Today, the Committee will consider legislation to that will protect schoolchildren from harmful uses of restraint and seclusion in their classrooms.The Hill newspaper explored the story behind the bill:
Toni Price, mother of a victim who died, testifies at a hearing examining the abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint on May 19, 2009.
Ann Gaydos, mother of a victim, testifies at a hearing examining the abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint on May 19, 2009.
Nicole Danhof-Holden addresses a press conference about the introduction of H.R. 4247 - Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in the Schools Act
In response to these stories and others, Rep. Joe Courtney called on Congress to make schools safe havens for children. This echos the calls of Chairman Miller to make schools safe for students and free from abuse.
The markup of H.R. 4247 - Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act starts at 11:00am ET today and will be live webcast. Please join us.
Curtis Decker, the executive director of the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), remembers when he first heard about children being secluded and restrained in schools. The parents of an American Indian girl with Down syndrome found out their daughter was being tied to her chair at school when they went to pick her up one day.In addition to these horrific stories, the committee heard from other parents whose children had been victims of abuse by incorrect application of these techniques.
That was six or seven years ago, Decker recalled, and he and his staff discussed it in a meeting as an isolated case.
Then they started hearing other, similar stories. School employees sat on a girl in Wisconsin as a punishment for blowing bubbles in her milk. A child in Michigan had an epileptic seizure on the first day of school and died after school officials sat on him. A school in Tennessee had metal-door-enclosed seclusion rooms that looked like “prison cells from World War II,” NDRN senior staff attorney Jane Hudson said.
Hudson wrote a report on seclusion and restraint in schools, and a year ago, the organization took its findings to House Education and Labor Committee Chairman George Miller (D-Calif.).
“The types of abuse these kids are suffering are so disturbing, you’d think these were stories about torture tactics used at prison camps,” Miller said in an e-mail.
Toni Price, mother of a victim who died, testifies at a hearing examining the abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint on May 19, 2009.
Ann Gaydos, mother of a victim, testifies at a hearing examining the abusive and deadly use of seclusion and restraint on May 19, 2009.
Nicole Danhof-Holden addresses a press conference about the introduction of H.R. 4247 - Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in the Schools Act
The markup of H.R. 4247 - Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act starts at 11:00am ET today and will be live webcast. Please join us.
My 3 children must overhear classmates being hit with WOODEN PADDLES in hallways just outside of class by school employees for minor infractions such as not turning in homework. Tennessee State Law does not require parental consent or notification for children to be physically (Corporally) punished at school, ILLEGAL in Schools in 30 States!