Is A Federal Ban On Restraint Tactics For Special Needs Students Needed?
In a recent report from the Government Accountability Office hundreds of allegations of school-related “death and abuse” were found, most involving children with disabilities. Included are a case from Florida where a teacher’s aide gagged and duct-taped children as young as 6 for misbehaving, and a case where a 14-year-old in Texas who refused to stay seated in class was restrained by his 230-pound teacher by lying on top of him on the floor. The report also shows that over four thousand (4000) students were restrained almost nineteen thousand (19000) times In Texas during the 2007 and 2008 school year alone. Many of the children in the report were apparently not out of control or aggressive. While restraint is often an affective means to calm and restore order to a person who is emotionally out of control, it must be done correctly, yet most teachers are not taught these safe restraint tactics to use on neurotypical school students, let alone the children with special needs or disabil
