Guest guest Posted November 11, 2011 Report Share Posted November 11, 2011 The law on restraints was changed a couple of years ago. We discussed it here for weeks. This is a very serious issue. So yes, you have reasons to be concerned! I am trained in taking down kids. We call this PCM procedures in Broward. I have never used the procedures, but I have witnessed it over a hundred times. It happens regularly at my school. The school will not restrain a child if you say that you do not permit it. If it happens, the school and the district know that you can sue them and most likely win (win meaning you will get what you want, such as placement at a different school, not money). However, the district does not want another lawsuit. This is why I keep saying that you parents need to see your principals and APs more often. Anyone who is concerned about their child at school need to see the principal and start a dialog. Until you do that, I do not believe that you are sincere. In an emergency, the school's crisis team or the administration can take down/restraint any child until the police arrives, if the principal believes that this is needed to prevent physical injuries to the child himself or other children. The child in this case does not need to have a disability or any thing. The principal should do whatever she can to prevent injuries to the children while waiting for the police. Once the school police is there, they will take over. In the mean time, the front office should be calling the parents. PCM is a procedure used at schools and other institutions to take down people who are so out of control that they are injuring themselves or others. The principal, the state and the parents need to be notified right away. The district or the principal may ask the staff if anyone would want to be part of a crisis team. We are now talking about teachers and assistants. Usually slim women. In order to form a team, there should be at least three staff members at each school. The staff members who agree to do this , do not get extra paid. They have to attend a three day training with follow up later on, and they have to pass a written test and a practical test. I did this a few years ago because I wanted to see what it was all about. They can let their certification laps any time, and the school then is without a team. When this happens , the principal needs to either get rid of all the kids who need PCM from time to time, or she has to call the school police when she needs help. This is a huge problem. PCM is rarely used on a reg ed student. If a regular ed student goes off and is that out of control, his parents are called while the principal, the AP and a couple of male teachers (who are asked to leave their classrooms for 5 minutes) show up and try to intimadate the student enough to get him to stop his behavior. I have seen that too. The police will be there shortly. PCM is usually used on a child with special needs who is in a selfcontained class and known to have severe behaviors. This could be in a center school or at a regular school with a cluster. The child is known to have severe behavior issues, he has a formal behavior plan in place, his parents are involved in writing the plan and they meet regularly with the team at school. Restraints may be needed and the parents in these cases are very involved. The beh. plan spells out what to do to avoid a crisis, and PCM is on the plan if the child is violent. There are no secrets here. PCM is usually done "prone" (face down) on a special mat with two staffmembers who are trained, certified and on the school's crisis team. The AP, the ESE specialist or the autism coach is typically there, timing it. It should not be the child's teacher. The autism coach could also be the one on the crisis team doing this. A report has to be submitted electronically to the State and the district, and a copy of this is mailed to the parents. So many individuals are involved in this, that it is hard to keep it a secret. The child is taken down on the mat when all other attempts have been done to calm him down. The mat is placed in the area where he is. If this is in his room, all the others have been moved to another room. If a child "goes off" at another location such as in the hall or in the cafeteria, the crisis team would have to transport him to a more appropriate location, and this can be impossible. The crisis team in clusters often consists of the women who work there. The average elem teacher is a women. Female teachers who have back problems, are heavy or middle age or older, usually let their PCM certification laps. They don't want to get physically hurt during a take down. The PCM trained teachers I know are all female and weigh less than a hundred pounds, so they are unable to deal with a a big child during transportation. Some schools have a male principal or AP who may be able to help moving the child to a safe location, but many administrators are women, middle aged who will not touch a kid. At center schools it is very different. They have very good crisis teams and many behavior specialists on staff. The PCM procedures are safe. I have never seen a kid get hurt, but I have seen dozen of teachers getting injured. Here is the problem, however. PCM must never be used to teach the kid a lesson. If the child needs PCM often such as 4 times a month, he may need to change placement. The parents most likely will be asked to look at a center school. The parents I have met, dread doing this. Instead they hope that the school can help the child calming down so he can continue to attend the reg ed elementary school. All resources must be pulled in, including district beh. specialists, to help the child immediately. The problem is that not all beh. specialists are good enough to get thechild through this. The child who wins here is usually the one whose parents team up with the school and the district and show up at the school for their meetings. The parents who already have established a good relationship with the school's principal, and have startd the dialog, are better off than those who now do not know who to turn to. For now, tell the IEP committee that PCM is not allowed, and that the school needs to call you asap if your kid goes off and cannot be conrolled. After the IEP meeting (or before) stop by the principal's office to introduce yourself. Do this before your child has problems. Tell the principal why you like the school and what kind of expectations you have. If you are happy with his teacher, now is the time to tell. It is a 50 second conversation you won't regret. You are doing it for your child, remember. To: sList Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 6:19 PMSubject: Re: IEP you and me both have concerns.. I have read about cases where a child has died because of restraining. Im going to submit a non restraint letter. Another memeber advised me of that. Its scary... IEP Hello all, I had an IEP meeting on Tuesday and it went well. But I have a concern, there was a section where crisis management was discussed and restraints were mentioned even though "no" was checked off in that section, indicating that it wont be used. I made it clear that I refuse for anyone to restrain my son. In case of a "crisis" I need to be called immediately. I told the counselor that I would like this documented and her response was "I have to find the correct way to do that because parents dont ask for that". My response: "I guess you have met your first parent that wants this done!". Any guidance or advice? I will be following up to make sure its documented somewhere. Thanks everyone!Yesenia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted November 14, 2011 Report Share Posted November 14, 2011 Excellent letter! But I am a little confused. If PCM can only be used for a student who is a danger to himself(herself) or others, and the law states that the school has the right to use it in these circumstances regardless of any parent permission, then what good does it do to get a letter on file that keeps them from using it? My issue for my son is not whether or not that they use restraint-I know that there are times that they need to, but how they do it. He has been injured even in the case when there were two strong men doing it. We do it at home a different way-in my estimation a safer way, but it isn't a PCM position that we use, so the school can't use it. My son's school staff have the best of intentions and are trained by a very competent trainer. But in a case of crisis, it's very hard to implement a prone position safely. > > > > The law on restraints was changed a couple of years ago. We discussed it here for weeks. This is a very serious issue. So yes, you have reasons to be concerned! > >  > > I am trained in taking down kids. We call this PCM procedures in Broward. I have never used the procedures, but I have witnessed it over a hundred times. It happens regularly at my school. > >  > > The school will not restrain a child if you say that you do not permit it. If it happens, the school and the district know that you can sue them and most likely win (win meaning you will get what you want, such as placement at a different school, not money). However, the district does not want another lawsuit. This is why I keep saying that you parents need to see your principals and APs more often. Anyone who is concerned about their child at school need to see the principal and start a dialog. Until you do that, I do not believe that you are sincere. > >  > > In an emergency, the school's crisis team or the administration can take down/restraint any child until the police arrives, if the principal believes that this is needed to prevent physical injuries to the child himself or other children. The child in this case does not need to have a disability or any thing. The principal should do whatever she can to prevent injuries to the children while waiting for the police. Once the school police is there, they will take over. In the mean time, the front office should be calling the parents. > >  > > PCM is a procedure used at schools and other institutions to take down people who are so out of control that they are injuring themselves or others. The principal, the state and the parents need to be notified right away. The district or the principal may ask the staff if anyone would want to be part of a crisis team. We are now talking about teachers and assistants. Usually slim women.  In order to form a team, there should be at least three staff members at each school. The staff members who agree to do this , do not get extra paid. They have to attend a three day training with follow up later on, and they have to pass a written test and a practical test. I did this a few years ago because I wanted to see what it was all about. They can let their certification laps any time, and the school then is without a team. When this happens , the principal needs to either get rid of all the kids who need PCM from time to time, or she has to call the school > > police when she needs help. This is a huge problem. PCM is rarely used on a reg ed student. If a regular ed student goes off and is that out of control, his parents are called while the principal, the AP and a couple of male teachers (who are asked to leave their classrooms for 5 minutes) show up and try to intimadate the student enough to get him to stop his behavior. I have seen that too. The police will be there shortly. > >  > > PCM is usually used on a child with special needs who is in a selfcontained class and known to have severe behaviors. This could be in a center school or at a regular school with a cluster. The child is known to have severe behavior issues, he has a formal behavior plan in place, his parents are involved in writing the plan and they meet regularly with the team at school. Restraints may be needed and the parents in these cases are very involved. The beh. plan spells out what to do to avoid a crisis, and PCM is on the plan if the child is violent. There are no secrets here. > >  > > PCM is usually done " prone " (face down) on a special mat with two staffmembers who are trained, certified and on the school's crisis team. The AP, the ESE specialist or the autism coach is typically there, timing it. It should not be the child's teacher. The autism coach could also be the one on the crisis team doing this. A report has to be submitted electronically to the State and the district, and a copy of this is mailed to the parents. So many individuals are involved in this, that it is hard to keep it a secret. The child is taken down on the mat when all other attempts have been done to calm him down. The mat is placed in the area where he is. If this is in his room, all the others have been moved to another room. If a child " goes off " at another location such as in the hall or in the cafeteria, the crisis team would have to transport him to a more appropriate location, and this can be impossible. The crisis team in clusters often consists of > > the women who work there. The average elem teacher is a women. Female teachers who have back problems, are heavy or middle age or older, usually let their PCM certification laps. They don't want to get physically hurt during a take down. The PCM trained teachers I know are all female and weigh less than a hundred pounds, so they are unable to deal with a a big child during transportation. Some schools have a male principal or AP who may be able to help moving the child to a safe location, but many administrators are women, middle aged who will not touch a kid. At center schools it is very different. They have very good crisis teams and many behavior specialists on staff.  > >  > > The PCM procedures are safe. I have never seen a kid get hurt, but I have seen dozen of teachers getting injured. Here is the problem, however. PCM must never be used to teach the kid a lesson. If the child needs PCM often such as 4 times a month, he may need to change placement. The parents most likely will be asked to look at a center school. The parents I have met, dread doing this. Instead they hope that the school can help the child calming down so he can continue to attend the reg ed elementary school. > >  > > All resources must be pulled in, including district beh. specialists, to help the child immediately. The problem is that not all beh. specialists are good enough to get thechild through this. The child who wins here is usually the one whose parents team up with the school and the district and show up at the school for their meetings.  The parents who already have established a good relationship with the school's principal, and have startd the dialog, are better off than those who now do not know who to turn to. > >  > > For now, tell the IEP committee that PCM is not allowed, and that the school needs to call you asap if your kid goes off and cannot be conrolled. After the IEP meeting (or before) stop by the principal's office to introduce yourself. Do this before your child has problems. Tell the principal why you like the school and what kind of expectations you have. If you are happy with his teacher, now is the time to tell. It is a 50 second conversation you won't regret. You are doing it for your child, remember.  > > > > > > ________________________________ > > From: Yesenia Alfonso <iluvmyangelsya@> > > To: sList > > Sent: Friday, November 11, 2011 6:19 PM > > Subject: Re: IEP > > > > > >  > > you and me both have concerns.. I have read about cases where a child has died because of restraining. Im going to submit a non restraint letter. Another memeber advised me of that. Its scary... > > > > > > > > IEP > >  > > Hello all, I had an IEP meeting on Tuesday and it went well. But I have a concern, there was a section where crisis management was discussed and restraints were mentioned even though " no " was checked off in that section, indicating that it wont be used. I made it clear that I refuse for anyone to restrain my son. In case of a " crisis " I need to be called immediately. I told the counselor that I would like this documented and her response was " I have to find the correct way to do that because parents dont ask for that " . My response: " I guess you have met your first parent that wants this done! " . Any guidance or advice? I will be following up to make sure its documented somewhere. Thanks everyone! > > > > Yesenia > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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