Harper: Restraint Guidelines Endanger Children : Roll Call Opinion

Every day in schools across the United States, students are being subjected to barbaric and potentially deadly treatment in the form of seclusion and restraint.
According to leading education researchers and child trauma experts, as well as the Government Accountability Office, the use of these practices — which include forcibly pinning students to the ground, strapping them to chairs or locking them in closets — is dangerous and traumatic for everyone involved, including teachers, other school personnel and students. Their use has been linked to physical and emotional harm and even death. It is a practice that amounts to institutionalized child abuse, and it has no place in our schools.
That is why the American Association of School Administrators’ recent endorsement of the use of seclusion and restraint in our schools is so disheartening...

...Ultimately, the AASA’s position on seclusion and restraint is really a reflection of the group’s disregard for children with disabilities.The implication is that these vulnerable children are a burden to schools, rather than an equally important part of the student population. The underlying attitude is that these children are disrupting their efforts to educate the “good” students and that something must be done to keep disruptions to a minimum. What better way to accomplish this than by locking the disruptive child in a closet for the day?...

Read Opinion at this link:  Harper: Restraint Guidelines Endanger Children : Roll Call Opinion