Category: Restraint
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Locked in the safe room
I was hospitalized 13 times during my childhood. It has to be well over 500 times I was restrained but I honestly could not tell you it was that much and that bad. Once I was stripped down naked and given a paper top by male staff while an inpatient and then locked in one…
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“It hurts, please let go” stories of restraint and seclusion in North Dakota
enforcement or SROs in the school setting that may not be credentialed to work with kids. I am concerned that there is zero representation of tracking circumstances for these children charged by SROs or School Districts that address specifically the lack of fidelity to the legal binding contract of the child’s IEP (Individual Educational Plan)…
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Congressional Briefing: The Keeping All Students Safe Act
The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint is proud to be a part of the Alliance to Prevent Restraint and Seclusion in Schools (APRAIS) coalition. APRAIS is a coalition of organizations and advocates who dedicate their time and resources to ending restraint and seclusion abuse in U.S. schools. As a member of the coalition we wanted to…
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Nonspeaking Student Restrained 33 Times Without Report To Parents
Remember that feeling you had the first day you left your helpless, months-old baby at daycare? That anguished, groveling, fear? How you needed to believe, so desperately, in the goodness of people, in their ability to be gentle, patient, and honest? Imagine feeling that every day for 13 years, and then imagine someone, or maybe…
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Now is the time to Keep All Students Safe
Does it surprise you to know that there is no federal law around the use of restraint and seclusion in schools across the United States? Does it surprise you to know that children are injured, traumatized, and die being restrained and secluded in schools in the United States every year? Does it surprise you to…
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My Child Can’t Talk. How Will I Know if Someone’s Hurting Him at School?
My son is autistic and has a significant intellectual disability. He attends middle school in a self-contained classroom. Recently, we learned that one of his classmates was physically restrained by staff 33 times in a period of 8 weeks — at least once to the point of unconsciousness — without report to the child’s parents.…
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The Places That Stole Me
have a unique way of leaving reality behind them. A child playing dress-up puts on a cardboard crown holds their plastic staff, does a royal wave, and becomes a queen or king. A child opens a box of crayons, colors the green of jungle leaves, the blue of a running river, the yellow of a…
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Alternatives to Restraint and Seclusion
A common question from school staff, administrators, and members of local school boards is “if not restraint and seclusion then what?” In this article, we will address how the current approaches to behaviors of concern are failing and leading to the use of restraint and seclusion. We will also address some of the approaches that…
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A letter to the Katonah-Lewisboro School District Board of Education
I am writing to you today on behalf of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint (AASR). AASR is a community of over 14,000 parents, self-advocates, teachers, school administrators, paraprofessionals, attorneys, related service providers, and others working together to influence change in the way we support children who may exhibit behaviors of concern. The mission of…
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12 Recommendations for the Office of Civil Rights
The United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights published a request for information regarding the nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline. This is an opportunity to feedback related to the use of restraint, seclusion, suspension, expulsion, and corporal punishment. Below are twelve recommendations that we have shared with the Office of Civil Rights and…