A recent investigation of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has shown that school children--most often children with special needs--are being subjected to extreme "discipline" techniques that have hurt and even caused the deaths of some. According to NPR:
"In some cases...children have died or been injured when they have been tied, taped, handcuffed or pinned down by adults or locked in secluded rooms, often to be left for hours at a time."
While there is plenty of criticism of the techniques in the first place--some parent groups and disability advocacy groups are calling for an altogether ban of them--others believe there are times when restraint or seclusion are necessary to keep children from harming themselves and others.
But teachers are rarely adequately trained in the proper use of the techniques and 70% of parents cited in the report say they were never informed about the possibility that their children would be restrained, let alone asked for permission to do so. Rather, the GAO found that only five states even have laws requiring that the use of restraint or seclusion be reported at all. Many parents only learned of the techniques when their children were injured or died after their use.
Meanwhile, methods for maintaining a positive classroom environment without the need for restraint are being taught to some teachers and finding great success where applied. "Positive Behavior Support"--or good old-fashioned attention to a child's needs--works to prevent problems before they arise by learning more about the cause of disruptive behavior.
Barb Trader of the grassroots advocacy group, TASH, explains:
"If a student gets hungry at quarter to 12 and they don't have verbal expression, and you don't know what's going on and then they act out because they're hungry, if you feed them at 11:30, then you've removed the cause for the behavior and the behavior doesn't exist. And we know that works because there's been lots and lots of research."
I'm sure plenty of parents out there are mouthing a collective "duh," right?
Teachers need more training in these methods, but more, I personally think they need more support in the form of lower student/teacher classroom ratios. As simple as Positive Behavior Support is, it also requires careful attention to individual children's needs and the group dynamics arising from those needs. Added to the task of instruction in school subjects--especially in a room with kids who have varying special needs and levels of ability--even a simple method is a tall order when teachers are over burdened with too many students.
Our children all deserve better. And children with special needs or disabilities deserve extra care and support for their learning, not less. It's an ugly thing to lock a child in a room rather than finding out what that child needs and providing it. And it's not something any child should have to witness happening to another. Here's yet another area in which we need real reform in the school system and we need it yesterday.
See Also:
Outdoor Preschools
image: Garret Peck, an autistic boy who was locked in an isolation cubile for over 2 hours, CNN.com
