We need your help!
To make this full-length documentary a reality, we need your support. We need to raise a minimum of $100,000 to complete the filming, editing, and production of the documentary. Your donation can help make this project a reality.
About the film
In this full-length documentary film, we plan to raise awareness about the use of restraint and seclusion in schools nationwide. We want the audience to understand the harm of using these aversive techniques. Children, teachers, and staff are traumatized and injured, and far too many children have died due to restraint and seclusion. There is a better way to support our students, teachers, and staff.
This film highlights relationship-driven, trauma-informed, neuroscience-aligned, developmentally appropriate, individualized, biologically respectful, and collaborative ways to support all children. The solutions that will improve the educational system and student outcomes are the same solutions that will eliminate restraint and seclusion in schools. We can and must do better for our children.
About the filmmakers
Jason Brewer
Jason has directed over 75 episodes of the Emmy-nominated documentary series, Hoarders on A&E. Since 2019, he has worked as a videographer and drone operator on an additional 19 episodes.
Other network credits include series producer on DIY’s Kitchen Crashers as well as Made in American for the Travel Channel.
He is currently the Post Production Supervisor on the Emmy-nominated series Legacy List on PBS.
Guy Stephens
Guy lives in Southern Maryland with his wife and two amazing children. Guy started The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint to raise awareness about the use of restraint and seclusion in classrooms across our nation. He has been meeting with local, state, and federal lawmakers to support legislation to reduce and eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion in schools across the nation.
Guy is dedicated to this project as a way to influence much-needed change. Guy understands that we must embrace neurodiversity and neuroscience to create safe and inclusive environments to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all.
Background
In 2009, the Government Accountability Office found hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to the use of restraint and seclusion of school children during the preceding two decades. According to data from the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR), 101,990 children were restrained or secluded in public schools during the 2017/2018 school year. This data, however, likely represents only a fraction of the total number of children subjected to restraint and seclusion due to underreporting. Additionally, the OCR data does not include private or nonpublic placements.
Restraint and seclusion are outdated crisis management strategies used in many schools across the nation and the world. Physical restraint is precisely what it sounds like, a personal restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a student to move their torso, arms, legs, or head freely. Seclusion is the involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room or area from which the student is physically prevented from leaving.
The use of restraint and seclusion disproportionately impacts children with disabilities, Black and brown children, and boys. Most often, it is very young children who are being physically restrained and secluded. Not only are these practices ineffective, but they can also lead to significant trauma, injury, and even death. There are better ways to work with all children and educate them in classrooms across our nation. This is a disability rights issue, a civil rights issue, and human rights issue.
Make a donation
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