According to a report released today by the Government Accountability Organization, the widespread use of the often violent and abusive techniques of restraining or secluding students with special needs has led to hundreds of fatalities and injuries of American school children in the past two decades.
Of the hundreds of cases the GAO reviewed, at least 20 instances of restraint or seclusion resulted in the death of a child.
Scary shit, and special education is truly a legal nightmare. But it isn't just the student who is having the problem that teachers have to worry about; it's also the safety of other students. This is it in a nutshell:
Peterson called the decision on how to respond to a child's outburst a "delicate balance" and recounted two incidents in which parents sued because restraint was used on their children, as well as a case in which a school was sued for not restraining a child.
"Schools are in a bind," Peterson said.
Some students HAVE to be restrained in order to keep themselves and others safe. "Time out" rooms are hardly violations for crying out loud. Yes, there are some truly bad things going on, but those are obviously rare.
Read the comments after the article. Many of them are very good and have obviously been written by teachers who deal with these types of students.
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