Parents chime in on school restraint

Parents, advocates and community members on Wednesday shared their thoughts on a proposed policy regulating the use of seclusion and restraint in Mississippi schools.

Mississippi is currently one of only five states nationwide not to regulate secluding and physically restraining students in its public schools. It also does not require schools to track incidents of the practices.

The hearing held at the Mississippi School for the Deaf gave stakeholders a chance to voice concerns about the 7-page policy drafted by the Mississippi Department of Education.

Those at the hearing expressed gratitude a policy is being put in place but said there were problems. Some of the issues included what they said were vague definitions of restraint and seclusion, the use of both practices altogether, parental involvement when restraint and seclusion are used, and the mention of modification plans specifically for students with disabilities, which some said would single out those students as targets.

According to the policy, restraint is defined as “the use of physical force, without the use of any device or material that restricts the free movement of all or a portion of a student’s body.” Seclusion is defined as “The confinement of a student in an enclosure form from which the student’s egress is restricted.”

Restraint is to be used as an emergency response after other measures have failed, the policy states. Seclusion can be used to address a student’s behavior if certain criteria, such as if the behavior is interfering with learning or if less restrictive measures have failed.

To illustrate the need for a comprehensive policy, some parents and advocates described incidents where students have been inappropriately secluded or restrained. School districts up to this point could follow their own policies on these practices, or not have one at all.

Miss. to regulate controversial school practice

Heather Rhodes said a teacher put her autistic son in a three-sided black box labeled “The Chill Zone.”

She said she remembered seeing the structure in her son’s classroom before and questioning it from the start.

“They said it would never be used as punishment or any kind of disciplinary measures. … I didn’t like it from the moment I saw it,” Rhodes recalled.

Then one day she was at the school and heard her son, who had seen her car in the parking lot and gotten excited, screaming from his classroom.

Rhodes said that when she entered the classroom a teacher had her foot and hand against the entrance to the box to prevent her son from getting out. Eventually, Rhodes persuaded the teacher to back away, and she climbed into the box with her son to calm him down.

“He’s got a beautiful brown skin tone, but his face was beet red,” an emotional Rhodes described.

She said a similar incident happened at another school after her son, who had recently been diagnosed with seizures, was crawling around the classroom complaining of a headache. Rhodes said he was placed in a closet for 30 minutes, during which the school had a fire drill.

Mandy Rogers, an advocate and parent of children with special needs, said the lack of a policy in the past has led to costly legal matters and tragic incidents like a special needs student in Quitman County who was hospitalized after allegedly being hit by an administrator.

Rogers also said Alabama and Georgia prohibit the use of seclusion in schools.

“They’re our neighbors, and we should be able to do it, too,” she said.

Joy Hogge, executive director of Families as Allies, spoke about the need for the policy to be more explicit about the staff training used in schools.

“It is critical that MDE’s Restraint and Seclusion Policy provide for staff training using nationally recognized approaches that have been shown to work,” Hogge said. “ … The current policy is vague and puts the burden on districts to select an evidence-based training curriculum. Over-extended districts don’t have the time or resources to go through this vetting process.”

Families as Allies, along with other advocacy groups, also noted their concerns with the lack of emphasis on the following: the danger of restraint and seclusion, the importance of a positive school climate, different rules for children with special needs and a lack of oversight by MDE.

Chief School Performance Officer Pat Ross said although his hope is for a finalized policy to be approved by the Board of Education in November, the department will take as much time as needed to make sure to get the policy right.

“What we have to do is to get it right. We don’t have to get it right for MDE. We have to get it right for the boys and girls of Mississippi,” Ross said.

Ross said although much of what he heard wasn’t new, one suggestion that stood out to him was “parents may need to be involved more deeply” in the process.

Currently, the policy states each time restraint or seclusion is used, documentation of the incident must be available to the parent, who should be notified by the next school day. The policy also states school districts that use the practice must develop policies outlining procedures by which parents can submit complaints regarding restraint or seclusion of their child.

MDE convened a task force of experts to craft a model policy in late 2009. The 14-page document, completed in early 2010, was never implemented due to disagreements over its contents.

Another public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22.

Contact Kate Royals at (601) 360-4619 or kroyals@gannett.com. Follow @KRRoyals on Twitter.