And more--
Federal Report about this abuse and the CPS will not do anything to stop it because the public schools are sacrosanct.
www.mercurynews.com
What's alarming from the report, is "the number of children who have died when people have put them in restraints, what they call prone restraint, face down on the floor and having someone sit on them, being suffocated. Hundreds and hundreds of kids put in abusive situations, dangerous situations," Miller said. "This is a very serious problem."
Child advocates and lawyers for disabled students say the problem has grown as the number of cases of autism and other disabilities grows and more special education students enter traditional public schools. In January, the National Disability Rights Network issued a report documenting "dozens of cases of students abusively pinned to the floor for hours at a time, handcuffed, locked in closets, and subjected to other traumatizing acts of violence," the GAO report states.
Rhoda Benedetti, a Walnut Creek-based lawyer for disabled children, blames school districts that cut corners in crafting state-mandated support plans for special education students, then resorting to harsh discipline when the plan fails.
"I've had clients who were seven years old placed in closets, or their arms pinned down, where they restrain them on the ground and sit on them. I've had clients with severe bruising, black eyes occurring at schools and the schools having no explanation for it," she said. "And the authorities tend to look the other way. If a parent inflicted these kinds of damaging injuries to a disabled child, the parent would be investigated of course. But when a school does it, nobody does a thing."
According to the GAO report, 19 states have no laws or regulations related to the use of seclusion or restraint in schools. Seven place some restrictions on use of restraints but do not regulate seclusions. California sets limits on emergency interventions for special education students. Parents must be notified within a day and the school must file a report. Also, no technique can be used that is "designed or likely to cause physical pain" or denies sleep, food, water or bathroom access to the student. The student cannot be locked in seclusion.
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have tightly restricted use of restraint in schools and phased out seclusion by 2012, arguing that the bill could place more students at risk by tying the hands of school employees. Bruce Hunter of the American Association of School Administrators cautioned that outlawing such techniques outright could endanger students and teachers.
"If that were to happen and there were a dangerous situation where somebody was being attacked, we would have to call the cops and sit there and wait," said Hunter. "That's unreasonable."
