Category: Restraint
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Kieran’s Story: The impact of restraint
I am writing this on behalf of my son, Kieran with his consent. Kieran is a beautiful boy who is now twenty. The events I will describe happened when he was 15 years old. As a bit of background, Kieran was born with multiple disabilities. He has cerebral palsy, autism, a cyst on his brain…
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Testimony in Support of Illinois SB2296
Good afternoon. My name is Guy Stephens. I am the executive director of the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint, a community of over 12,000 parents, teachers, school administrators, and others who are working together to influence change to better support children while eliminating restraint and seclusion practices. I know firsthand how the use of restraint…
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I Watched “Music.”
Even after Sia promised to place a warning on her film debut, “Music,” and remove restraint scenes, my intention was not to view the film. This is not me speaking for autistic people; this is me, a neurodivergent and mother of two autistic sons, one of whom is nonspeaking and high support needs, who believes…
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Prone Restraint is Neither Safe nor is it Therapeutic
If we want to reduce and eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion we must stand up to misinformation. Recently an opinion letter was published in the Chicago Tribune related to legislative efforts to prohibit the use of prone restraint in schools in Illinois, a topic we have discussed in the past. The letter was…
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The Low Arousal Approach to reducing restraint and seclusion
I came across the Low Arousal Approach and Professor Andrew McDonnell’s work three years after our son had been repeatedly restrained and secluded in his Central Massachusetts Elementary School. Ten years old at the time, we quickly saw the signs of trauma take hold. Four years later our son has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress…
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Elimination of restraint and seclusion in schools is not only possible, but it is also morally and ethically imperative
The use of restraint and seclusion in our nation’s schools has been debated for decades; these procedures continue to be used today despite reports of psychological and physical harm, including the deaths of students; and they are disproportionately used with disabled children and Black, brown, and indigenous children. Use of these procedures causes psychological harm…
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Tell us why you support the Keeping All Students Safe Act
Tell us why you support the Keeping All Students Safe by recording a short video (1-3 minutes) and send it to us or share it with us on Facebook or YouTube.
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Restraint and regression
Many folks don’t know that seclusion and restraint techniques are used as interventions when students aren’t able to comply with the task at hand during the school day. Unfortunately, these methods cause trauma and sometimes irreparable damage, developmental regression, injury, and even death.
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The Office of Civil Rights is not doing enough…
Advocacy groups such as ours, we rely on data collection and reporting from state and federal agencies. One of the primary sources of information we use for tracking is the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) data collection. To be useful and actionable data must be accurate, relevant, and timely. Unfortunately, the…
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I Am a Seclusion Survivor, Or Am I A Casualty?
I think restrainers and secluders think they’re referring to the adjective form, but as someone who has been locked alone and afraid in a seclusion cell, I’d say it felt more like the noun. Except, by erasing me in a closet, it told me I was anything BUT “valuable.” It felt more like all the…