This is in response to the Sept. 8 story about child restraint in schools.

“How old is the child?” my supervisor would ask each time I appeared at his door with a particularly thorny child behavior problem. A most appropriate question since children are different at every age and have different needs that should be responded to in different ways.

For example, children at age five or seven do not really want the power they are sometimes demanding. Most of all they want to know that their adult caretakers have the power to take care of them. So, what do teachers do when a child is out of control? They do the best they can and find the help they need because there is no simple answer. The answer cannot be legislated, no matter how much legislators and other advocates want to be helpful.

Society has been cutting back on resources such as teachers, social workers and nurses in schools for some time — a nickel here, a dime there, so people should not be surprised when teachers are challenged by the behavior problems of students.

In fact, Maine teachers do pretty well and more legislation is not the answer.

If a child needs restraint 18 times in one year, the principal, the parents, the superintendent, the commissioner and maybe the whole community need to get involved.

The answer does not lie in the legislative branch of government. It lies in the executive branch.

Jim Tierney, Auburn