Restraints used by NJ educators to curb unruly behavior under scrutiny

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Restraints used by NJ educators to curb unruly behavior under scrutiny

By SHANNON MULLEN • STAFF WRITER • May 5, 2010

It's been called " the dirty little secret'' of special education.

New Jersey gives public and private schools a virtual free pass to forcibly

restrain unruly children with disabilities.

School employees can use " bear hugs,'' " basket holds'' and " take downs'' … which

sound more like wrestling moves than anything you'd expect to see in school …

and keep children confined in " time-out'' rooms until they calm down.

Last year, congressional investigators uncovered hundreds of cases of alleged

abuse and at least 20 deaths related to the use of restraints and seclusion in

U.S. schools since 1990.

State law also allows school employees to use extreme measures to control

severely autistic children who habitually injure themselves by banging their

heads, biting their hands or other compulsive behaviors. The techniques include

spraying water or noxious chemicals in kids' faces, snapping their wrists with

rubber bands or putting hot sauce on their tongues, disability rights advocates

say.

Educators and crisis-intervention experts say restraining holds and other

forceful methods are sometimes necessary, as a last resort, to protect children

and others from harm. Moreover, they reflect the serious behavior problems

schools have to contend with today, especially in special education.

" A father called me a couple of weeks ago, 12-year-old daughter, pulling her

permanent teeth out of her mouth,'' said Weitzen, executive director of

POAC, a nonprofit autism education organization in Brick, referring to an

autistic girl who attends public school. " What do you do if that's your

daughter? I don't know. I don't have an answer.''

Parents and schools can't look to the state for guidance. As of last year, New

Jersey was one of 19 states that had no laws or regulations specifically dealing

with the use of restraints and seclusion in schools.

Teachers and other staff do not need special training. Schools don't have to

report such incidents, or even have written policies that spell out what's

allowed and what isn't.

What's more, schools can keep parents in the dark when their children are

restrained or confined.

Kathy Mills of Upper Township, Cape May County, says she had no idea her

15-year-old son , who has Down syndrome, had been restrained in October

at Cape May County High School until she noticed a bruise on his back.

Her son, who has a history of behavior problems at school, told her a staff

member used his knee to hold him facedown on the floor. Later, the school

acknowledged that had been restrained after he had thrown a chair and

kicked and spit at staff, records show.

" No one ever told me about it,'' Mills said.

At least 20 deaths

Frumen, supervisor of child study for Monmouth County, estimated the

likelihood that public schools in Monmouth are relying on these techniques to

control unruly children at " zero to none.''

" There may be a time-out room or a need for a passive restraint, but not in the

public schools,'' said Frumen, who meets monthly with special-services directors

in public school districts throughout the county. " We're seeing this more in the

private schools for the disabled.''

Statewide, however, special-education advocates paint a different picture.

" I have been involved in a multitude of cases where this is going on, both in

public schools and private,'' said Renay Zamloot, a special-education advocate

based in Clinton, Hunterdon County. " I see a lot of IEPs (the document that lays

out the education plan for a child with special needs) where these tactics are

embedded in such a way that they're not obvious to parents.''

Pat Amos, an autism advocate from Ardmore, Pa., also believes many districts are

using restraints and time-out rooms. Amos worked closely with the mother of

Goodman, a 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy with autism who died of

pneumonia, respiratory distress and blood poisoning in 2002.

Goodman was a patient at a residential treatment center run by Bancroft

Neurohealth in Haddonfield, Camden County. Goodman's mother, Janice Roach,

claimed in a civil suit that the center used arm splints, head gear and

medication to control her son's self-injurious behavior. She claimed these

methods weakened her son's immunity and contributed to his death.

The case was settled out of court. The terms of the settlement were confidential

and Bancroft admitted no negligence or liability.

" This has been the dirty little secret of special ed ever since the federal law

was passed in '75,'' Amos said, referring to the Individuals with Disabilities

Education Act, which created the special-education system that exists today. " No

one sees it, no one questions it; even parents don't know it's going on.''

That may be about to change.

A year ago, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of

Congress, published a report that documented hundreds of school restraint and

seclusion cases in the past 20 years in which children were allegedly abused.

In some cases children as young as 5 were bound by bungee cords or duct-taped to

chairs, held facedown on the floor as they struggled to breathe, or locked in

seclusion rooms for hours at a time for such minor infractions as hand-waving,

slouching and whistling. Virtually all the cases involved children with

disabilities.

The GAO report led to bipartisan legislation that would, for the first time,

establish federal standards for the use of restraints, seclusion and other

coercive measures in U.S. schools.

The bill, which the House of Representatives passed on March 3, would limit the

use of these methods to situations where there is " imminent danger'' of injury.

It would ban the use of locked seclusion rooms, restraining straps and

behavior-controlling drugs not prescribed by a doctor.

It also would hold schools far more accountable than they are today. Schools

would have to collect data on the use of forceful measures against students,

ensure that their staffs are properly trained in crisis-intervention techniques,

and notify parents immediately after an incident occurs. The U.S. Senate has yet

to vote on its version of the bill.

Congress passed similar legislation in 2000 that applies to medical facilities,

but not schools.

New policies

If the measure becomes law, states would have six months to align their policies

with the new federal standards, which wouldn't go into effect for two years.

Last year, with federal legislation looming, the New Jersey Department of

Education assembled a group of educators and advocates to begin hashing out

possible guidelines.

Currently, New Jersey law allows school employees to use reasonable amounts of

force to protect a child or others from being harmed, or to prevent school

property from being damaged, but it doesn't specify what methods can and can't

be used.

Policies vary among school districts and private schools, and they're rarely

written down, special-education advocates say.

The Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commission, which operates seven

schools for children with special needs, uses time-out rooms for situations in

which students acting aggressively can't be calmed down in their classrooms.

" I have kids who are aggressive. I have kids who throw tables and chairs and

desks,'' said R. Solberg, principal of the MRESC's Academy Learning Center

in Monroe, which specializes in autism.

Students generally remain in the school's padded timeout rooms for no more than

five to 10 minutes, he said. The rooms don't have doors, but a staff member will

sometimes need to use pads to block a student from exiting, Solberg said.

Parents are notified whenever a child has to be placed in the room or

restrained, he said.

" It's rarely used. I don't think it's been used in the past week,'' Solberg

said. " It has to be a question of safety.''

Amy Woodward, a behavior analyst at the school, said teachers have a

responsibility to take steps to protect children from serious harm.

" If you have a student gouging his eyes out, punching a wall or attacking other

students, you can't not touch him,'' Woodward said. " You have very extreme

behavior (and) you can't stand by and not intervene. That's why I think it's

important to have a staff that's properly trained.''

While the MRESC has a written policy on the use of restraints, the

Monmouth-Ocean Educational Services Commission does not.

" To the best of the my knowledge, no,'' said Nogueira, the schools

superintendent. The commission doesn't use time-out rooms at its schools, he

said.

The Brick School District doesn't have any dedicated time-out rooms, either,

according to Superintendent of Schools Walter Hrycenko. Special-education

teachers and other staff receive training in crisis-intervention techniques and

parents are notified promptly when incidents occur, he said.

" It's our practice that this is what is done,'' Hrycenko said. " Now, it may not

be written down that this is what you do in this and that situation.''

Examples of restraint or confinement

In its May 19, 2009, report, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the

investigative arm of Congress, documented hundreds of cases over the past two

decades of alleged abuse of children who were restrained or confined at school.

Examples cited in the report include the following:

1) 1998: A 4-year-old girl in a West Virginia public school suffered bruising

and post-traumatic stress disorder after teachers restrained her in a wooden

chair with leather straps … described as resembling a miniature electric chair …

for being " uncooperative.''

2) 2002: A 230-pound teacher in Texas fatally restrained a 129-pound 14-year-old

boy diagnosed with post-traumatic stress by lying on top of him because the boy

would not stay seated in class. The death was ruled a homicide, but the teacher

wasn't indicted, and he later got a teaching job in Virginia.

3) 2003: In Florida, a volunteer teacher's aide, on probation for burglary and

cocaine possession, gagged and duct-taped five children, ages 6 and 7, for

misbehaving. There were no records that the school did a background check or

trained the aide. The aide pleaded guilty to false imprisonment and battery.

4) 2004 and 2007: In a New York public school, parents allowed the school to use

a time-out room only as a " last resort,'' but the school put a child in the room

repeatedly for hours at a time for offenses such as whistling, slouching and

hand-waving.

5) 2006: A substitute teacher in an Illinois public school restrained an

8-year-old boy diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in a

chair with masking tape and also taped his mouth shut because the boy would not

remain seated.