front of his mother after he walked out of a classroom without permission. "She had him on the ground with his arms crossed, and her legs were wrapped around his legs," recalls Coleman's mother. "I was told it was done only in extreme circumstances." Priscilla Greene, however, doesn't believe walking out of a classroom qualifies as an "extreme circumstance."

Three weeks later, Coleman allegedly came home from school with a sprained arm. He was ultimately moved to a different special education classroom, and there were no more incidents the rest of the year. After Coleman was injured at Hopkins, the Greenes asked the school system to adopt a general restraint policy. Now, more than two years later, the Greenes say their request has been ignored.

Chip Coleman spoke before school board members last week, asking them yet again to enact a restraint policy. "The policy would consist of guidelines and procedures that school staff must follow in order to protect our children," Chip Coleman told board members. "I stand before you tonight with a heavy heart because the school system has allowed my son to be physically restrained again and injured…This abuse must stop! Physical restraint cannot be used unless a guideline or procedure is put into place that will protect the child."

Chip Coleman held up a notebook for board members to see, saying, "This is Coleman's homework journal. It is a log of what goes on in Coleman's day. Beginning Sept. 17 and for the next 11 weeks, Coleman was physically restrained 10 times, placed in time-out with restraint 14 times, regrouped with restraint 11 times, and placed in secluded time-out in the special education classroom or conference room 22 times. And this only reflects the times the school staff wrote in this journal."

The Greenes were unaware of what was happening to Coleman until they specifically asked if restraint was being used. Coleman's aide had begun to complain that he was biting, kicking and head-butting during the school day. The Greenes believe Coleman's bad behavior was a result of being physically restrained by his aide. When Coleman would fail to complete his class work, Priscilla Greene says his aide would forcibly remove him from his general education classroom and take him to a special education classroom or conference room to "regroup."

Two other parents related similar stories to school board members, before again asking for a physical restraint policy. "William has been restrained," said Cheryl Curbeam, referring to her five-year-old son who has developmental delays. "This was without my knowledge. Why was I never informed that teachers were allowed to restrain my son? We will not remain silent on this issue."

Donna Hobbs related an incident at Ecoff Elementary where her son, Cody, was allegedly locked inside a closet for 30 minutes. "I did not get so much as a note home," complained Hobbs. "The school has done nothing to resolve this issue. The teacher has received no consequence for her actions."

Priscilla Greene shares Hobbs' frustration. "Just because [Coleman] has a disability, that does not give them any more right to put their hands on him," she says, adding that the use of restraint has traumatized her son. "Now, he says school is a big scary monster." On many school days, Coleman would complain of stomach aches. Priscilla Greene now believes that was his way of trying to avoid going to school.

The Greenes are currently juggling work schedules in order to care for Coleman during the day when he'd normally be at school. "We are going to try to get through the holidays, and then we are going to try again to place him [in a private school] in January. It is not safe for him to go back to school in Chesterfield County."

The family has also hired an attorney to explore their legal options.

Debra Marlow, director of community relations, provided the following statement about the school system's use of physical restraint: "There are procedures and guidelines that staff follow when needed. These actions are based on guidance from the Virginia Department of Education. Restraint is only used when necessary and when there is a danger to the child or others." Earlier this month, a 35-page document containing recently revised procedures for "physical interventions/restraint" was sent to all county schools by a special education instructional specialist. When asked if this document qualifies as the "general restraint policy" the Greene family has requested, Marlow replied, "It's not a policy, it's a procedure. It is the procedure that is used and is adopted from state department of education regulations." The revision updates prior documents that date back to 1996. Marlow declined to comment on the Greene family's allegations of physical abuse, saying that would violate the school system's privacy policy. "We wouldn't discuss individual student's cases publicly," said Marlow. She did confirm, however, that the school system is reviewing its use of restraint on students in special education programs. "Any time a member of the public brings a concern to a school board meeting, we would investigate it," said Marlow.

Cherry Hill Parents Outraged Over 'Quiet Room'

2008-01-02T20:45:00.001-05:00

CHERRY HILL, N.J. (CBS 3) ―
Nov 28, 2007

Outraged parents attended a school board meeting Tuesday evening to discuss the discovery of a padded 'quiet room' inside a Cherry Hill school last month.

Parents met with school officials to discuss the room during a public meeting at the Clara Barton School on Rhode Island Avenue in Cherry Hill.

The room was first disclosed during an October meeting where parents were apparently told the padded room may have been used for children with autism and behavioral problems.

Concerned parent Lisa Grams used her cell phone to snap photos of the small, windowless storage room which was lined with gym mats.

"It made me sick. It made me absolutely sick," said Grams.

Grams said she took photos and video of the room while visiting the school in October.

"I walked into the room and it stunk so bad; the air was just very old. The gym mat, it smelled like urine," Grams said.

She said special education students notified her that other students with autism and other behavioral issues may have been put in the 'quiet room' in order to calm down.

Grams' son, who is autistic, was never placed in the room, but it concerned for other students at the school.

"How dare this school system treat small children so disrespectful," an outraged parent said during Tuesday night's meeting.

Not all parents were outraged over the school's actions. A parent of a special needs student applauded the district's polices.

"This is a dedicated group of people here in our administration," the parent said.

A School District spokesperson told CBS 3 the room was only used once under supervision for a student in crisis and they had received prior parental consent.

The school also followed up with the family after the incident and received no complaints. School officials said the room has been dismantled and has not been used since.

The Special Education Alliance:
http://www.cherryhillsea.com/paddedroom.htm

View photos of padded closet w/description:
http://revpage.com/tips/cherry%20hill/russell_knight_school.htm

Best Practices in Behavior Management

2008-01-02T20:30:00.002-05:00

By Kathi Magee
Courier Post Online - Autism Blog
November 20, 2007
Reprinted with Permission

Many have emailed me personally about the Best Practice Guidelines from the Children's Welfare League of America (CWLA). Some inquired as to how they came about, others asked for the specific guidelines and why Cherry Hill does not follow them.

Let me begin by explaining how the CWLA came to their conclusions on what is considered "Best Practice." The CWLA was a participant in the Children's Health Act of 2000. They also wrote the Best Practice Guidelines for Behavior Management. Through their acquired experience they became all too familiar with the dangers associated with restraining special needs children, as many had incurred significant injuries and in some cases children actually died from the use of physical restraint. The CWLA was also familiar with the psychological impact that restraint and seclusion had on special needs children. These children became more anxious, and their behaviors worsened when secluded. After several years of writing and re-writing their guidelines on restraint and seclusion, the CWLA came to realize that the bigger problem was that restraint and seclusion could not possibly be part of any "Best Practice" approach. These techniques needed to be prevented and eliminated as much as possible. Restraint and seclusion serve no educational value and these practices injure and in some cases led to the death of special needs children.

The CWLA was also aware that training alone was not enough to reduce restraint and seclusion. Although staff training is a key aspect, many times the core leadership, needs to be changed in order to facilitate the culture change necessary to eliminate the need for restraint and seclusion.

"To truly reduce, if not eliminate these aversive techniques, it would require a change in leadership and a change in the organizational culture." (quote from the CWLA's report on preventing and reducing the use of restraint and seclusion.)

After numerous revisions of their Best Practice Guidelines, by September 2003 they changed the name of the grant to Best Practices in Behavior Support and Intervention: Preventing and Reducing the Use of Restraint and Seclusion.

The five goals for the Best Practices in Behavior Support and Intervention are:
1. Staff will use restraint and seclusion in emergency situations only when absolutely necessary to maintain the safety of themselves, [students], and others.
2. Eliminate the unnecessary use of restraint and seclusion.
3. Reduce the risk of deaths.
4. Reduce injuries among [children] and staff.
5. Reduce the duration of restraint and seclusion.
6. Increase debriefing with children, family members, and staff.

*Please note: As these goals were written to include children in residential facilities, I have substituted the word "resident" with the word "student" or "children" as necessary.

The CWLA strongly recommends the establishment of an Oversight Committee to monitor the reduction of such aversive techniques. The committee should include executive leadership (administrators), supervisors, staff members (teachers and aides), advocates and parents. The sole focus of the oversight committee is to monitor the campaign to reduce the use of restraint and seclusion.

The committee must be empowered to implement changes (NETI, 2003).
It should ensure that an executive team leader is on-call and that staff immediately report every incident of restraint and seclusion to him or her.
The committee should carefully review every physical intervention incident, take responsibility for recommending any program or policy revisions based on incident review, and make sure that staff members are receiving the necessary resources to realize the committee's mission (Abrams, 2001).

The CWLA strongly believes that every time physical interventions become necessary it is an indication that the child's program has failed.

How can this help our special needs children in Cherry Hill?

First, we as a community must come to the realization that the Best Practice Guidelines must be adhered to in educating our special needs population. This will help both our special needs population as well as our typical students. It will also provide for training of our teachers and aides that are working with our children on a daily basis.

I think we can all agree that aversive techniques do not "teach" our children the skills to maintain themselves in a socially appropriate manner. Restraint and seclusion do not foster a child's development and do not serve any educational value.

Teaching the appropriate skills so that children can regulate their own behavior and focusing on the positive interventions for behavior modification should be the standard approach in our school district. It also happens to be the law. Any school administrator that does not comprehend this essential concept in behavior management should not be a school administrator.

Moving Forward:

Many parents have voiced their concerns about the use of physical restraint and seclusion as it applies to our special needs children. The blog that focused on this topic has continued to receive reader comments, which are now in excess of 130! While I am reasonably sure that the Board of Education continues to follow this blog, I think it may be important for parents to address the BOE about this topic during the next BOE meeting (Tuesday 11/27/07, 7:00 PM at Clara Barton Elementary School).

I think the BOE needs to hear from parents, as it pertains to the concerns regarding restraint and seclusion practices. Our BOE should also be made "officially" aware of the fact that parents have tried to follow the Chain of Command in resolving this critical issue. The fact that administrators, including our Superintendent, refused to address the matter with parents, does not mean that parents did not attempt to follow the Chain of Command. We have been given the usual runaround and parents need to advise the BOE of this.

If you are a parent that has tried to follow the Chain of Command, only to be referred back to the first link - it is important that you let the BOE know this. It is my understanding that our administrators position is that they have not received any complaints about this situation.It is highly possible that the BOE was given a watered down version of this padded closet and it's uses. It may be important for the BOE to hear the other side of this issue and learn more about this padded closet and the detrimental impact it could have on our children.

It has become apparent that many have lost faith in our current school administration. The fact that our administrator's even allowed this padded closet to be constructed, let alone defended its' use, is grounds for any parent to question the morals and integrity of our administrators. To add insult to injury, many were denied access to administrators when we had questions about this matter. Also, some of the comments that were left on the two prior blogs, presumably from administrators; have now led to a serious lack of confidence in the administration's ability or willfulness to provide a safe learning environment for our children. This too, needs to be brought to the attention of the BOE.

If we approach the BOE, during public comment, in a thoughtful and dignified manner, explaining our overall concerns, I believe we can make a great deal of progress and set forth measures to eliminate these aversive techniques in the future and hopefully foster an environment where parents, teachers and administrators can work together for the common good of our children.

There is some indication that our teachers support our position on this issue. We have had several teachers write in on the blog that have indicated the lack of training in regards to applying these positive interventions. Our teachers and aides have been requesting this critical training for some time. They are interested in applying these positive strategies to not only "teach" our children the necessary skills but also to reduce the incidents of restraint and seclusion. With all of the issues that our teaching staff is facing (working without a contract) I applaud them for taking the time to support parents on this issue.

Please join me at the next BOE meeting to stand up for the children in Cherry Hill that require positive behavioral supports. Mark your calendar for Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 7:00 PM. This meeting is at Clara Barton Elementary School.

Since many have asked, and a few administrators have alluded to the fact that this padded closet did not exist, I am providing the pictures of the padded closet for anyone interested in viewing them. You will quickly realize why I do not like referring to this as a Quiet Room, as it was quite literally a padded closet! Click here to see the photos.

Please Note: I am not supplying these photos to "stir the pot" as an administrator accused me of recently. I want readers to see exactly what we are referring to and form their own conclusions.

Mother of boy with Down's sues Randolph, State School Boards, School

2008-01-02T20:20:00.001-05:00

10/31/2007 7:00 PM
By Cara Bailey -Kanawha Bureau

CHARLESTON - The mother of an 11-year-old boy diagnosed with Down's Syndrome has filed a personal injury lawsuit against the school where her son attended and several school employees who were supposed to help him.

Brenda Renee Barrows, of Randolph County, filed a suit Oct. 15 in Kanawha Circuit Court on behalf of her son, Barry Barrows, who attended Elkins Third Ward Elementary.

The suit names the Randolph County Board of Education and the West Virginia Board of Education as defendants, along with several school officials, teachers and aides. Barrows claims the actions of the defendants were "shocking and reprehensible. "

Barry Barrows has been diagnosed with Down's Syndrome since birth, the suit says. He also suffers from a seizure disorder, which requires medicine at regular intervals. Barrows entered the Randolph County School system in 1999, where he was enrolled as a student in need of special education services.

According to the suit, in August 2005, Barrows was placed in the classroom of defendant Penelope Friddle. The suit says Friddle determined that Barrows had behavioral issues, despite Brenda Barrows working with her on that issue.

Friddle, and the school, claimed everything happening to Barry Barrows "was his fault because he was unable to conform or cooperate or was the result ... of bad parenting," the suit says.

Brenda Barrows claims she soon noticed her son not wanting to go to school.

"Throughout the school year while in the care of Friddle, the school began a practice of strapping Barry Charles Barrows in his chair," the suit says.

According to the suit, Barrows was distraught and constantly distressed over the reported behaviors of her son, so she had him reevaluated by the Klingberg Neurodevelopmental Center. A physician at the center submitted a recommendation to the Randolph County Board of Education, suggesting that Barry Barrows should have his own aide.

However, he was never provided an aide, the suit says.

During the 2006-07 school year, Brenda Barrows went to the school to deliver medication for her son. Upon arriving, she claims she found her son strapped in the Easy Stander chair.

The Easy Stander chair is normally used as a therapeutic device to prevent, reverse or improve the adverse effects of prolonged immobilization in paraplegic or quadriplegic children.

"It was reported to Brenda Renee Barrows that Barry Charles Barrows was placed in the Easy Stander as a punishment due to giggling or laughing during reading," the suit says.

Brenda Barrows claims she immediately left and drove to the Board of Education offices, where she met with defendant Donna Simmons, the director of special education. Barrows claims she was told this was not the first time her son had been strapped in the chair for discipline purposes.

Friddle, and aides Georgia Williams and Charlotte Scott, who are also named as defendants, confirmed the use of the Easy Stander as discipline, the suit says.

Barrows removed her son from the class, and did not return him until the school board could assure his safety. He returned Nov. 28, 2006. No extra aide was ever hired for Barry Barrows.

In the nine-count suit, Brenda Barrows claims the defendants are responsible for assault and battery, infliction of severe emotional distress and false imprisonment.

Therefore, Brenda and Barry Barrows seek compensatory damages for pain and suffering, punitive damages and court costs.

Attorneys Belinda A. Haynie and George B. Armistead are representing the Barrows. The case has been assigned to Judge Louis Bloom.

Kanawha Circuit Court case number 07-C-2196.

Unlawful Restraint of 3 Year Old?

2008-01-02T20:15:00.001-05:00

By Dan O'Donnell
Story Created: Oct 11, 2007
Story Updated: Oct 30, 2007

Click here to listen to Dan's report

For Hasmig Tempesta, it was the surprise of her life.

Her autistic 3 year-old son Zachary attends the Early Childhood program at Red Apple Elementary School in Racine. While at home, he receives treatment from an autism therapist.

"She went to check in on [Zachary] at school and came back the next day to ask me if I knew he was being belted into a chair," Hasmig said. "Of course I said no. She explained that any time that he was sitting down, he was belted into that chair. She was there for an hour and a half and said he was in that chair for about 50 minutes."

That chair is known as a Rifton Toddler Chair and, according to the company's website, is intended to be used solely by children with physical disabilities and not as a behavioral restraint.

When Hasmig asked about this, the school would not give her a straight answer.

"They said 'some kids need it and some kids don't and it's really the parents' choice,'" she recalled, noting that the school never told her about its use of the chair.

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's guidelines for the physical restraint and seclusion of students indicate that "the use of mechanical or chemical restraint is not appropriate for use in schools without medical authorization and oversight."

"It can only be used if it has been included in the individualized education plan (IEP) for a special needs student and a parent has been notified," said DPI communication coordinator Patrick Gasper.

Hasmig said the use of such mechanical restraint was not in Zachary's IEP, nor was it ever discussed with her. Both of these are apparent violations of DPI guidelines.

"We have already been in contact with the Racine Unified School District to remind them of the policies regarding the use of restraints on students with disabilities," Gasper reported. "They said they are making corrections."

In a prepared statement, Racine Unified reported that it is "working with the Red Apple parent and will reconvene the student's IEP team this week to discuss the needs of the student and how the district can best meet those needs within a classroom."

But in the interim, Hasmig said Zachary has still been placed in a Rifton Chair.

"He's strapped in when he's one-on-one in speech therapy. He was strapped in any time he was at the table. He was strapped in during circle time," she said.

On its website, the Autism National Committee "condemns the widespread and excessive use of mechanical and physical restraints in restricting the civil and human rights of people with disabilities," adding that "we believe that the use of restraints is a failure in treatment."

Local advocacy group Disability Rights Wisconsin agrees.

"For at least the last six years, we've been very concerned about the overuse of both seclusion and restraint of children in Wisconsin's schools," said the group's managing attorney Jeff Spitzer-Resnick. "We believe it's happening too often, based on the individuals who have expressed concern to us and the cases that we've investigated, some of which end up resulting in severe injuries. For instance, we've been involved in cases where children have had their elbows broken."

Spitzer-Resnick's colleague, advocacy specialist Cathy Steffke, says she's handled upwards of 50 improper restraint-related cases in southeast Wisconsin schools in the past few years and that this increase is due to a lack of firm legislation in the state.

"There is no statutory law related to the use of seclusion and restraint for children," she said. "There is statutory law for criminals. There is statutory law for people who have mental health issues, but for the most vulnerable of our citizens, children with disabilities, there is now law pertaining to their seclusion and restraint."

Hasmig Tempesta, though, isn't out to make new laws. She just wants each new school day for her Zachary to be a safe and happy one.

"He's a typical kid. Does he have issues he needs to work on? Yes, but it's nothing that they're not supposed to be able to handle."

Shackles Case Prompts Policy Change

2007-12-04T11:46:00.001-05:00

Shackles case prompts policy change
Published: Thursday, November 15, 2007
By Nancy Remsen
Burlington Free Press Staff Writer

An investigation into the use of shackles, deputies and a police cruiser to move a 7-year-old boy with mental illness between two hospitals led this week to a change in transport policy at Rutland Regional Medical Center.

Jill Jesso-White, spokeswoman for the medical center said that from now on, Rutland psychiatric patients -- adults and children -- who are being involuntarily committed to another hospital will travel in an ambulance under the least restrictive circumstances possible.

A deputy sheriff might accompany emergency medical personnel and the patient, Jesso-White said. "We don't plan on it being in shackles."

The change in policy comes after Vermont Protection and Advocacy Inc. criticized the hospital for placing a child in a cruiser wearing metal handcuffs for the 75-mile trip to The Retreat in Brattleboro without medical personnel. The incident occurred a year ago.

The child's grandmother and guardian, who persuaded law enforcement to let her ride along, complained to Vermont Protection and Advocacy, an organization charged with investigating allegations of abuse and neglect of people with disabilities. The organization issued its report to the public Wednesday but had already provided it to officials at Rutland Regional Medical Center.

"We took the matter very seriously," Jesso-White said. "We took it as an opportunity to review our practices."

In its report, Vermont Protection and Advocacy detailed how the boy, who has a history of mental illness that includes bipolar disorder and attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, ended up in the emergency department of Rutland Regional Medical Center on two consecutive days after being disruptive at school. The second time, a Rutland police officer brought him to the hospital after he ran out of the school building, found a pipe and swung it at staff chasing him.
His grandmother agreed reluctantly to send him to The Retreat in Brattleboro for evaluation, never realizing he would travel in shackles.

Vermont Protection and Advocacy questioned whether the child needed a secure form of transportation for the trip because hospital records showed he was quiet for several hours before the departure.

More significantly, said A.J Rubin, VP&A's supervising attorney, it was illegal for the child to be sent in shackles with police but without medical personnel.

Lawmakers and mental health advocates began raising concerns four years ago about the mode of transportation being used to move acutely ill psychiatric patients. In 2004 the Legislature passed a law that directed "all reasonable and appropriate efforts" be made to use the least restrictive means possible. In 2006, the Legislature strengthened the law, saying, "It is the policy of the state of Vermont that mechanical restraints are not routinely used."

Still, a significant number of psychiatric patients -- including children -- have continued to be moved between hospitals in restraints in police cruisers because the patients are deemed dangers to themselves or others. The Vermont Protection and Advocacy investigation cited state data showing that half the 60 children sent to The Retreat in Brattleboro between September 2005 and January 2006 traveled in cruisers.

Only Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington has made it a practice to use ambulances rather than cruisers to move psychiatric patients.

In June, the HowardCenter and Washington County Mental Health Services expanded the options for patients in northwestern and central Vermont when they announced they would buy vans. The two agencies have trained staff who accompany patients in the vans or in ambulances. The new vans are equipped with comfortable seats, a selection of music and videos to reduce patients' stress.

Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, helped write the legislation that put restrictions on patient transportation. She became aware of the case involving the 7-year-old boy only Wednesday.

"After the Legislature speaking so clearly, how could anyone with a 7-year-old even think of doing it?" she asked. The law was strengthened in 2006, she said, because of the outrage that a 10-year-old autistic boy had been transported in shackles.

Contact Nancy Remsen at 651-4888 or nremsenb@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com

St. Lucie County bus aide accused of hitting student

2007-11-15T18:18:00.001-05:00

PORT ST. LUCIE — An aide on a school bus primarily for special-needs children is facing a felony child abuse charge after allegedly hitting a 7-year-old boy, police said Friday.

Belinda "Gail" Daniels, 45, of the 1900 block of Avenue K in Fort Pierce, allegedly struck the special-needs child Sept. 12 on the ride to school, and police and school district officials ensured she "was no longer on a bus," Officer Cherie Lucas said.

PDF: Read the arrest report.

Lucas said video captured by cameras on the bus, which had about eight children on it at the time, played a key role in the case.

The victim, who was sitting down, reportedly dropped his bookbag and was bending down to reach it when Daniels picked it up from the seat behind him.

"Daniels yells at the victim, saying, 'Boy, what did you do? Get in that seat,' " Lucas wrote in a portion of a warrant application that summarizes the video. "

She then reaches into the seat where the victim was, and she 'swats' something in the seat, but you cannot actually see what her hand connects with."

Lucas said one witness reportedly saw Daniels' hand make contact with the victim.

"I believe in my mind that any reasonable person looking at that video would believe that the child was struck," Lucas said. "It substantiated everything that the original witness, the complainant, told me."

Daniels then yanked the victim up and "roughly" put him in the seat, Lucas said.

But Daniels told investigators she hit no one.

"I would never do anything to put my job in jeopardy," she is quoted as saying in a warrant application. "I am a Christian woman who reads my Bible and I listen to my gospel music."

St. Lucie County Schools Personnel Director Maurice Bonner said Daniels as of Friday is still a district employee. Bonner said the district is aware of the incident and is investigating the issue and won't comment until after the investigation is completed.

It took several days for police to determine the victim's identity, get statements from witnesses, question Daniels and consult with the state attorney's office. The victim wasn't injured and "had no knowledge of what happened," Lucas said.

Daniels was arrested in 1985 on a fraud charge and convicted, though an unemployment fraud charge brought against her in 1994 was dropped, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.

Janice Karst, school district spokeswoman, said convicted felons aren't eligible for employment with the district, but those with misdemeanor convictions can be hired depending on what the misdemeanor was and if the applicant is forthcoming with the information. But if the charge relates to "moral turpitude" or is "anything that would negatively impact their being around students" or school operations, then they likely wouldn't be hired.

Daniels received generally high evaluations dating back to 2001, according to school district records.

A 2003 evaluation notes she's a "very compassionate and caring individual" and "goes above and beyond her duties to assist with difficult situations."

Daniels was released Friday afternoon from the St. Lucie County jail on $1,000 bail, a jail official said.

Staff writer Keona Gardner contributed to this report.

PRELIMINARY HEARING: Abuse recalled in court

2007-10-11T17:57:00.003-04:00

Teacher hurt autistic kids, aide testifies
By K.C. HOWARD
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Oct. 11, 2007

Latasha Burse was working as a teacher's aide in a classroom of autistic students at Reed Elementary School in March when she heard a loud bang.

Burse testified in Justice Court on Wednesday that she turned around and saw the teacher, Mamie Hubbard-Washington, with her hand on the back of a 9-year-old autistic boy's neck.

Burse surmised that the teacher had just slammed the child's face onto the top of a table.

The boy, Matthew, was crying, which was uncharacteristic for him, Burse said.

Hubbard-Washington told the child to stop crying and left for lunch. Burse and another teacher's aide cleaned Matthew's mouth in the bathroom and took him to eat.

"His tooth was chipped, and his lip was bleeding," Burse said.

It was one of several suspicious injuries Matthew suffered in Hubbard-Washington's class that spring, prompting his mother to pull him out of the school before the end of the school year.

Hubbard-Washington, 64, is facing five felony charges of child abuse and neglect for injuries authorities allege she inflicted on her autistic students at Reed in 2006 and 2007. Wednesday was the second and final day of testimony in her preliminary hearing that will determine whether she will stand trial on the charges.

Burse and another teacher's aide testified Wednesday that they saw Hubbard-Washington hit, pinch, push and verbally abuse the children.

Parents testified on the first day of the hearing, Sept. 26, that after their children were placed in Hubbard-Washington's class, they started coming home with bruises on their hands, back or abdomen.

Because of their autism, many of the children do not speak.

Hubbard-Washington's attorney, Vince Consul, has said the allegations raised by the teacher's aides and parents aren't specific enough. They cannot, for instance, cite the dates on which much of the alleged abuse occurred.

Consul also said it can't be proven that the injuries occurred at the hands of Hubbard-Washington rather than on the playground or school bus.

Hubbard-Washington has denied the allegations, saying she has taught special education students since 1985 and had never been accused of abuse until now. The allegations are spurred by greed, she said, noting the parents are planning to file a lawsuit against the Clark County School District.

Aram Kouyoumdjian, an attorney representing the families, attended both days of the preliminary hearing. He said Wednesday that no suit had been filed.

Burse said she began to notice the teacher's abusive behavior a few months after Hubbard-Washington arrived at the school in January 2006.

She said she reported what she saw to her supervisor, Assistant Principal Randy Cheung.
Burse said it seemed as though the school's administrators were constantly investigating the teacher.

"The principal and assistant principal were in our room all the time," Burse said.

Cheung was set to testify for the defense Wednesday, but Justice of the Peace William Jansen advised him to speak with an attorney first because of potential civil litigation against the district.

The principal, Karen Bennett, previously testified that school officials initially had difficulties verifying some of the complaints raised by the aides and parents. After spending weeks investigating, school officials took the allegations to school district police on May 2. The district placed Hubbard-Washington on administrative leave on May 4.

Burse said Matthew was the first student she saw Hubbard-Washington go after. The teacher would hit Matthew "full force" with a yardstick "anywhere below the neck," Burse said.

She said she also saw Hubbard-Washington hit a student named Chris, who would often bang his head against his desk. Burse said Hubbard-Washington hit him on the head with a closed fist.
She recalled Hubbard-Washington telling the boy, "You better stop hitting your head or else I'll hit you."

On March 20, Burse said, Chris was cramming pizza into his mouth and Hubbard-Washington grabbed him by the back of the neck and "pushed his head into the trash can until he swallowed his food."

Burse also recalled Hubbard-Washington brushing the hair of the only girl in the classroom, a 7-year-old. But if the girl, Joanna, started to cry, Hubbard-Washington would strike her on the head with the brush, Burse said.

Another teacher's aide, Shari Pedrol-Little, testified that she left Hubbard-Washington's classroom in November 2006 after suffering a nervous breakdown.

She said Hubbard-Washington created a tense environment when she yelled at the children in the classroom, prompting them to act out.

In court, Pedrol-Little had to review her May statement to police to recall most of Hubbard-Washington's alleged abuses. The breakdown, she said, had affected her memory.

She said she witnessed Hubbard-Washington calling Joanna fat and at other times forcing food into her mouth.

She also recalled that Hubbard-Washington would hit Matthew with a yardstick and would strike the girl on the head with a brush "and tell her to shut up" if she began crying.

Jansen said he wants to review transcripts of the hearing before he listens to closing arguments and decides whether Hubbard-Washington will face the charges in District Court.

Consul and prosecutors Vicki Monroe and Noreen Nyikos are to argue the case before the judge on Oct. 31.

Contact reporter K.C. Howard at khoward@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-1039.

Teacher Jesus Garcia Gets Drunk on Field Trip and Abuses Kids

2007-05-26T19:00:00.002-04:00

From Teacher Smack Down
Anne-Marie Nichols
May 25, 2007

On a field trip to Washington, D.C., teacher Jesus Garcia got drunk, cursed at students, spanked them, and flung one on a bed. And now parents are outraged that no charges were filed against the soccer coach and ESL instructor for Immokalee Community School. Florida’s Department of Children and Families is investigating.

After a five-day field trip to Washington, D.C., five fifth graders were in their room at the Embassy Suites when Garcia told the group he was going downstairs and would return in 10 minutes. He returned an hour later drunk off his ass and smelling like booze.

Garcia started cussing and spanked the kids. He picked one of the boys up and threw him on the bed. Then Garcia told another student to kick the boy.

The school chaperones knew something was wrong when the five children did not show up for dinner. When chaperones approached the room, Garcia wouldn’t let the kids open the door. The chaperones found the children frightened and upset. They put Garcia in a separate hotel and paid for a separate flight, which he missed.

School officials immediately contacted the children’s parents. They also fired Garcia and are providing counseling for students and parents.

What a friggin’ nightmare. You’re 12 year old and you’ve worked hard all school year to raise money for a field trip to the nation’s capitol. During the trip a teacher gets drunk, and physically and verbally assaults you and your classmates. Then he practically holds you hostage in your hotel room.

I agree with the parents that Garcia needs to be charged immediately…and get some treatment for his alcoholism.

http://www.teachersmackdown.com/teacher-jesus-garcia-gets-drunk-on-field-trip-and-abuses-kids/

Kindergartner Arrested, Put In Jail

2007-04-02T00:58:00.003-04:00

Note: The school in this article is Avon Elementary in Avon Park, FL...

Apr 02 2007 8:09AM

A kindergartner was arrested and thrown into a Florida jail last week after she acted up at school.

Desre'e Watson, 6, was arrested on felony charges. Police said the child threw chairs and hit a teacher.

Her mother said she has never seen that kind of behavior and thinks something must have brought it on.

"Im afraid she might have trauma from this because right now she's like slacking up on eating and I've noticed like different things have changed," said Lateshia Wilson, Desrees mother.

The principal said they try to call parents first when a child is out of control, but if they cannot reach a parent, they call police.

Desre'es parents are considering a lawsuit.

The state attorney's office will decide whether to prosecute the child. She faces charges of disruption of a school function, battery on school employees and resisting a law enforcement officer without violence.

http://www.wftv.com/news/11455199/detail.html

http://www.onntv.com/live/contentbe/EPIC_shim.php?story=sites/10tv/content/pool/200704/448752473.html

Duct-taping Teacher Faces Charges

2005-11-01T00:50:00.001-05:00

October 31, 2005

Santa FE, NM - An arraignment could start as early as Wednesday in a case where a Santa Fe Public Schools teaching intern, according to a student witness, ''snapped'' and duct-taped several children in her sixth-grade Chaparral Elementary classroom. She faces felony charges of child abuse and false imprisonment.

Alice Yuen's indictment last week brought up eight counts of child abuse and two counts of false imprisonment stemming from a school day that occurred in late May.

According to a witness, she taped some students' mouths closed with duct-tape in the morning and then, after lunch, proceeded to bound two of the students to chairs in order to restrain them.
Eight students are named as victims in the indictment. The students reported the incident to Chaparral Principal Theresa Ulibarri.

Ulibarri said she Yuen was removed from the classroom and was interrogated by her. As an explanation for her actions Yuen told her she had become angry because some boys in the classroom were chasing each other.

Yuen told her she took out the duct tape and threatened to use it and that the students had instigated her using it.

The following day, Ulibarri and a counselor from the Santa Fe Rape Crisis Center met with the class to discuss what had happened and offer private counseling to students who wanted it.

Prosecutors are seeking to schedule an arraignment in District Court on Wednesday. The District Court Judge Stephen Pfeffer will write out the conditions of her release that will probably include no contact with children.

The indictment provides Santa Fe and Los Alamos addresses for Yuen, but no telephone number was listed for her.

Ulibarri said she had not heard any complaints about the teacher's behavior prior to this incident.

http://www.injuryhelpline.com/index.rwl?category=news§ion=product+liability&article=duct+taping+teacher+faces+charges&id=1809