In case you missed it in the news, the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) released a report 13 January documenting the use of seclusion and restraint procedures in US schools. In “School is Not Supposed to Hurt: Investigative Report on Abusive Restraint and Seclusion in Schools,” NDRN tells terrible stories about things that happen to children at schools. Here’s is an excerpt from the press release by NDRN:
WASHINGTON (January 13, 2009) – The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) today unveiled a disturbing national report on seclusion and restraint in U.S. schools. The report shows an unsettling use of seclusion and restraint tactics, which resulted in physical and emotional injuries as well as deaths, in schools affecting students from grades K-12.The report documents cases that range from students being locked in rooms or even boxes for hours to students who were encouraged to release their aggression by wrestling in “WWF Rooms.”
“This report documents dozens of seclusion and prone restraint cases that have resulted in injuries and even death,” said Curt Decker, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network. “We feel that these numbers represent just the tip of the iceberg as there is no national reporting structure or official tracking of such incidents.”
The full report details distressing vignettes. They’re not good reading for those of us who know that on some very rare occasions some students must be secluded or restrained and who know how to do so without promoting violence. Sadly, educators too often label seclusion procedures as “time out,” even though they are not applying time-out methods in the systematic manner that has been documented as making them effective. But, that’s a topic for another post…one that’ll appear soon on Behavior Mod Info.
More importantly, the findings of the report should act as a clarion call to teacher educators: “Teach prospective teachers how to manage behavior in calm and effective ways. Don’t expect them to discover it on the job.”
Meanwhile, here are links to the NDRN press release and the full report about seclusion and restraint. Also, see Christina Samuels (Ed Week) coverage of related news in two posts to her blog, “Seclusion and Special Education” and “A Teacher’s View on Seclusion.”
The focus on behavior is unfortunate. The focus should be on understanding the basic principles of a subject and the logical tools. Teachers must understand how students think, and build from there. Bad behavior is the result of teachers’ failing to properly clarify principles of subjects. See “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better” on amazon.
Thanks for the comment. I agree that the foremost focus should be on students’ acquisition of academic (i.e., “content”) competence (if that’s what you’re saying). However, I disagree with the concern about de-emphasizing behavior.
If schools did a dang good job of teaching academic content, there would, I predict, be fewer behavior problems. But there still would be some problems. Behavior problems may only occur N% of the time, but I think N > 0.
The difficulty noted in this report is that schools too often react to problems in inappropriate ways. We educators need to get schools to use appropriate methods. I hope no one’s advocating abusive treatment of students, regardless of those students’ misbehavior. But somehow, inappropriate seclusion and restraint procedures are used.
You recommend the methods in “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better.” Are those methods demonstrably better than other methods? Note that “demonstrably” is different from “arguably.” Do you have scientific evidence to show that “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better” is effective? Is “Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better” any better than “usual practice?” Than, say, “The good behavior game?”
End the use of aversives, restraints and seclusion
http://autism.change.org/actions/view/end_the_use_of_aversives_restraints_and_seclusion
Restraint & Seclusion Awareness Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8RlcIRkBkw
My son was put through restraint and seclusion when he was in 6th, 7th and part of 8th grade and we were NEVER told in writing or by phone. By the end of 7th grade we knew something was going on because his personalty was changing before our eyes and not for the better. he also lost interes in everything he use to love to do and was afraid to go to school. We pulled him out of school when he was in 8th grade because we thought he was having a breakdown. That was almost 3 years ago and he is still under a doctors care.
National Disability Rights Network Misrepresents The Issues of Restraint & Seclusion and Abuse & Neglect by Teachers and Schools
Overview
There are currently over 130,000 schools serving 50 million students in this country. In real numbers, no one really knows the extent of the threat in terms of school violence. In 2006 an audit of 17 high schools was conducted by former NYS Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi found that at least one third of violent incidents documented in school records were not reported. The Hevesi Report cited approximately 7,357 violent and disruptive incidents at 17 NY high schools in one year.
This means the American public is being significantly mislead as it is estimated that between one and four out of five school crimes go unreported. Therefore the assaults against teachers are underestimated between 20-80% and while assaults on teachers are high, assaults by one student against another student are higher and not adequately or accurately reflected in these statistics which are nonetheless disturbing.
See, Attacking our Educators, Stopping School Violence http://www.stoppingschoolviolence.com.
NATIONAL SCHOOL STATISTICS
Between 1997 and 2001, there were approximately 1.3 million reports where teachers were victims to nonfatal crimes at school. This includes 473,000 violent crimes that were reported. On average, in each year from 1997-2001, about 21 out of every 1,000 teachers were victims of violent crime at school, and 3 out of every 1,000 were victims of serious violent crime (i.e., rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault. (These numbers are estimated to be under-reported 20-80%)
• Students between the ages of 12 and 18 were victims of about 764,000 violent crimes annually (These numbers are estimated to be under-reported 20-80%)
• 13% of 9th graders reported that they were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property.
• Street gangs were reported present on school premises by 29% of students living in urban areas, 18% of students living in suburban areas, and 13% of students living in rural areas.
• 6.1% of students nationwide have carried a weapon (e.g., a gun, knife, or club) on school property one or more times during the 30 days prior to the survey. During the 12 months preceding the survey, 9.2% of the students had been threatened or injured with such a weapon on school property one or more times.
• Each day, approximately 160,000 K-12 students don’t attend school because they are afraid.
• 46% of students said they were hit, kicked, shoved, or tripped at least once in the previous month, and 18 percent had experienced this five or more times.
• One in fourteen students carries a weapon to school one or more days each month.
• 10% of traditional (non-special education) teachers reported being threatened with injury during a 12 month period.
• Nearly one in 10 high school students reported being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the preceding 12 months.
• Over 88% of victimizations that occurred at school against 12-18 year olds were not reported to the police.
• Of the 3,657 expulsions from bringing a firearm to school almost half were students in high school, 28 % were middle school and 24% were elementary school.
Special Education
The data that exists puts the number of special education students around 14% of the total student population. This segment of students is the most rapidly growing segment and it is projected that special education students will soon represent 25% of the student population.
With respect to special education students and school violence, data shows that special education students committed threats at a significantly higher annual rate (33/1000 students) than regular education students (6.9/1000 students) and made more substantive threats (39.8%) than students in regular education (20%). Students classified as Emotionally Disturbed (ED) made the highest threat rates and the most serious threats. Students in special education who made threats also committed significantly more infractions involving violent acts. Research is showing that while special education students represent approximately 14% of the school population, they are the source of 38-43% of the violent incidents.
SYNOPSIS
Again, there were 7,357 violent incidents at 17 high schools. There are over 37,000 high schools nationwide. Take the mean number of incidents at the 17 NY High Schools and multiply it by the number of high schools nationwide. The number of violent incidents that may actually be occurring at this nation’s high schools is staggering. And remember, this number does not include elementary or middle schools.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics for 2003-4 there were over 130,000 K-12 schools nationwide. Again, there were 7,357 violent incidents that took place in a one-year period at just 17 of these schools.
The 100 or so incidences of potentially abusive uses of seclusion and restraint documented in NDRN’s Report span over at least a decade long period and include non-school incidents. These cases were reported by 57 protection and advocacy network offices presumably located across the country. If you average the number of incidents included in the Report over the 10 year period over which they were reported, you are looking at 10-20 cases of potentially abusive uses of seclusion and restraint annually.
We now ask the public and Congress to compare this number to the actual number of violent incidents that may actually be occurring at this nation’s schools annually and multiply that number by the 10+ year period covered in NDRN’s Report.
It is only by putting the examples cited in NDRN’s Report into context that the scope of the overall issue of school violence and the need for school safety can be measured.
NDRN’s Report is not based on any scientific research, data initiative or statistical evidence. The Report is completely irresponsible as it is a blatant attempt by an advocacy group to influence legislation that affects the safety of millions of teachers, school resource officers, aides, administrators and 50 million students with nothing to support its position except a general feeling that children even when acting in a manner that is harmful to themselves or others should not be secluded or restrained.
It is unrealistic for advocates or Congress to expect that every incident can be managed with positive behavior intervention. Positive behavior support alone is not an appropriate intervention (see CMS restraint regulations public comment section) at the precise moment that a student is placing himself or herself at a real and substantial risk of injury to self or others.
For instance, if your child was about to cross a street into oncoming traffic, or place their hand on a hot stove, you would stop them. If your child was hurting themselves by scratching or head banging, you would stop them from continuing to hurt themselves.
- If you have your own child in an educational setting and another child physically attacks your child, regardless of motive, what would you think about a teacher or aide who decides to offer ‘positive behavior support’ instead of saving your child from getting beaten?
-In fact it is precisely because schools and other facilities are taking away the spectrum of tools that teachers and staff can use to therapeutically intervene, that more, not less, security and intervention is being called for. Administrators and teachers need to be given the spectrum of tools necessary to do their jobs in order to maintain a safe environment.
We now call on Congress to consider all sides of this issue.
In May 2009, the GAO reported over 33,000 incidents of school use of restraints and/or seclusion in one year – for only the two states which required reporting these incidents and had reliable data. Two states: 33,000 cases.
LadyJane66 also fails to mention the deaths described in the GAO report. Unfortunately, injuries and deaths of disabled children in schools due to adults’ use of restraints and seclusion are not required to be reported nationally: thus we have no idea how many injured or dead children there are.
The education and speducation industries have fought mightily to stop laws from being passed which would require such reporting. It is thus statistically inappropriate and highly misleading to cite the few cases NDRN identified – which were culled only from the cases NDRN P&As took on; not all the parental complaints they received – and pretend that these represent the entire universe of injuries and deaths. Au contraire.
I follow media reports on this issue. From what I’ve been able to ascertain so far, it would appear that several disabled children – perhaps as many as 15 – are killed each year by school staff using restraints and/or seclusion. And since research shows that restraints and seclusion are used more frequently on children than on adults; more frequently on younger children than on older ones, and more frequently on persons of color than on whites … we need mandatory reporting laws, at the national level, immediately, to see who is really being hurt, who is dying, and why. The GAO report described cases where children had died for “violent” acts such as chewing on shirt cuffs and playing with their own loose teeth. Not exactly acts threatening to teachers’ safety.
The positions of the two sides are not that far apart. The solution being presented is where the disagreement lies. NDRN is calling for an absolute ban on restraint and seclusion. Yes, this statement is accurate if you look at NDRN’s actual position, and the position of P&A, COPAA etc., the position is really to eliminate all seclusion and all physical interventions.
We are fine with that solution as long as NDRN, COPAA, P&A and others can ensure that anytime a student is going to harm him/herself or another that they can be talked down, redirected or otherwise managed by means other than physical intervention before they hurt themselves or someone else. If you cannot make that assurance 100% of the time, then calling for 100% elimination of physical intervention is neither a practical nor a legal solution.
Recently there was an incident involving a student going to school with homemade bombs and a chain saw. The teachers restrained the student on the floor face down and were called heroes. Under NDRN’s solution, the teachers would have had to simply hope that they would be able to manage the student before blew up the school, murdered someone or activated the chain saw.
So how many lives were saved by the use of restraint in the above instance?
See, http://blog.taragana.com/n/prosecutors-charge-former-student-with-attempted-murder-in-california-school-bomb-attack-150524/
SAN MATEO, Calif. — A 17-year-old boy accused of detonating two pipe bombs at a Northern California high school while armed with a chain saw, sword and explosives was charged Wednesday with attempting to murder two faculty members.
See also, Heroes who stopped Hillsdale High bomber attack honored
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/localnews/ci_13395976. Student was placed in a face down restraint and teachers were called heroes.
This story just goes to show that level of intervention allowed needs to be calibrated to the level of threat and harm presented. A one size fits all approach does not work. If a student can be managed without physical intervention — by all means. If a student can be managed standing or seated — by all means. If a student cannot be safely managed without physical interventin or standing or seated, then floor restraint i.e. in the case of the chainsaw bomber should remain an option.
A few other examples:
How about Schoolboy beaten to death as teachers look on
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/2009/08/schoolboy-beaten-to-death-as-teachers.html
Teen stabbed in fight at high school football scrimmage
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-mi-teenparentaid,0,509529.story
Two juveniles sentenced for their violent escape – left one youth officer brain damaged (before they get to juvenile hall, the youth go to school)
http://www.fox28.com/Global/story.asp?S=11202269
Teen girl dug grave anticipating murder,
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-19-nov19,0,6027124.column
See also Attacking Our Educators http://www.stoppingschoolviolence.com/bookstore_ssv.html
As to your statement, “it would appear that several disabled children – perhaps as many as 15 – are killed each year by school staff using restraints and/or seclusion.” Really, we’re not seeing that number and neither did the GAO. Further, you cannot look at restraint and seclusion in isolation. You have to look at the use of restraint and seclusion in relation to what the alternative is. In the case of the school bomber, restraint saved lives.
You have to see how many injuries, fatalities, uncontrolled school environments, the effect on education, the effect on the perception of safety and the effect on actual safety that would occur if restraint and seclusion are banned. In otherwords, you have to look at each incident and determine when restraint and/or seclusion was appropriate or inappropriate.
We understand that there is a lot of frustration because this oversight is not being conducted, and parents are worried about the treatment and safety of their children while in school. We agree that there should be oversight and accountability. We do not agree that banning the use of seclusion and restraint is the answer as the educator will simply shift their obligation to law enforcement.
That there are 33,000 instances of restraint and seclusion in Texas and California, has no meaning unless you state how many instances were restraint and seclusion were warranted i.e. for the safety, treatment and best interests of the child versus how many were not.
In NY you had over 7,500 disruptive and violent incidents in 17 high schools. There are over 30,000 high schools nationwide and over 130,000 k-12 schools. Reports show over 1 million violent incidents a year in schools and the Department of Justice estimates that only 1 out of every 2 to 5 incidents is actually reported. So between the two numbers you are conservatively looking at approximately 2 -5 million violent incidents a year. Therefore if you had 200,000 incidents of restraint and seclusion per year from all schools it would at most represent 10% of all violent incidents occuring in schools.
The few states that have gone to an unduly restrictive and inflexible policy have experienced a vast increase in the use of law enforcement and law enforcement tactics to manage situations that in the past were handled by teachers. Groups that were instrumental in effecting this change are now complaining that law enforcement is being used too frequently and students as young as 5 are being placed in handcuffs and students as young as 10 being subject to tasers. (See ACLU report http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-white-paper-says-guidelines-needed-police-schools) However if you unduly limit the interventions teachers can use, handcuffs, law enforcement, increased prescriptions and use of psychotropic (we note that some of the advocacy groups have conflict of interests regarding funding obtained from these drug companies) and other medications (see http://www.ssristor ies.com/index. php )are what you are left with.
You cannot expect teachers to intervene when the tools given to them are ineffective and not up to the task.
We invite you to try and manage a child older than 8 who is head banging, kicking, hitting, hair pulling, throwing things and biting. If you would not want to be subject to this kind of assault, why would you make others or the child his/herself subject to this type of assault and injury.
The practical reality is that despite best efforts to manage behavior using only positive behavioral supports, 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 use of physical intervention should NEVER be punitive or misused to coerce compliance or for the purpose of modifying or altering behavior by teaching a child a lesson. Physical intervention is appropriate when used to provide for the child’s safety. Indeed most parents would expect that if it were their son or daughter inflicting self harm or being assaulted, that the school and its staff would take appropriate measures to protect their child from harm.