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