Year: 2025
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When Curiosity Isn’t Enough: A Mother’s Story of Mats, Silence, and a Seven-Year-Old in Crisis
My seven-year-old, a struggling learner, having a no-good, very bad, horrible day, asked to talk to their mom. The Director of Student Services decided not to allow it. What followed? A seven-year-old was surrounded by large folding mats in a temporary pen for nearly 30 minutes. A few weeks after my child was secluded, news…
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Pain is Information: My Awakening
A few years ago, when I was 40 years old, I broke a tooth below the gumline and needed to have it extracted. My options were to wait a month and have the procedure done at my regular clinic, or go to an emergency clinic and have it done the same day. I chose the…
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Together, We Can End Restraint and Seclusion: Why Your Support Matters Now More Than Ever
Every child deserves to feel safe, supported, and understood in school. Yet, across the country, children, especially those with disabilities, trauma histories, or neurodivergent identities, are still being restrained, secluded, and subjected to punitive and exclusionary discipline. These practices don’t teach; they harm. They fracture trust, deepen fear, and too often set children on a…
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Counting the Costs: How School Trauma Impacts the Entire Family
When we discuss school trauma, we often confine it to the child, a single incident or outburst filed away. Yet, this trauma rarely stays contained. It spreads, infiltrating the family’s entire world: the home, the marriage, the siblings, the finances, and the very identity of the parents. I learned this painful truth firsthand. My autistic…
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Sweet Support: Keystone RV Hosts Cookie Walk to Benefit AASR
The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint is thrilled to share a heartwarming example of community generosity from our friends at Keystone RV in Indiana. On Friday, December 12th, employees from the company’s customer service department held a Cookie Walk fundraiser to support our mission—and it was a huge success! With an incredible display of teamwork…
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Keeping All Students Safe Act Reintroduced: It’s Time to End the Use of Seclusion in Schools
The Keeping All Students Safe Act (KASSA) has been reintroduced in the 119th Congress by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Ranking Member Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Representative Don Beyer (D-VA), Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-VA), and Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ). This bill aims to prohibit seclusion, mechanical…
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A Call to Colorado Lawmakers: It’s Time to End the Reliance on Seclusion and Restraint in Our Schools
As an occupational therapist, I, Julianne Kamp, am committed to supporting equitable and developmentally appropriate school environments, and I am deeply concerned about the continued reliance on seclusion and restraint as behavioral interventions in Colorado schools. Research and clinical experience demonstrate that these practices carry significant physical and psychological risks, yet policies governing their use remain…
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As a Former School-Based SLP, I Knew About the Harm Caused by Seclusion and Restraint, Then It Happened to My Son
I worked as a school-based SLP for seven years in Washington state. My population consisted of elementary and middle-school-aged children, and I purposefully volunteered to work with special population students, including autistic children. The caseload was enormous, and it was an eye-opening experience into the disparities in teaching and support for the population of students…
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A Letter to Ask Massachusetts Lawmakers to Ban the Use of Electric Skin Shock
As a long-time advocate for disability rights, and as the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint’s representative to the Stop the Shock Coalition, I am deeply troubled that Massachusetts continues to permit the use of the graduated electronic decelerator on disabled students in the name of “behavior control.” The attached letter shares our concerns with Massachusetts…
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Punitive School Discipline and Its Public Health Implications: A Literature Review
Childhood is the developmental stage during which the foundation for an individual’s identity, personality, and self-regulation skills is established (Montroy et al., 2016). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that can profoundly shape development, both physiologically and psychologically (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). The majority of the existing literature surrounding childhood…