FARMINGTON — RSU 9 staffers told school board members Tuesday that they are facing challenges when children become disruptive.

A new state education rule governing restraint and seclusion of out-of-control children was adopted by the Legislature this year after some children in other school systems died during what was formerly considered therapeutic restraint, Special Education Director Paula Leavitt said.

The rule allows physical restraint and emergency intervention only when a student’s behavior presents imminent risk of injury or harm to the student or others, if other less intrusive attempts to calm the child down have failed or were deemed inappropriate, according to information from Leavitt and Mallett School Principal Tracy Williams.

School staff are no longer allowed to physically move or guide a child who does not want to move. If a student flops to the floor, a staff member cannot pick them up, Leavitt said.

Even if the student is disrupting a class, it is the other children who have to be moved, Williams said. An adult needs to be left with the child in the classroom.

If a student tries to punch a staff member or volunteer, that person is only allowed to deflect that punch, Leavitt said.

At one elementary school in the district this year, there has been $1,500 worth of damage done, Leavitt said.

The district has a policy that parents have to pay for the damage.

There is a movement to have the rule reopened to be reviewed, given the behavior that schools are seeing, Superintendent Mike Cormier said.

The behavior includes students bolting for the doors and running upstairs, Williams said. She said she had one student run up a stairway and get on the railing. She was able to grab the student to prevent them being harmed, she said.

Staff can feel pretty helpless in front of other students, Williams said.

“The kids I’m seeing don’t look like they are trying to be disruptive,” Williams said. “They are kids that cannot control themselves.”

“More and more kids are coming to us with trauma,” Leavitt said.

There have been three instances where a child has tried to bolt from a building, Williams said.

Board Director Betsey Hyde of Temple said she was grateful for the presentation. She has been asked why a student is running around a building, a child lying on the floor with an adult lying next to the student, and a student not coming in from the playground. Now she knows why, she said.

There is a lot of paperwork that also comes from these incidents, Williams said. “I don’t know what the solution is. It’s a big issue. I really think it warrants discussion.”

Staff members have been asked to document how much education time is lost and how many times these incidents occur, Cormier said.

dperry@sunjournal.com

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