Parents Question District’s Restraint Policy

Pam Blair, principal, shows off the seclusion room Wednesday, recently completed at Sugar Creek Elementary. The 5-by-5-foot room was completed last week as a safe area for students to calm down when they are a danger to themselves or others, district officials said
Pam Blair, principal, shows off the seclusion room Wednesday, recently completed at Sugar Creek Elementary. The 5-by-5-foot room was completed last week as a safe area for students to calm down when they are a danger to themselves or others, district officials said

— Lauren Parrish noticed a bruise on her 9-year-old autistic son’s upper arm one night in August while preparing his shower. He refused to explain how he got the bruise, she said.

“I felt sad and furious and confused,” Parrish recalled. “I was trying to imagine why he had those marks on his arm.”

Parrish met with school officials to discuss the bruise. She learned then her son had been physically escorted following an incident after recess.

Superintendent Michael Poore said restraint is one method the Bentonville School District uses to prevent harm or calm students who are a danger to themselves or others. He said the method is used by trained staff after they have exhausted all other options. Staff could include teachers, school administrators, bus drivers and special education teachers along with aides.

“If we ever have conditions where a child is acting in an unsafe manner, we have to do things to make a safe environment for everyone,” Poore said.

Reports between Oct. 15, 2011, and Oct. 15, 2012, show 37 times Bentonville students were physically restrained or placed in supervised seclusion. They were used on students from preschool to 12th grade in 10 of the district’s schools.

Brad Reed, district student services director, said a majority of the documented cases involved special education students. There are 1,428 special education students in the district.

Laura Reynolds also has an autistic student at the district. Reynolds said the district needs a written policy that defines how and under what circumstances restraint should be used. The policy should require parents be notified following an incident.

“It all comes down to accountability,” Reynolds said.

Poore said the district has a verbal restraint procedure in place that says when and how restraint should be used. The verbal policy also requires parents be notified and the situation be documented, he said.

“I’m not sure there are a lot of districts that have a policy,” Poore said. “I think it is not unusual for a district to not have a policy.”

In Parrish’s case, she was not notified about the incident involving the bruise. Reed said the district is not allowed to speak about specific incidents that could identify a student. However, he could speak about district procedure:

“It is our policy that any time we have an act of restraint parents are notified,” Reed said. “That could be verbal or written contract. If we are just helping a student move from point A to point B there is not a great need to contact them.”

Parrish said school officials told her that her son was not restrained, but a crisis prevention “escort” technique was used on him.

There is no standard policy among Northwest Arkansas school districts on the use of restraint, according to interviews with local school officials. There is no state policy or guidelines either, but the state Department of Education is considering the issue and at least one Northwest Arkansas lawmaker said laws on restraint are needed.

The Springdale School District would use restraint if a student was going to injure himself or others, said Kathy Morledge, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for preschool to seventh grade for that district. However, she said the district hasn’t had a reason to as far as she can remember.

She said the district uses other procedures to calm students in potentially dangerous situations. Evacuating other students from the area is the first step.

“A lot of times just removing the audience will cause a child to begin to calm down,” she said.

Morledge said plans are in place for students at risk of behavioral problems prior to them occurring. She said the student picks a safe place he can go when he gets upset.

Rick Schaeffer, communications director for Springdale School District, said the district does not have a written policy regarding restraint.

The Rogers and Fayetteville School Districts both said trained staff use restraint only in crisis situations where a child is a danger to himself or others. Officials with both districts said it is rarely needed. Neither of the districts has a written policy regarding the use of restraint.

Ashley Kelley Siwiec, Rogers communications director, said district officials were unaware of any restraint cases this school year. The Fayetteville School District was unable to quantify what “rarely” meant.

Training

Tanya Sharp, Bentonville district special services director, said district staff receive restraint training through the Crisis Prevention Institute of Milwaukee. The district has trained 261 teachers, bus drives, aides and principals, said Mary Ley, district communications director. Seventy-six of those have taken refresher classes. The district has 1,415 teachers, bus drivers, aides and principals.

“The bulk of that training that we go through is to look at warning signs that a child might be having problem,” Sharp said. “It teaches intervention that you can go through beforehand to help them calm down.”

Talking to students quietly in a relaxed voice is one techniques, Sharp said.

She added short commands are another. Staff members hold students to restrain them, Sharp said. Students are not strapped down. She said the type of hold could vary depending on the student’s situation.

The district also uses seclusion, she said. Seclusion could be a time-out area where a child can calm down. It could mean a child is left alone in a room, Sharp said. She said the door is left open and staff members supervise from outside the room.

Randy Boardman, Crisis Prevention Institute’s director of research and development, said the use of restraint is part of the training. Boardman said the type of restraint taught by his company does not block airflow or use the floor. The techniques also require a third-party who can monitor the restraint.

“We also advocate for restraint-free facilities,” he said. “Basically, you get so good at all the other skills that it doesn’t get to restraint.”

Boardman said those without training could overreact and restrain prior to a threat of danger.

“If I were going to pick up a chair, be angry and throw it against the wall, that might be different than if I picked up a chair and came charging at you,” Boardman said. “One might pick up a chair and hit the wall. That might break the chair, but it doesn’t hurt anyone.”

Boardman said his company does teach “escort or transport” techniques such as those at issue in the Parrish case. This could include two people holding a student’s arm while standing on either side of him, he said.

Documents from the school state an attempt to escort Parrish’s son occurred after he refused to come in from recess. One document states he was being loud and wouldn’t follow directions. Another said he was hitting and kicking staff. Parrish said both documents reference the August incident when her son received the bruise.

Parrish said she was able to work with officials at the school to develop a plan that so far has eliminated the need to physically hold her child. She said her son now has an aide with him at all times. The aide is able to calm her son before he gets overly upset, Parrish said.

Bentonville Experience

The Bentonville district’s reports show varying events leading up to the use of restraint and seclusion.

A sixth-grade student at Ruth Hale Barker Middle School was restrained last year after hitting his head on a trampoline base, according to an incident report.

“He started to cry for no apparent reason, very hard tears and screaming like he was in pain,” the report states.

He then called the teacher a profane name, lowered his head with force to the base of the trampoline and hit it so hard he started to bleed from the front part of his hairline, according to the report. The student grabbed onto the teacher’s breast and side while she attempted to restraint him, according to the report.

In another incident, the document states a third-grade student at Elm Tree Elementary was restrained and left alone in a room after not following directions, kicking a shelf and using profane language.

“He headed in a different direction and would not follow directions,” the report states. A third party helped the teacher escort the student to a room where he called the teacher a profane name and refused to accept help, according to the report.

“We used CPI and escorted him to the pass room. He was trying to step on our feet and kick us. We left him alone in the pass room where he kicked for several minutes,” according to the report.

Poore said a further review of the document might be needed in the Elm Tree incident.

“It sounds like in that case that document was not as clear as we want it to be,” Poore said. “It may have been that it was written poorly, or it could be that the procedure was not used properly.”

One report outlines a restraint that occurred with a preschooler at Tennie Russell Primary School. The report states the student was carried out of the room after throwing blocks and screaming during rest time.

“I think that was an appropriate behavior by the teacher,” Poore said. “Throwing blocks, if that hit someone, it could have hurt a kid.”

Tammy Schwartz believes her son’s school failed to give her enough details about a restraint that occurred in the lunchroom Nov. 16, 2011. An email from a teacher at the school to Schwartz notes aides escorted her son to the office because his behavior became out of control, Schwartz said.

Restraint documents from the school state a third-grade boy injured a staff member during lunch and the student also complained of pain in his arm following a restraint incident.

“I didn’t know the full extent of it until I started asking questions,” she said. “When something is of that significance, they need to call the parents in.”

Schwartz said there needs to be a partnership with the school and the parents. She said parents in this situation could review their child’s medicine or bring in the help of a behavioral specialist to help resolve the behavior.

Poore said it is the expectation of the district that parents are contacted following a restraint situation.

Future of Restraint

Poore said he brought better restraint procedures with him from Colorado Springs, Colo., where he previously worked.

“I think we are doing a pretty good job of making sure our people are trained,” he said.

He said the district works to avoid repeated restraint incidents with a student.

“We talk about those things regarding what to do next,” Poore said. “Sometimes we rely on outside consultants along with state officials for guidance. We provide a different form of intervention if necessary.”

The use of restraint in schools nationwide has piqued the interest of some professions. Denise Marshall is the executive director for Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, a national special education advocacy group.

“The national trend in every discipline in mental health facilities and any type of setting is to discontinue or move away from seclusion and restraint,” Marshall said. There is no evidence that restraint is a helpful technique, she said.

Reece Peterson, a professor with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln who specializes in education of students with emotional or behavioral disorders, said schools should have the right to restrain students.

Lisa Stewart has an autistic son in the Bentonville School District. She agrees restraint is needed.

“The teachers that I have had to deal with have been really good about using it as a last resort,” Stewart said. “I think for the safety of other children it is necessary. I have had some situations where Tristen has been pushed or hit. If Tristen was on the other end of it, I would expect it for the safety of the other children.”

Restraint should only be used when there is risk of injury to the student or others around them, Peterson said.

“Interestingly a lot of the reports of restraint or seclusion have come about when kids are not being compliant,” Peterson said.

State Rep. Uvalde Lindsey, D-Fayetteville, said there can be more done at the state level to prevent restraint from occurring in schools.

“There are no state laws that speak to the issue of restraining special needs kids,” Lindsey said. “We need to enact legislation.”

Lindsey said restraint is the last thing a district should do. He said training all teachers on how to work with special education students would help prevent restraint.

“What really bothers me is if we have these type of problems in our best school districts, such as Bentonville, what is happening in the Delta where they don’t have these type of resources.”

Arkansas Department of Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell recently set up a committee to discuss restraint policy. Courtney Salas-Ford, attorney for the special education unit at the department, said the committee is reviewing school district policies on restraint statewide along with what type of training the schools are using. She said the committee will recommend if restraint needs regulation, and if so, what that will look like.

“We are looking at what other states have enacted and then looking at federal guidance,” she said.

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