Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Quiz: Do you get why this word hurts so much?

Excerpt from: Love That Max (click for full article)

 

It started with an experiment where I tracked the word "retard" on Twitter and asked people to reconsider using it. And I've continued to speak out about the r-word and how offensive it is, as have many parents of kids with special needs and others. It's been gratifying to hear people say that they have quit using that word. It's been hard to hear people staunchly defending their use of it or getting into passionate diatribes about semantics and freedom of speech. Sometimes, it seems as if the word might be engraved on people's tombstones, so fond of it are they: Here lies Cassie, devoted mother, loving wife, advocate for the word "retard."

Today is the fifth annual day of awareness for Spread The Word To End The Word, a campaign created by the Special Olympics. To illuminate why the word is so demeaning, why parents take it so personally and why this isn't just about a word, I put together a little quiz I hope you'll share. The prize for acing it: a lifetime supply of compassion, consideration and soul.

One in 25 Columbus School District Students with Disabilities Restrained or Secluded

Excerpt from: State Impact (click for full article)

 

The investigators found that no child “spent what amounted to 10 school days in seclusion” and thus the district did not violate federal law regarding educating students with disabilities, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

Seclusion rooms are enclosed spaces that are supposed to be used in emergencies for children who become violent.

But a joint investigation by the Columbus Dispatch and StateImpact Ohio found that the rooms are often misused. Children have been put in the rooms for throwing pencils or being rude to teachers.

The use of seclusion rooms is currently not regulate in Ohio schools.

How Safe Is The Schoolhouse? An Analysis of State Seclusion and Restraint Laws and Policies

Excerpt from: Autcom.org (click for full article)

 

This report was revised in Spring 2012 to include laws newly adopted in
Maine, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. A new table has been added after page 42 providing
information for all children. The full report will be updated to include all children with the
planned winter update. The bibliography now summarizes all state restraint and seclusion
laws and policies, and includes information for those states without laws and policies. This
report presents interim research for a law review article. It provides information and analysis
about state approaches to seclusion and restraint. The report reviews state statutes, regulations,
and executive orders, which create mandatory legal protections for children. Accordingly, the
report focuses on them. The report also reviews voluntary nonbinding guidelines, which lack the
force of law and can be easily changed by decision of the state Department of Education.

Family of special-needs child gets $950,000 in teacher abuse case

Excerpt from: Los Angeles Times (click for full article)

 

A Bay Area family whose 5-year-old child was abused by an elementary school special-needs teacher in 2010 has been awarded $950,000 as part of a civil settlement with the Brentwood Union School District.

The settlement, which was reached last week, also stipulates that the teacher, Dina Holder, accept an immediate reassignment to a non-classroom setting and resign from the district at the end of the school year.

Attorneys for the parents of the special-needs child say that on May 25, 2010, Holder pulled the boy from his seat, kicked him twice and berated him with obscenities and derogatory language while about 10 to 12 students looked on.

The boy, who has a speech and language disorder, had refused to follow Holder’s commands to join a circle of other students, according to court documents.

Holder was so agitated another instructional aide took the woman out of the room to “calm her down,” according to the civil complaint.

FDA meets on school electric shock device used on disabled students, warns of violations

Excerpt from: Media dis&dat (click for full article)

 

The devices used by a controversial Canton, Mass., school to administers painful electric shocks to its disabled students for treatment was the subject of a meeting today held by US Food and Drug Administration regulators who say the Judge Rotenberg Center is using unapproved and illegal machines.

The meeting also drew a handful of protestors to the FDA's Maryland campus.

The meeting and protest are just the latest development in a series of actions against JRC since video of former student Andre McCollins being restrained and shocked for hours was played in court.

The video, first aired by FOX Undercover, went viral, prompting petitions and protests to stop the shocks.
Critics call it torture, but the center says the device is only used with court approval to stop destructive behavior like self-mutilation.

Article About McKay Scholarships for Students With Disabilities Program

Excerpt from: Center for Independent Living of South Florida Advocacy Blog (click for full article)

 

Since 1999, Florida taxpayers have spent more than a billion dollars, including $150 million in the last fiscal year, on the John M. McKay Scholarships for Students With Disabilities Program. In 2011, "Rotten to the Core," by staff writer Gus Garcia-Roberts, exposed stunning flaws in this program, which pays tuition for children to attend private schools.

The story revealed that a lack of oversight and hypocritical design allowed students without any disabilities to be crammed into dangerous class settings and given negligible education. Administrators and teachers have criminal records ranging from cocaine dealing to kidnapping. Kids in these schools are sometimes even paddled, a tactic outlawed for three decades in most Florida public schools.

Both the State Board of Education and the Miami-Dade School Board have pledged, in response to Garcia-Roberts' story, that lobbying for reform of the McKay program will be a priority in the upcoming legislative session.

Are ‘isolation rooms’ in some school districts going too far?

Excerpt from: Fox News (click for full article)

 

As the director of the Washington Autism Alliance, Arzu Forough hears a lot of bad stories about special needs students being mistreated in school.

When behavior becomes violent and a student is at risk of hurting themselves or others, Forough said, a teacher can put a child in what’s known as a quiet or isolation room if they have the parents’ permission.

But Forough said the room is a lot different from the padded room being used at Mint Valley Elementary School in Longview.  A concerned parent posted photos of the room after her son told her he saw teachers putting special needs students in the booth for simple things like crying and tapping on their desks.

Death at School: Child Restraints Spark Controversy

Excerpt from: ABC News (click for full article)

 

There are no national standards for the punishments or restraints used on school children, including those like andre with behavior disabilities. Later tied spread eagle to a restraint board.

Thousands and thousands of children that have been traumatized, that have been injured. In Arizona and Washington state, parents are up in arms over padded isolation boxes or cells, where students have been left for long stretches.

 

Scots with mental and physical disabilities forced into marriages against their will

Excerpt from: Daily Record (click for full article)

 

Enable, Scotland’s leading charity for people with learning disabilities, last night said they are deeply concerned about the number of disabled people being forced into marriage, especially as many are raped and subjected to mental and physical abuse.

A spokesman added: “A person with learning disabilities may be seen as easier to deceive or coerce into marriage.

“Many families also believe marriage will ‘cure’ learning disabilities.”

Last November, Scotland became the first country in the UK to legislate against forced marriages.

In 2011, the UK’s Forced Marriage Unit revealed there were 1468 cases of young people asking for help or support. Of these, 66 had a disability.

Seclusion & Restraints Back in the News

Excerpt from: Special Education Blog (click for full article)

 

Perhaps second only to bullying as a hot button issue in special education law, the topic of seclusion and restraints is back in the news. The ABC news magazine Nightline had an investigative piece on seclusion and restraints in the schools last night. The story focused on electric shock, restraint and a deadly "hold." Pretty scary stuff.

The House Committee on Education has a clip with the video on its website.  The story apparently got the attention of the ranking Democrat, Rep. George Miller.  Here is the link.

Congress really needs to act on this important issue!  Write your representative with your views.

Here are some of  the previous posts from this blog on the topic of seclusion and restraints:
http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/school-is-not-supposed-to-hurt.html
http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/breaking-news-congress-introduces.html
http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/panel-on-seclusion-and-restraints-at.html
http://specialeducationlawblog.blogspot.com/2012/05/feds-issue-principles-on-seclusion-and.html