Category: Education
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We Don’t Understand You: Understanding Trauma Matters
For the longest time, humans knew next to nothing about the organ that resides in their own skull: the brain. A vital organ that controls our actions, thoughts, and behaviors. A price of misunderstanding the workings of the brain has led to detrimental effects, like traumas known as Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). From a multitude…
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Neurodiversity in Schools: Progress Since I Was a Student?
Before touching on my professional experiences, I want to give a quick summary of what I recall from my school days. I went through the public school system in the late 1990s and early 2000s. I specify not to age myself but to remind readers that our knowledge of neurodiversity has made great progress since…
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Louisiana’s HB 684 Fails to Protect Students From Harmful Restraint and Seclusion Practices
The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint (AASR) is deeply concerned about Louisiana’s proposed House Bill 684, which codifies the use of seclusion and physical restraint in schools for students with disabilities. While the bill includes incremental reforms, such as requiring cameras in special education classrooms, it lowers the threshold for mandatory IEP reviews, and it…
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From Compliance to Compassion: My Journey Beyond Crisis Intervention
For more than a decade, I’ve worked with students whose behaviors often challenge the systems around them. I was good at it. So good that I was often chosen to train others in crisis intervention. I taught professionals how to use physical holds and seclusion techniques under the guise of keeping students “safe”. And I…
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A Mother’s Appeal to Bloomingdale Public Schools Regarding the Use of Restraint and Seclusion
Nearly a year ago, I addressed this Board with significant concerns about the use of seclusion in our District. At that time, I specifically spoke about the practice of surrounding children with mats, enclosing them against a wall for unrestricted periods of time. During that time, I addressed Bloomingdale’s higher reporting of restraint and seclusion…
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Protect Minnesota’s Youngest Students from Seclusion in Schools
Minnesota made historic progress in 2023 by passing legislation that banned the use of seclusion for K-3 students. This legislation was a critical step in creating safer, more inclusive schools and ensuring that our youngest learners, especially students with disabilities, Black and brown students, and students with a trauma history, are treated with dignity and…
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Children are Humans First
I was sitting on the floor with some preschoolers, playing cars. It was time to clean up. “I don’t want to clean up,” one cried. I had two choices. I could take the typical approach, double down, and make sure he knew the expectation (a ridiculous concept — he clearly knew it, enough to be…
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What PBIS Got Wrong About My Echolalia
Internalized echolalia is one of those things people rarely talk about because they rarely know it exists. For me, it’s not some quirky feature of being autistic. It’s my brain’s operating system. It’s the language I speak in silence. While the world pushes me to say things out loud and to follow the scripts they…
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More Restraint and Seclusion Will Not Make Oregon Schools Safer
Some of you may already know my story. I was the lead instructor for my district’s off-site intensive behavior program. I worked relentlessly to prove that even the most impacted students could be safely supported without resorting to restraint or seclusion. However, my goal to eliminate these practices was met with significant resistance. The belief…
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The Loss of Civil Rights Protections for Our Most Vulnerable Students
Recent changes at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division are placing the nation’s most vulnerable students—children with disabilities and Black and Brown children—at unprecedented risk. Under the guise of “common sense” reforms and a campaign against so-called “radical equity ideology,” critical federal protections…