Set guidelines for restraining students

The Kansas State Board of Education is considering some statewide guidelines that, unlike those on sex education and other issues, actually could be helpful. The board heard a proposal last week for how teachers and their aides should handle special education students who are out of control, the Lawrence Journal World reported. Advocates for the disabled are supporting the new guidelines because some kids have been restrained inappropriately. “We have kids who have been sat on by gym teachers,” said Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center. “Their arms have been duct-taped together as a form of restraint. They’ve been rolled up in gym mats. They’ve been placed in little boxes.” Students may need to be restrained if they are putting themselves and others in danger, but it shouldn’t be done abusively.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

3 Comments

  1. TRACY
    Posted July 17, 2006 at 6:36 am | Permalink

    What in the wide-wide world of sports is going on here?

    Why do we have ’special needs’ students that require restraint in our public classrooms anyway?If a child of average intelligence pulled these kind of antics, their public school days would be over.

  2. Gertie
    Posted July 18, 2006 at 12:38 pm | Permalink

    Special Education students are required to have an up-to-date Individualized Education Plan in place, agreed upon by the parents or guardians, approving of any goals or behavior plans the child has for the coming year. While I have never personally worked with a child who required restraint to the extent mentioned above, I do know that there are times when some children have put the safety of their classmates and teachers at risk. Usually these children end up at a special school equipped to handle such violent outbursts. Excessive force used without parental or guardian consent could lead to some serious lawsuits.

    To answer your question, Tracy, there is a real push right now in the public schools to integrate Special Education students into the regular classrooms as much as possible. With “inclusion” in place, the Special Ed teacher works with the regular education teacher in the regular classroom to help the special needs students. The theory behind inclusion is that the special ed student will not feel singled out and will flourish within the regular ed classroom. Sometimes, obviously, it will not work. In those cases, the student will usually be sent to a more structured Special Education environment.

  3. A parent of a child on the autism spectrum
    Posted July 18, 2006 at 6:39 pm | Permalink

    My child has been restrained in a classroom by incompetents. We weren’t told what was happening and couldn’t figure out why our son’s behavior became explosive at home. You see, our son only has a few words of verbal language. He couldn’t express to us what he was experiencing. What was his crime? He would try and communicate with his teacher and aides and they didn’t understand or notice him or his attempts until he started slapping himself or them. Then, they would hold him down on the floor. Three adults with my five year old facedown on the floor. I asked the teacher to let me come into the classroom to help troubleshoot, to see if I could help understand what was happening that was making my son so “out-of-control.” I was upset to see he was being ignored until he would do something they didn’t like. Then two or three adults would be on him. My son does not exhibit negative behaviors around regular education students. He benefits from the experience. My son doesn’t communicate the way most people do, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to communicate or doesn’t have something to express. I wish more people would embrace that everyone doesn’t do things in the way they do. I also wish that Kansas would support positive behavior supports before restraints. They could lead the nation in crafting an excellent program.