Category: Story
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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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“Hit him if he does that.”
It was hard to bring my son to school again. He had dutifully gone to school each day, unable to tell me about what he was being subjected to, never resisting or complaining. But the day he was to start at the new school the effect the experience had had on him was plain: he…
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“Do that again and I’ll lock you in the bathroom…”
One day in August 2013, I walked into the cafeteria of my son’s school, looking to speak with his teacher. The room was crowded and noisy, filled with disabled kids, their teachers, and aides, assembling before the start of a day of Extended School Year (ESY) services or summer school. I couldn’t get very close…
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This is Paige’s story
Restraints and seclusions are gateways to physical and emotional abuse, especially in the absence of adequate oversight. Unfortunately, our former school district failed to provide a safe classroom environment for my seven-year-old autistic daughter, Paige, when she joined a multi-grade special day class at Eisenhower Elementary, a school within the Cupertino Union School District (CUSD)…
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Attention Ticket: A strategy to reduce attention scatter in remote and hybrid learning environments
This article aims to offer a tool to avoid losing students online when hybrid learning is the operative mode. To achieve that, first I’ll set the stage – or context – for the current need for this novel tool. Second, I’ll state the reasons why this tool might prevent losing what is fundamental for learning…
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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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Exclusionary discipline in the virtual classroom
My son is, Stryder, is in 5th grade. Stryder has autism, learning disabilities, auditory processing disorder, sensory processing disorder, and ADHD. This school year has been difficult for him to say the least. Stryder is in a hybrid model where he receives in-person instruction at school 4 days a week and on Wednesdays, he does…
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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…
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A letter regarding Powhatan, Virginia’s restraint and seclusion policy
The story that follows is an email that Alexander J. Campbell wrote and sent regarding the restraint and seclusion policy being proposed in Powhatan, Virginia. I hope this email finds you well. I am writing this tonight with grave concern and fear regarding the future of our school system. The truth is when I originally…
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Sitting in silence in the seclusion room
Today’s guest author is Greg Santucci. Greg is a Pediatric Occupational Therapist and founder of Power Play Pediatric Therapy. A Graduate of Penn State (BS, Exercise and Sport Science) and Thomas Jefferson University (MS, Occupational Therapy), prior to opening Power Play in 2006, Greg was the Director of two large pediatric practices in New Jersey.…