A Brooklyn school’s botched handling of a 5-year-old autistic student’s tantrum ended disastrously — with his mom and grandma in handcuffs and his great-grandmother’s rib broken, the family and their lawyers charge. New York City Schools have a strict hands off policy for teachers. So rather than schools handling the behavior, law enforcement is called [...]
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Almost two years ago the Georgia Department of Education revised its restraint policy and enacted a regulation that is illegal under Georgia’s self defense laws and Poses A Safety Threat to Teachers, School Staff, School Administrators, Special Education Clinicians, Students and Paraprofessionals. The result: Another 6 year old student handcuffed The Georgia Department of Education does [...]
Violence is on the rise at a handful of Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities. Staff members at the Victor Cullen Center used handcuffs to restrain youths nearly 200 times in 2011, up from 36 times in 2010. At Cheltenham Youth Facility, riots and other “group disturbances” took place 65 times in 2011, up from a dozen [...]
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Psychiatrist Curt Sturos tends to troubled kids in southern Oregon. Oregon has a very restrictive behavior intervention practices which limits the tools practitioners have to manage behavioral problems. According to doctors in Oregon, the state lacks options beyond drugs to treat severely troubled children.sd Thus the question is whose fault is it that children are being [...]
State Senator Joe Griffo has written a letter to Commissioner Gladys Carrion of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services to take immediate action on reports of multiple injuries of staff at Taberg Residential Center. Senator Griffo says he wants the Office of Children and Family Services to provide adequate staffing, proper [...]
Autistic Student Escape from Bus Safety Restraint Raises Questions: Who should have assumed responsibility for the child’s behavior and why did this child end up in handcuffs. Story: The Johnsons’ son, the oldest of their three, is 9 years old and is diagnosed with autism. He was on the school bus returning home. He is [...]
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Washington v . Harper, 494 U.S. 210 (1990). Held: mentally ill state prisoner prone to violence without medication has no constitutional right to competency hearing and court approval of forced medication using a “substituted judgment” standard. Sufficient due process for forced medication order was provided by hospital committee consisting of psychiatrist, psychologist and hospital official [...]
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In 2009 Federal Agencies were asked in a Freedom of Information Act Request to produce their statistics on the number of restraint and seclusion fatalities annually for the past decade. The Federal Agencies that were asked to produce these statistics were: SAMHSA TJC CMS NASMHPD and FDA In response to the FOIA, the requester was [...]
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In 2006 OCFS changed its use of force policy. This video demonstrates the results of this policy. As can be seen by the video, not only is staff in danger, the youths themselves are in danger as well. This is what happens when youth do not respect staff and staff are not given tools to [...]
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A judge has dismissed the criminal case against a Chambersburg caretaker who allegedly sat on a man with Down syndrome until he died. Joseph Easton, 39, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Sept. 9 death of Timothy Smith, 37. During a preliminary hearing this morning, Magisterial District Judge David Hawbaker decided there was [...]
Continue reading about 14th Amendment – Court rules prone restraint is reasonable