PBC Florida - School district may adopt new pol...

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From: cvm514@...Reply-to: specialmomsspecialkids To: cvm514@...Sent: 3/28/2011 11:38:48 P.M. Eastern Daylight TimeSubj: [specialmomsspecialkids] PBC Florida - School district may adopt new policy on student restraint - South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com

School district may adopt new policy on student restraint

By Schultz, The Palm Beach Post March 28, 2011

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/pb-school-restraint-changes-20110328,0,6752639.story

Palm Beach County School District employees would no longer be allowed to restrain special-needs students causing major class disruptions if a proposed policy is passed by the school board Wednesday.

The Palm Beach Post, in a special series in October, documented hundreds of instances in which Palm Beach County school staff held special-education children in a facedown hold that many national experts consider very dangerous. The maneuver, called prone restraint, was used in some instances only to control children, some local parents claim.

It has caused bruises and minor injuries in Florida students. A federal study attributed fatal results to prone restraint. Another study, by Cornell University, cited asphyxia in 28 deaths of young children or teens after prone restraint.

The district's proposal states that employees can restrain a student only when the child poses a danger to himself or others. The existing policy allowed the use of restraint when a student's behavior was causing a "high magnitude of disruption."

Another proposed change explicitly bans seclusion, which involves involuntarily confining a student alone. The proposal goes beyond a state law passed last year; the law did not ban it.

At least one parent of a child restrained at a district school in the past says the proposed rules do not go far enough because they still allow the facedown technique.

"I want prone restraint completely outlawed. It's a dangerous restraint that does not need to be used," said Phyllis Musumeci, whose son Christian was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after repeated restraint while he was at Lantana Middle School.

Musumeci praised other aspects of the district's proposal.

Because the new state law permits restraint only when there is an "imminent risk of serious injury or death," the language about a high magnitude of disruption was removed from the proposed policy, said Pincus, the district's director of exceptional student education.

The proposal also would specifically prohibit the use of mechanical devices such as tie-downs or harnesses designed to restrict a student's movement.

The district's existing restraint regulations call for training and set out reporting guidelines whenever restraint is used on a student. But they do not spell out prohibited techniques such as seclusion or mechanical restraints.

Pincus said the district already does not use seclusion or mechanical restraints, but officials decided to spell it out in the proposed policy.

Musumeci is among several parents who have complained about the use of prone restraint, saying their children were injured and the move was so risky to students it had been banned in several school districts in the U.S.

"It is humiliating and degrading for a child to be placed facedown on the ground while adults are holding your arms and legs," she said. "Everybody is in a lose situation."

The new regulations would ban the use of prone restraint on any student diagnosed with breathing or circulatory problems such as asthma, epilepsy, heart conditions, gastro-esophogeal reflux, chronic heartburn reflux or esophagitis. It also would ban employees from straddling or sitting on a student during restraint or doing anything to put pressure on the neck, throat or back of the head.

Pincus said employees who work with disabled students already received training that teaches them not to perform prone restraint on students with those medical conditions.

She said that although a few parents complained about the use of prone restraint, it is still allowed under the proposed rules because many other parents of students with disabilities contacted the district supporting its use in extreme circumstances, such as when students are trying to hurt themselves.

"Prone restraint is never used as a first resort," Pincus said. "There are times when it has to be used."

Staff writer Green contributed to this story.