The Auburn School Committee unanimously approved the first reading of a revision to its use of physical restraints and seclusion policy for students, reflecting changes made by legislators in Augusta this past year.

The policy states that “physical restraint and seclusion, as defined by this policy, may only be used as an emergency intervention when the behavior of a student presents an imminent risk of serious physical injury to the student or others, and less intrusive interventions have failed or been deemed inappropriate.”

School board member Jaye Rich asked who would define that policy should an incident occur.

“If less intrusive interventions have failed or been deemed appropriate, then we’ll do seclusion,” she said. “Who decides if that’s happened or if it’s not appropriate to have those less intrusive interventions?”

Laura Shaw, director of student services, said a safety team at each school, trained in de-escalation techniques, would assess the situation.

“And every safety care team has a lead who helps determine, OK, now it’s reached the point where the student is in imminent danger of bodily injury,” Shaw said. “They will need to direct the teams what to do.

“The lead person has been trained many years in a row,” she added.

Saying the teams would never unsafely drag a student down a hallway, Shaw said the policy allows more options in dealing with an unruly student.

“It gives us more leeway to get them out of a situation, even if they don’t necessarily want to leave if they’re being very unsafe,” Shaw said. “We can just remove them from the situation to a safer space.”