The article about therapeutic restraint used on students in public schools (July 14) was very disturbing to me. As the grandmother of a 5-year-old, the fact that a teacher is allowed to physically restrain a child is outrageous.
We send our children to school expecting them to be safe, not emotionally terrorized. Should a parent do that to their child, those same teachers would be calling the police department and the Department of Health and Human Services, and then the parents would probably be charged with child abuse.
Isn’t it illegal to assault a child? Do they think that changing the term to “therapeutic restraint” makes it OK to hold a child down and scare them to death?
Our children can’t defend themselves, not to mention the emotional issues that this type of discipline can cause. They are also teaching a child how to assault another person.
As a mother and grandmother, I know that children have different types of issues. Physically restraining a child is not the way to deal with them.
Parents need to advocate for their children.
I have friends who are teachers and are very good at their jobs. Not one of them would deal with a child in that way.
Teachers are supposed to be able to deal with children who have different issues. Just because one child has different needs than that of another child doesn’t give anyone a right to use physical restraint.
Sylvia Hinckley, New Gloucester
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What a joke
"It would seem counterproductive to providing an education if kids were afraid of bad things happening to them and knowing noone would help".....????
Dito! And what do you think these children that you are restraining and placing in seclusion are feeling??? Perhaps they feel, " afraid of bad things happening to them and knowing noone would help".....
No one is jumpimg to conclusions, and we parents and grandparents will not have the wool pulled over our eyes! The "Bruises" and the emotional and mental trauma speak for themselves. It is child abuse, no matter how you try to gift wrap it!
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Madeline
I commend you in your convictions to keep children safe and stand up for childrens rights! However I dont think you have the proper understanding of the training of restraint systems used by schools and care providers.. The training dictates that restraint is ONLY to be used as a last resort when all other attempts or options have failed or if there is an immediate need to insure the safety of the child or others..This means that what you suggest would have allready been tried and failed to redirect.. Also on the terms seclusion/restraint being used. It would appear that the term is being construed in the articles and comments to the extreme of its defenition..... By definition if a parent/care provider redirects a child to his or room as a consequence for poor behavior, then that IS seclusion.. Now if you take it to the extreme and lock a child in a room then that is absolutely child abuse. However i believe that approximately 90% of parents out there have sent their kids to their rooms.... By definition anytime someone has to place their hands on someone in order to redirect their disposition that IS considered a restraint.. Would you step in between two chldren on the playground fighting? If you would then you would be considered restraining those children... I think most of us would step in and have the best of intentions and do every resonable thing we could do to keep these kids safe, but we would still be the one restraining children.. If a child in a school was trying to hit ,punch, kick, slap a teacher, does that teacher have the right to protect themselves? Well this would mean they would have to somehow stop the child from swinging at them. How could this be done without it being considered a restraint of sorts???? It cannot be done.....Sould everyone stand around and watch the teacher get beaten while they wait for the police or for the child to stop? All because there is no protection for teachers to defend themselves and students from immediate danger.
If we scour the internet and read all about the worst incidents out there and base every incident on that outcome then we would be missing any and all positives that can occur. Like when a teacher or caregiver intervines in an incident because they werent afraid to be the one stepping in and opening themselves to lawsuits, and subsequently they have saved lives or stopped possible disastrous outcomes...
I know that if you looked into the statistics you would find it is a very small pecentage of restraint incidents that result in death or injury to the child or client. And to throw the educators in the schools under the bus based on the fear of the worst is doing our schools and children a diservice. If teachers are afraid that if they step in to break up the fight or stop the assault then they would be opening themselves up to lawsuits then they would be less likely to intervene leaving our kids at greater risk.. Imagine if the school bully knew that he could assault kids at will and no teacher would stop them. What kind of atmosphere would that create for our kids?
I hope you dont take my comments as confrontational. I am simply trying to give you the perspective of the caregiver who has had to use restraints for the right reasons and had success keeping kids safe from harm because of my training with restraint systems...
In my experience the kids that are being restrained are the kids from abusive households and thus they are taught that abusive/assaultive behavior is the way to solve problems, therefore they resort to violence when upset or feel wronged. Restraints are only used to keep kids safe from harm and usually when combined with therapy the lesson is learned that violence is not theanswer and that the ONLY time they will be restrained is when they put themselves or others in physical danger. Thus you create the learning curve down the road to theraputic recovery from abuse. They learn to trust caregivers and trust that they are there for the client because they want to help and stop the cycles of abuse that plague so many families. They go on to learn proper coping skills and gain the tools that they need to stop the violent behavior that has been taught to them by abusive parents. Before you know it you have kids that are productive thriving individuals that no longer offend/abuse others. Therapy is the key to success, but restraint is a tool utilized to insure safety of all until therapy has concrete results.
If a plane crashes and kills hundreds, do we stop all pilots from flying planes for ever because the potential for human error resulting in death is a possability? No, we trust that the pilots are in control and properly trained to handle and situation that may occur to insure our safety.. Therfore we need to recognize that another teacher or student will be assaulted at school and there will be a need to stop the assault by someone trained to properly control the stuation to keep everyone safe..We cannot just throw our teachers under the bus. Those who have restrained and it has resulted in death or injury should ave never been in the position to do so in the first place. They were either not trained or mentally not stable enough to be responsible for those kids well being in such a high stress/high tension situation...
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.restraint is NOT discipline!!!
It appears that many of you out ther that have posted on this story and others related to it in the past week have a grand missconception to what a restraint is... Restraint is NOT a punishment and should not be used for discipline purposes........ It is only to be used as a means of controlling and redirection a potentially dangerous behavior When all ther options (ie..verbal warnings, removing triggers, relocating client to a different space such as going outside or in a quiet room to calm down)..
-Let me pose this question to all : When you are at home with your child or grandchild or maybe a child that you babysit, If the child were hitting or otherwise assaulting another child would you stop the assault or would you let it continue?? Maybe you would have to grab the childs hand or his/her body to stop them from assaulting the other party involved....... If you would stop it then you would by definition be restraining the child....
-Second question: If your child were at school and was assaulted by another student , would you want the faculty to step in and separate the students so that no serious injury occurs? Fact is that by definition teachers could not do this without restraining the students.....
We as parents need to know that our children are safe at school. Would we want to be reading the headlines saying "Child Killed By Classmate While Teachers Watch Incident, Would Not Intervene Due To Lawsuit Worries"? This is the environment that would be created if people became lawsuit happy with the schools... Do we want our kids going to school everyday knowing that if someone wants to hurt them that noone will step up to keep them safe? Do we want guards roaming the halls of our schools making it feel like a prison? Do we really think that quality people will want to be educators if they think that they could be sued and potentially lose they're ability to teach if they stepped into a situation to stop an assault on a child?
-One thing I do see here that would be of service to the school systems (and somewhat costly) but a service wuld be to require that principals, office personnel and guidance councilors be properly trained in restraints, when to use them , and how to use them as a tool for keeping schools safe..There are many good programs out there that are appropriate for schools and designed specifically for schools use.. here is just one.
www.mandtsystem.com/training/school-culture.ms
if your not familiar with what these systems entail i encourage you to educate yourself before you jump to conclusions as to what it is. Also try talking to people or educators that have been in the position to have to step in and prevent assaults in the school setting and ask yourself, Would I have Done Different?
To prevent our teachers from keeping schools safe means sending our kids to a place that they would become fearfull of and dread going to. Is that what we want for our educational system and most of all our kids?...It would seem counterproductive to providing an education if kids were afraid of bad things happening to them and knowing noone would help.....
Restraining is always the last resort but sometimes neccessary for safety of all...
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.http://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf4JxtSRygY
Instead of training in restraining and secluding children...educate teachers, on positive behavioral intervention.
It is a much better way.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyTfOnPLnSM
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.I agree too
It is child abuse!
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.I totally agree, it is child
I totally agree, it is child abuse.
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