This one may be a bit hard to write. Not that I can't prattle on about damn
near anything, but because it's hard to write about this subject with resorting
to swear words and banging my head off the keyboard. Both of which actions make
the spellcheck/autocorrect feature lose it's little mind. (Last time it had to
be talked down from a ledge. It doesn't appreciate the way I spell swear words
and guttural shrieks.) But I want to talk about restraint and seclusion in
schools.
Disabled children can be stubborn. (Ok, let's be honest they make
stubborn into an art form. They have to or they wouldn't survive and
thrive.) That, along with trouble in communication, often makes for sometimes
erratic and uncontrolled behavior. Having said that. THESE ARE CHILDREN FOR
F'S SAKE. We expect children in general to behave better than adults (When is
the last time you were given a time out for swearing or being cross or acting
selfishly, hmm????) We seem to expect disabled children to be passive little
tiny tim's with never a bad moment or cross word for anyone. And frankly, we
are all jerks for doing so. So why oh why do we have these god awful restraint
and seclusion policies for disabled children in schools? I can understand a
meltdown is hard to deal with but guess what folks, that's why we adults have
all the power and money and cooler toys and no bedtimes. We deal with the hard
stuff. I could possibly see removing a child until the meltdown is over (which
by the way is NOT a temper tantrum, learn the difference or just shut up
already. You're not cool and adult when you spout mean nonsense. You're just
mean, Madame Umbridge, so pipe down.) Disabled children are more often punished
and more harshly punished than their more typical peers for the SAME
infractions. It's not about them. It's about we adults being cruel. So to
that end New York State is investigating the use of restraint and seclusion in
schools. The following is from my local Independent Living Center's newsletter. Much thanks to STIC for the permission to use!
From AccessAbility, the newsletter of the Southern Tier Independence
Center :
Disability Rights New York, the official New York State Protection and
Advocacy Agency for people with disabilities is investigating inappropriate use of
restraints or time out rooms in schools across the state. They are seeking
information on recent cases: those that occurred during the previous school year
or earlier this fall.
If you report a case DRNY, they will help you to decide "next steps
which may include accessing the school and student records or filing a complaint
with NYSED, or a range of other options" They will protect your identity if
that's what you want.
Julie Keegan, Surpervising Attorney for the developmental disabilities
P&A program at DRNY, said, " Assessing what's happening or not happening in
actual cases provides an important context for the survey information we
collected last fall (we had over 300 responses!). I would really appreciate you
help in this effort. It will make a big difference in this very problematic area
of behavior invention."
Contact Julie at:
(518)432-7861 voice
(518)512-3448 TTY
(800) 993-8982 toll free
(518) 427-6561 FAX
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