My story is this…our Autistic child was placed in prone restraints as a punishment for non compliance. He was restrained in a seclusion room where he would be placed and left until he would calm to administrations liking. If he still wouldn’t calm down, they would come in and restrain him. He was in no danger to anyone or himself. It was to “teach him a lesson”; and to break him of his autistic behaviors.
He has asthma and easily could have died from asphyxiation; he had two adults sitting on his back. He suffered bruising on several occasions. We were never notified. This went for a year in Kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade until we pulled him out and sued the school. He is now 9 years old and suffers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
I highly doubt you will print this. But your stats on “More Dangerous” issues are slanted. If you have a child with a disability, the odds of that child dying in a prone restraint are MUCH higher than your typical child dying of a bee sting.
Restraint is a band aid on a hemorrhaging wound. Fix how society and education treat special needs and this debate wouldn’t have to happen.
Dear Fighting4fape:
We are not only going to print it once, we are going to print it twice. First, in its entirety without interruption so that the extent of your pain can be clearly appreciated by readers and again, broken into sections, so we can comment more coherently to the issues and your very valid complaints related to your son’s care and education. Once we have posted your comments and my answers, we will also post anything you have in response to this, as long as they are as thoughtfully written as your letter.
For purpose of introduction, I am a qualified unarmed use of force/physical restraint/crisis intervention/behavior management expert and leading innovator in the creation of safe restraint including safe prone (face down) and supine (face up) physical restraining technology and training. I have offered expert testimony in many jurisdictions throughout the U.S., both in the prosecution of abuses and in defense of those accused of abuse; always as a “friend of the court” regardless of which side obtained my opinion. I am not using my name because this site is an issue-oriented site exclusively and not for the opportunity to comment as self promotion.
Let us begin by stipulating that I will treat your allegations as absolutely true and accurate although, in reality, we have no way of enabling the school to defend itself or correct anything you say that may be inaccurate from their perspective.
Comment: My story is this…our Autistic child was placed in prone restraints as a punishment for non compliance. He was restrained in a seclusion room where he would be placed and left until he would calm to administrations liking. If he still wouldn’t calm down, they would come in and restrain him. He was in no danger to anyone or himself. It was to “teach him a lesson”; and to break him of his autistic behaviors.
Response: Seclusion and physical restraint should NEVER be punitive or misused to coerce compliance or for the purpose of modifying or altering behavior by teaching the child a lesson. The environment you describe is one where the teaching faculty have been to permitted to act out their frustration and hostility and then justify those actions as a form of behavior modification. If this is all true, I do hope you win your law suit against the school and the teachers. God speed.
Comment: He has asthma and easily could have died from asphyxiation; he had two adults sitting on his back.
Response: I am familiar with every possible way of restraining someone including the methods taught by all of the national vendors and smaller regional vendors. I know of no training program on earth that teaches two adults how to sit on the back of an adult much less a child in kindergarten.
Obviously, the staff at the school that traumatized your child were never trained in the safe and proper use of a passive holding method appropriate for your child’s age. It sounds like staff were making it up as they went along and ended up sitting on your child’s back. Believe me when I say, a child does not need to have asthma to die at the hands of untrained staff.
It is also possible that they were trained in something that they chose not to use with your son, which makes a strong argument for giving teachers training that they have confidence actually works so they actually use it.
Comment: He suffered bruising on several occasions.
Response: The presence of bruising from an application of restraint is not an absolute indicator of abuse. Neither is an injury.
Comment: We were never notified. This went for a year in Kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade until we pulled him out and sued the school.
Response: Regardless of whether your child is injured or not, the school should always notify you of every incident of restraint usage. The school should also be willing and able to show you precisely what holding method or other modalities (including seclusion) they are using and explain to you why they are using them.
Seclusion does have a calming effect on many adults and children by temporarily decreasing sensory stimulation and by insulating the child from upsetting relationships with those in his immediate environment. In fact, the proper use of seclusion early in a crisis can mitigate the need for physical restraint later when the child may present an immediate risk of injury to self or others. When seclusion does not have a calming influence (and there are some adults and children who respond adversely to it) it should be discontinued and deleted from the child’s treatment or education plan immediately.
Comment: He is now 9 years old and suffers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Response: You are attributing the presence of PTSD on the restraint usage. While this may be true because it was used abusively with your son, there is no evidence to show that the proper use of restraint within the context of a clinically thoughtful treatment or education plan is inherently harmful, no matter how many non-expert advocates say otherwise. Several years ago, I challenged CWLA to prove their contention that the use of physical restraint was “irreparably harmful” to children. They could not and it was consequently deleted from their publication on the subject of restraint and seclusion. For some reason, they never thanked me for the edit.
Comment: I highly doubt you will print this. But your stats on “More Dangerous” issues are slanted. If you have a child with a disability, the odds of that child dying in a prone restraint are MUCH higher than your typical child dying of a bee sting.
Response: No, they are not. The site’s owners stand by their assertion based on math.
Comment: Restraint is a band aid on a hemorrhaging wound. Fix how society and education treat special needs and this debate wouldn’t have to happen.
Response: Unfortunately, it does have to happen.
You seem to be saying that if society, teachers and schools were perfect, children, in general or in special education, will never lose control or present a threat of harm to themselves or others. The reality is, children and teenagers can and do physically prey upon and bully other children in school and they can and do injure themselves and others during emotional tirades caused by the entire spectrum of disorders found in school age children.
The school’s staff have a duty to provide for the child’s safety, including when it requires physical intervention.
Tags: abuse and neglect, autism, child restraint, prone restraint, school restraint, seclusion and restraint
My story is this…our Autistic child was placed in prone restraint
My story is this…our Autistic child was placed in prone restraints as a punishment for non compliance. He was restrained in a seclusion room where he would be placed and left until he would calm to administrations liking. If he still wouldn’t calm down, they would come in and restrain him. He was in no danger to anyone or himself. It was to “teach him a lesson”; and to break him of his autistic behaviors.
He has asthma and easily could have died from asphyxiation; he had two adults sitting on his back. He suffered bruising on several occasions. We were never notified. This went for a year in Kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade until we pulled him out and sued the school. He is now 9 years old and suffers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
I highly doubt you will print this. But your stats on “More Dangerous” issues are slanted. If you have a child with a disability, the odds of that child dying in a prone restraint are MUCH higher than your typical child dying of a bee sting.
Restraint is a band aid on a hemorrhaging wound. Fix how society and education treat special needs and this debate wouldn’t have to happen.
Dear Fighting4fape:
We are not only going to print it once, we are going to print it twice. First, in its entirety without interruption so that the extent of your pain can be clearly appreciated by readers and again, broken into sections, so we can comment more coherently to the issues and your very valid complaints related to your son’s care and education. Once we have posted your comments and my answers, we will also post anything you have in response to this, as long as they are as thoughtfully written as your letter.
For purpose of introduction, I am a qualified unarmed use of force/physical restraint/crisis intervention/behavior management expert and leading innovator in the creation of safe restraint including safe prone (face down) and supine (face up) physical restraining technology and training. I have offered expert testimony in many jurisdictions throughout the U.S., both in the prosecution of abuses and in defense of those accused of abuse; always as a “friend of the court” regardless of which side obtained my opinion. I am not using my name because this site is an issue-oriented site exclusively and not for the opportunity to comment as self promotion.
Let us begin by stipulating that I will treat your allegations as absolutely true and accurate although, in reality, we have no way of enabling the school to defend itself or correct anything you say that may be inaccurate from their perspective.
Comment: My story is this…our Autistic child was placed in prone restraints as a punishment for non compliance. He was restrained in a seclusion room where he would be placed and left until he would calm to administrations liking. If he still wouldn’t calm down, they would come in and restrain him. He was in no danger to anyone or himself. It was to “teach him a lesson”; and to break him of his autistic behaviors.
Response: Seclusion and physical restraint should NEVER be punitive or misused to coerce compliance or for the purpose of modifying or altering behavior by teaching the child a lesson. The environment you describe is one where the teaching faculty have been to permitted to act out their frustration and hostility and then justify those actions as a form of behavior modification. If this is all true, I do hope you win your law suit against the school and the teachers. God speed.
Comment: He has asthma and easily could have died from asphyxiation; he had two adults sitting on his back.
Response: I am familiar with every possible way of restraining someone including the methods taught by all of the national vendors and smaller regional vendors. I know of no training program on earth that teaches two adults how to sit on the back of an adult much less a child in kindergarten.
Obviously, the staff at the school that traumatized your child were never trained in the safe and proper use of a passive holding method appropriate for your child’s age. It sounds like staff were making it up as they went along and ended up sitting on your child’s back. Believe me when I say, a child does not need to have asthma to die at the hands of untrained staff.
It is also possible that they were trained in something that they chose not to use with your son, which makes a strong argument for giving teachers training that they have confidence actually works so they actually use it.
Comment: He suffered bruising on several occasions.
Response: The presence of bruising from an application of restraint is not an absolute indicator of abuse. Neither is an injury.
Comment: We were never notified. This went for a year in Kindergarten and 1/2 of first grade until we pulled him out and sued the school.
Response: Regardless of whether your child is injured or not, the school should always notify you of every incident of restraint usage. The school should also be willing and able to show you precisely what holding method or other modalities (including seclusion) they are using and explain to you why they are using them.
Seclusion does have a calming effect on many adults and children by temporarily decreasing sensory stimulation and by insulating the child from upsetting relationships with those in his immediate environment. In fact, the proper use of seclusion early in a crisis can mitigate the need for physical restraint later when the child may present an immediate risk of injury to self or others. When seclusion does not have a calming influence (and there are some adults and children who respond adversely to it) it should be discontinued and deleted from the child’s treatment or education plan immediately.
Comment: He is now 9 years old and suffers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Response: You are attributing the presence of PTSD on the restraint usage. While this may be true because it was used abusively with your son, there is no evidence to show that the proper use of restraint within the context of a clinically thoughtful treatment or education plan is inherently harmful, no matter how many non-expert advocates say otherwise. Several years ago, I challenged CWLA to prove their contention that the use of physical restraint was “irreparably harmful” to children. They could not and it was consequently deleted from their publication on the subject of restraint and seclusion. For some reason, they never thanked me for the edit.
Comment: I highly doubt you will print this. But your stats on “More Dangerous” issues are slanted. If you have a child with a disability, the odds of that child dying in a prone restraint are MUCH higher than your typical child dying of a bee sting.
Response: No, they are not. The site’s owners stand by their assertion based on math.
Comment: Restraint is a band aid on a hemorrhaging wound. Fix how society and education treat special needs and this debate wouldn’t have to happen.
Response: Unfortunately, it does have to happen.
You seem to be saying that if society, teachers and schools were perfect, children, in general or in special education, will never lose control or present a threat of harm to themselves or others. The reality is, children and teenagers can and do physically prey upon and bully other children in school and they can and do injure themselves and others during emotional tirades caused by the entire spectrum of disorders found in school age children.
The school’s staff have a duty to provide for the child’s safety, including when it requires physical intervention.
Tags: abuse and neglect, autism, child restraint, prone restraint, school restraint, seclusion and restraint