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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, restraints are allowed under New York State law.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

bobrien@buffnews.com

Special Education Struggles In School

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

Calm Down or Else

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: July 15, 2008
International Herald Tribune
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/15/healthscience/15restraint.php

The children return from school confused, scared and sometimes with bruises on their wrists, arms or face. Many won’t talk about what happened, or simply can’t, because they are unable to communicate easily, if at all.

“What Tim eventually said,” said John Miller, a podiatrist in Allegany, N.Y., about his son, then 12, “was that he didn’t want to go to school because he thought the school was trying to kill him.”
Dr. Miller learned that Tim, who has Asperger’s syndrome, was being unusually confrontational in class, and that more than once teachers had held him down on the floor to “calm him down,” according to logs teachers kept to track his behavior; on at least one occasion, adults held Tim prone for 20 minutes until he stopped struggling.

The Millers are suing the district, in part for costs of therapy for their son as a result of the restraints. The district did not dispute the logs but denied that teachers behaved improperly.

For more than a decade, parents of children with developmental and psychiatric problems have pushed to gain more access to mainstream schools and classrooms for their sons and daughters.

One unfortunate result, some experts say, is schools’ increasing use of precisely the sort of practices families hoped to avoid by steering clear of institutionalized settings: takedowns, isolation rooms, restraining chairs with straps, and worse.

No one keeps careful track of how often school staff members use such maneuvers. But last year the public system served 600,000 more special education students than it did a decade ago, many at least part time in regular classrooms. Many staff members are not adequately trained to handle severe behavior problems, researchers say.

In April, a 9-year-old Montreal boy with autism died of suffocation when a special education teacher wrapped him in a weighted blanket to calm him, according to the coroner’s report. Two Michigan public school students with autism have died while being held on the ground in so-called prone restraint.

Michigan, Pennsylvania and Tennessee have recently tightened regulations governing the use of restraints and seclusion in schools. California, Iowa and New York are among states considering stronger prohibitions, and reports have appeared on blogs and in newspapers across the country, from The Orange County Register to The Wall Street Journal.

“Behavior problems in school are way up, and there’s good reason to believe that the use of these procedures is up, too,” said Reece L. Peterson, a professor of special education at the University of Nebraska. “It’s an awful combination, because many parents expect restraints to be used — as long as it’s not their kid.”

Federal law leaves it to states and school districts to decide when physical restraints and seclusion are appropriate, and standards vary widely. Oversight is virtually nonexistent in most states, despite the potential for harm and scant evidence of benefit, Dr. Peterson said.

Psychiatric facilities and nursing homes are generally far more accountable to report on such incidents than schools, experts say.

In dozens of interviews, parents, special education experts and lawyers who work to protect disabled people said they now regularly heard of cases of abuse in public schools — up to one or two a week surface on some parent e-mail lists — much more often than a decade ago.

“In all the years I went to school, I never, ever saw or heard of anything like the horrific stories about restraint that we see just about every day now,” said Alison Tepper Singer, executive vice president of Autism Speaks, a charity dedicated to curing the disorder.

The issue is politically sensitive at a time when schools have done a lot to accommodate students with special needs, and some have questioned whether mainstreaming has gone too far.

“Some parent organizations, they’re so grateful to the schools that their kids have been mainstreamed that they don’t want to risk really pushing for change,” said Dee Alpert, an advocate in New York who reports on the issue in the online journal specialeducationmuckraker.com.

For teachers, who have many other responsibilities — not least, to teach — managing even one child with a disability can add a wild card to the day.

“In a class of 30 to 35 children, there’s a huge question of how much safety or teaching a teacher can provide if he or she is being called on to calm or contain a student on a regular basis,” said Patti Ralabate, a special education expert at the National Education Association.

“The teacher is responsible for the safety of all the children in the classroom.”

The line between skillful conflict resolution and abuse is slipperier than many assume. Federal law requires that schools develop a behavioral plan for every student with a disability, which may include techniques to defuse the child’s frustration: a break from the class, for instance, or time out to listen to an iPod.

But in a hectic classroom, children with diagnoses like attention deficit disorder, anxiety or autism can seemingly become defiant, edgy or aggressive on a dime — and the plan, if one exists, can go straight out the window, investigations have found. Even defying a teacher’s instructions — “noncompliance” — can invite a takedown or time alone in a locked room, they found.

In an extensive report published last year, investigators in California documented cases of abuse from districts in the San Francisco Bay Area, the suburbs of Los Angeles and in the rural northeastern part of the state.

During the 2005-6 school year, an 8-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and mild mental retardation was repeatedly locked in a “seclusion room” alone, adjacent to the classroom — at least 31 times in a single year. His parents heard about it from another parent, who saw the boy trying in vain to escape.

In another school, a teacher held a 12-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder “face down on the floor, straddling him at his hips, and holding his hands behind his back,” according to the investigation, which was done by California’s office of protection and advocacy. Congress established such offices in each state in the 1970s to protect the rights of the disabled.

Leslie Morrison, director of investigations at the California office, said parents often complained about such episodes but were usually reluctant to cooperate with an investigation. “They’re afraid the school will retaliate,” she said.

And the children, who have an array of psychiatric diagnoses, from attention deficit to autism, often do not understand what is happening or why. “They just think they did something wrong and are being punished,” Ms. Morrison said. “Many of them are not verbal at all and can’t even tell their parents.”

In Tim Miller’s case, school logs obtained by his father illustrate how quickly a situation can escalate, regardless of behavior plans. In one entry, dated March 18, 2005, a teacher wrote:

“Tim was screaming down the hall. He ran past me and began to double his fist to punch the locker. At this point I scooped my arm underneath his and directed him into my room.”

After the boy continued to struggle, this teacher and another “laid him onto the mat, where he was held approximately 20 minutes,” the log said.

Tim, now 15, graduated from the school last year and in June completed his first year of high school, excelling in a variety of mainstream classes without incident. In a telephone interview, he said he no longer thought much about the takedowns.

“I just think now that they were idiots to do that,” he said. “I remember telling my mom to pray to God that they wouldn’t keep doing it, and wishing the other kids would see what was happening.”

When a school has a so-called zero tolerance approach to bad behavior, it often does makes a public spectacle of controlling a child’s behavior, said several parents interviewed for this article.

Kathy Sexton, who lives near Dallas, had to pick up her 11-year-old son, Anthony, who has a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, at the police station, after school staff members had the boy hauled away in handcuffs for cursing at a teacher.

“I didn’t hear about it for hours and had to go get him at jail,” Ms. Sexton said in a phone interview. “He was hysterical, obviously, and he’s had his ups and downs since then. It’s hard to know what a thing like that does to a child that age.”

Several companies offer programs to teach so-called de-escalation techniques to school staff, and a scattering of schools have developed model programs to pre-empt confrontations, and defuse them when they happen.

But experts say that until policymakers and schools adopt standards, on exactly which techniques are allowed and when, children with behavior problems will in many districts run the risk of being forcibly brought into line.

Dr. Peterson, the Nebraska professor, illustrates the challenges by citing two recent cases in Iowa. In one, the parents of an 11-year-old who died while being held down called for a ban on restraints; in the other, parents charged that a school failed their son by not restraining him. The boy ran away and drowned.

“It’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Dr. Peterson said, “and it reflects the level of confusion there is about this whole issue.”

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

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.

Down But Not Out

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

Teacher Accused Of Duct-Taping Boy To Desk

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

SJ School Police Handcuff Autistic Boy

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

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.”

"This Abuse Must Stop!"

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.

Unlawful Restraint of 3 Year Old?

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."

Duct-taping Teacher Faces Charges

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.

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