NC: School Admits to Restraint Use

By Britt Combs The McDowell News
Published: November 24, 2008
http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/content/2008/nov/24/mom-school-admits-restraint-use/

A McDowell mother of a special needs child says school officials admitted that her son was restrained with a belt-like device and they've assured her it will not happen again.

Ann Watson alleged that her son, Jeremiah, 14, had been restrained at East McDowell Junior High without her permission.

She further said the system has purged documents that reflect poorly on the school system's handling of special needs students.

Last month she began noticing that Jeremiah was nervous, unable to sleep at night, and unusually upset. He began having incidents at school, including wetting his pants. Then earlier in this month, she got a call from the mother of a student at East. According to Watson, the caller said her daughter was upset about seeing Jeremiah tethered and being led on a leash at school.

Jeremiah is diagnosed as suffering from autism, she said. She homeschooled him for a number of years after an earlier conflict with administrators over speech therapy and other services for her son, she explained.

Marion Police Lieutenant Scott Spratt confirmed there was a complaint on file, although his ability to comment was limited, due to it being "a juvenile matter."

He said last week the incident "has been investigated and currently being followed up on."

Associate Superintendent Mike Murray said last Wednesday that the accusation was frustrating.
"We don't have devices," he insisted. "We don't use any torture apparatus or anything of the sort."

He said the system provides training for principals and other personnel in managing crisis situations, using the widely approved Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) techniques.

"They have to get that training," he said, "and they have to recertify periodically. When it's updated or new material is approved, we take every opportunity to get the latest training and keep our folks up to date."

There are other school systems, he added, that go so far as to include isolation in padded rooms as a method of defusing a volatile situation with a distraught student, but not in McDowell.

"I would never allow something like that to happen," Murray said. "I will not be a part of that. The point of our training is to avoid any need for restraint or confinement."

Murray was unequivocal in his denial of Watson's claims.

"Nothing was used to restrain that student," he said. He said an internal investigation and a Marion Police investigation had both found there was no evidence to support the charge.

"She (Watson) has acted like we did something terrible to that student and that is not the case," he concluded.

Bob Rettmann, spokesman for CPI in Brookfield, Wisconsin, said CPI training teaches "verbal de-escalation techniques, and physical techniques as a last resort."

He said the physical techniques were basically holding moves, designed to avoid injury or painful contact.

Those are the extent of CPI techniques, he added. The use of devices of any kind "would be entirely outside our purview."

On Wednesday, The McDowell News heard from a school employee who spoke on condition of anonymity. The employee said that an inexperienced assistant in the class had used a belt to tether Jeremiah on as many as three occasions.

The employee said the belt was mainly used to help wheelchair-bound students into and out of their seat. The use of the belt on Jeremiah was inappropriate, the employee said, and training would ensue to make sure it would not happen again.

On Friday, Watson told The McDowell News she had had a meeting at East that morning with the principal, Exceptional Children's Services Director Chuck Aldridge, a lawyer for the school system and other school personnel.

Watson said school officials had apologized to her at that meeting. She said they assured her the belt had been discarded and would not be used again. With that assurance, she said, she planned to return her son to school.

"If no other child gets hurt," she concluded, "then some good will come of it."

The school system's policy manual includes policy 5200, dealing with discipline. The policy grants that personnel "may use reasonable force to control behavior … or to remove a person … to quell a disturbance threatening injury to others … for the protection of persons or property; or to maintain order," among other situations.

The policy makes no mention of restraining devices.

Policy 6403, addressing programs for exceptional children, provides for alternative placement if a student "is of significant risk to others or who is of significant risk from others…" but makes no mention of any form of restraint.