MA: Follow Up Email Exchange with the MA DLC re Allegations at South Shore

The following is an email exchange that occurred as a follow-up with Attorney Matthew Engel of the Disability Law Center (DLC) of Massachusetts regarding our concerns about the DLC's initial refusal to independently investigate witnesses' allegations of abuse against 6 nonverbal children with autism and other disabilities in a special education classroom.

We first emailed the Disability Law Center of MA, that state's Protection & Advocacy, on October 18, 2008, after reading an article published by Boston.com which relayed allegations of abuse by special education teacher Ann Gibbons against all 6 students in her class. Witnesses had claimed to have seen Ms. Gibbons punching a child in the head; bending the fingers of children as discipline; pushing a child who'd allegedly bit her finger; and telling students she was "bigger," "badder," and "stronger than you."

On October 25, 2008, we'd posted our disappointment with the response we'd received from Attorney Matthew Engel of the Disability Law Center - that despite credible evidence of repeated abuse, the Law Center would not investigate the allegations because the Department of Social Services (DSS; now the Department of Children and Families) had already investigated and found no credible evidence of abuse.

In the meantime, a parent whose child was in Ms. Gibbons' classroom contacted us and informed us of a possible conflict of interest between the Department of Social Services and the school.

Upon further investigation, we confirmed that a DSS funded program for "at risk youth," known as Pathways, was being run out of the very same school where the abuse allegations stemmed. Because this could be perceived (and we interpreted it) as a conflict of interest, we wanted the Disability Law Center to reconsider their refusal to get involved in this case and more closely examine the veracity of the claim that abuse allegations were unfounded and that witnesses' testimony was not credible.

We're happy to report that the DLC has expressed concern over how the DSS investigation was conducted and has decided to meet with the parents involved to discuss things further.

Below is the email exchange that helped lead to the Disability Law Center's decision:

11/23/08

Dear Mr. Engel:

Thank you for taking the time to look into the South Shore Collaborative Schoolallegations we previously referred to you. We appreciate your efforts and completely understand budget constraints and why you're not able to assist every family, but must admit to some disappointment that more couldn't have been done given the number of children involved and the supposed first-hand eyewitness accounts of the alleged abuse.

We know that the assistant clerk magistrate ruled against the parents and found the witnesses testimony not credible. This isn't surprising, because what person of sound mind really wants to believe someone would deliberately harm not only a child, but a child with disabilities who is even more defenseless? This is why allegations of these types are so hard to prove.

However, you'd mentioned that there did appear to be very credible evidence of abuse, but that the DSS was unwilling to revisit their findings. We may know why they were so adamant about changing their findings and wanted to share with you what we have learned.

Were you aware that Joseph "Jay" Madigan is both a Member of the Board of theSouth Shore Collaborative> School District and of a DSS-funded program called Pathways? Were you aware that the Pathways program is operated AT The South Shore Collaborative School?

The question is, legally and ethically how could the DSS objectively investigate a school that they've not only charged with operating a program on behalf of theDSS but one that DSS pays the school to run? If DSS did in fact find the abuse allegations "founded" what would be the repercussions of such a finding? WouldDSS's funding have been jeopardized? Would they be concerned about the public's perceptions of DSS and/or whether the reputation of DSS would be damaged because they funded and operated a program at a school where abuse had occurred?

We contend that DSS's involvement in this matter is a direct conflict of interest with the result that the South Shore Collaborative School district could very well be "investigating" or "policing" itself; a situation that not only taints the DSSinvestigation, making the resultant findings completely suspect, but is also counterproductive to the protection of other vulnerable children when such allegations at South Shore are raised.

This is why we were hoping to have an independent investigation by Protection and Advocacy.

Is there any way that the decision against a P&A investigation could be reconsidered? Or is there some other reason that would preclude investigations by both DSS and the P&A (such as funding stream constraints)? If so, do you have any further recommendations for these families as they pursue an appeal to the decision?

Thank you again for your attention to this matter. Any assistance or advice you could share would be greatly appreciated by not only our office, but the families involved as well. I look forward to your response.

****

Response from Attorney Engel:

11/25/08

Dear Ms. Searcy:

[T]hank you for providing me with this additional information. While I am not sure that this changes the legal analysis, we continue to be concerned about what happened, as well as the actions or inactions of DSS. Do you know if the teacher is still teaching either at the Collaborative or anywhere else?

At this point, I am certainly willing to meet with interested parents to talk about the situation. I believe that most of them were previously represented by [redacted for privacy] so I would have to contact her initially. If you are aware of any parents who did not have legal representation, they can certainly contact me directly.

Matthew Engel

Senior Attorney

Disability Law Center

(413) 584-6337 - phone

(413) 584-2976 - fax

mengel@dlc-ma.org

********

Our response:

11/26/08

Dear Attorney Engel:

Thank you so much! We, too, weren't sure if it changed the legal analysis, but it certainly does call into question why DSS was contacted to investigate when they knew there was a coflict (sp) of interest because of their Pathways Project for "children at risk" at South Shore. However, we appreciate any help you could offer to these families.

I have forwarded your email to the families involved and they have assured me they will be in touch with you soon. One set of parents I know for sure does not have legal representation currently, though they'd retained [redacted for privacy] to file their complaint with the Dept of Education previously. As for some of the others, I'm awaiting their responses.

To answer your question about whether Ann Gibbons is currently teaching, to the best of our knowledge she continues to teach at Chapman school in Weymouth. But we have not contacted the school to confirm this as of yet. If you find out before we do, could you let us know?

Please let me know how I can be of further help to you. As more information becomes available, I'll be sure to keep you informed.

Best regards,

Jennifer Searcy

Founder/Director of Public Policy and Affairs

The Coalition for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

ACTION ALERT: Free Frankie Campaign

From Free Frankie.com - http://freefrankie.com/

Have you ever heard of an "emergency" that lasted 14 years? In New Jersey, they happen all the time.

Frankie Macias has been institutionalized at the New Lisbon Developmental Center in the state of New Jersey since 1994. He was sent there by New Jersey's Division of Developmental Disabilities on a temporary, "emergency" basis to wait until funding for an appropriate community placement became available. He is still waiting. Frankie's family has been trying to get him out of this institution for 14 long years.

In his 14 years at New Lisbon, Frankie has experienced numerous physical assaults, sexual assaults, and, for quite some time, the near daily use of 4-point mechanical and chemical restraints. He was denied his right to vote. When his sister asked him to walk her down the aisle at her wedding, he was not permitted to attend. This year, his request to spend Thanksgiving with his family was denied. He is barely eating anymore and has lost all hope of ever getting out of this living nightmare.

In 1998, Frankie reported that staff were placing residents of his cottage in mechanical restraints and leaving them unattended with another resident, who would then beat them up. Fearing for his own safety, Frankie asked the CEO to install hidden cameras. Three years later, in 2001, a resident was found dead in this same cottage. He had been strangled. Earlier that year, another New Lisbon resident was found, beaten and bloody, under his bed. He never regained consciousness. Frankie said to his mother, "Mom, if I die, please don't let them bury me at New Lisbon."

In the mildest of terms, New Lisbon is not a nice place to live. In 2001, the federal government agreed, and New Lisbon was decertified following an inspection by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The facility was re-certified in 2002, however, that same year, the U.S. Department of Justice investigated allegations of violence and substandard conditions at New Lisbon and, as a result of its findings, sued the State of NJ for violations of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act.

This is the place DDD sent Frankie to wait.

Now, a wonderful organization has offered to provide Frankie with a home of his own and the community-based services DDD promised him over a decade ago. After 14 years of waiting, Frankie could be home for the holidays...

If only DDD would let him go.

Instead, the Division of Developmental Disabilities continues to demand revision after revision of the service plan submitted for Frankie. Meanwhile, back at New Lisbon, his condition continues to deteriorate.

We are asking Governor Corzine to put an end to DDD's 14-year emergency and Free Frankie NOW!

Please click on the link below and sign the petition to help Frankie's family get him out of New Lisbon and go home where he belongs.

While the State of NJ may have dropped the ball on Frankie, his family, friends and advocates have not. Please take a moment to add your name to our growing ranks. Tell NJ Governor Jon Corzine to Free Frankie from New Lisbon Institution.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/FreeFrankie/

ACTION ALERT: Michigan Restraint & Seclusion Press Conference

Forwarded message from a parent advocate:

Michigan residents, it's time to act now! On Wednesday, December 2, 2009, there will be a press conference in the Capital Building Room 426, Lansing, at 11:00 am to support Rep. Kennedy, who plans to introduce a bill to stop seclusion and restraint in public schools. The last legislation that was introduced as the Children's Health Act of 2000 regulates the use of restraint and seclusion in certain hospitals, health care facilities, residential non-medical facilities, and other programs that serve children under Medicaid or Medicare. These regulations do not cover schools, even though schools bill Medicaid for billions of dollars each year.

Michigan's voluntary policy isn't working. Only 22 of 57 Independent School Districts (ISD's) collect data on the use of restraint and seclusion as recommended under the policy and those ISD's reported over 3,200 incidents last year.

Mandatory changes are needed. This is what we need to ask for.

For more information, contact Mark McWilliams, Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, Inc (MPAS), at (715) 487-1755 or toll free at 1-800-288-5923.

Special Report: Abuse at Anderson School aka Anderson School of Autism

Forwarded from the Abuse at Anderson School website: http://www.andersoncenterforautism.info/

The following document is a memorandum from Mark Keegan, the Director of Quality Assurance and Investigations of the CQC (Commission on Quality of Care NYS) to Jan Abelseth of OMRDD (Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities) revealing the “STAGGERING” number of INDICATIONS (Substantiated or Proven) cases of child abuse at the Anderson School, now called the Anderson Center for Autism, occurring during the tenure of the current Director, Neil Pollack, who began his tenure at Anderson in January of 2001.

“Our indication rate of 23% of all Anderson School cases is nearly four times the overall indication rate for both OMH and OMRDD facilities and Anderson accounts for a staggering 73% of all indications for OMRDD certified facilities.”

Note: There are approximately 6,000 OMRDD certified facilities.

~ Please review the following document . It is extremely important to know the truth about the Anderson School. We continue to have serious concerns for the safety of the vulnerable disabled children entrusted to the care of this facility, until significant changes are made in the leadership there.

Contact Info: abuseatanderson@hotmail.com

Article: 6 Things That Special Education Personnel Can Do to Decrease Restraint and Seclusion in Their School

From: http://www.spring-tides.org/294/6-things-that-special-education-personnel-can-do-to-decrease-restraint-and-seclusion-in-their-school

Are you the parent of a child with autism or another disability that is very concerned about your child’s safety at school, due to negative behavior? Has your child been physically or emotionally injured by restraint and seclusion, by special education personnel? This article will discuss 6 ways that school districts can deal with behavior rather than relying on restraint and seclusion!

Restraint is defined as any manual method, physical, material, equipment that immobilizes or reduces the ability of an individual. In school districts they mainly use holding techniques. Prone restraints (where the child is held face down) are the most dangerous and cause the most incidence of injury and death!

Seclusion is defined as the placing of a person involuntarily in a room or area alone and prevent them from leaving. Some schools have started relying on time out rooms to seclude children with disabilities when they misbehave.

Below are 6 things that special education personnel in your district can do to decrease or eliminate the use of restraint and seclusion in their schools:

1. They can have school wide policies in place with specific instructions on when restraint and seclusion will be used; and also policies developed on releasing the information to the public. By keeping written charts on when it is used, and releasing the information to the public on when it is used, will actually cause restraint and seclusion to be used less. The danger comes when special education personnel keep the information secret, and refuse to share it with the public; ask your district for accountability!

2. Stop relying on punishment, restraint and seclusion to deal with children’s negative behavior. One of the important things to know is that a lot of children with disabilities have behavior that is related to their disability. Also, it is proven in research that punishment, restraint and seclusion do not work in the long term to change a child’s behavior!

3. Have good attitudes that include all children in the school; including children with disabilities! Personnel that take a positive proactive approach to school order and behavior can absolutely have a wonderful affect, on all of the children in the school. Positive attitudes encourage learning, negative attitudes discourage learning!

4. Teachers and other special education personnel need to be taught not to overreact to behavior. By appropriately dealing with negative behavior the child’s behavior may decrease, but on the other hand overreacting to the behavior, can escalate the behavior. I have seen this many times over the years; a child with autism gets upset and the teacher jumps in; gets in the child’s face and escalates (makes worse) the child’s behavior! Teachers must learn to step back and give the child time to calm themselves down!

5. Understand the huge connection between behavioral difficulty and academic difficulty. Many parents call me when their child has negative school behavior, and ask for help. I ask them: how is your child’s academics? In 100% of the cases the child is below average in all areas of academics. The child is telling the people around them: I cannot do this work, so I am going to misbehave so that I can avoid the work! Avoidance of hard academics is the cause of a lot of negative school behavior!

6. Use research based processes; positive behavioral supports and plans to deal with a child’s negative school behavior. The process starts with a Functional Behavioral Analysis (FBA) to determine what the child is getting from the negative behavior. Is it to avoid hard academics? Is it to access attention? Then a properly conducted FBA is used to develop a positive behavioral plan. This is not a punishment plan, but a plan to increase positive school behavior which then decreases negative school behavior.

Bring these 6 things to your school district and ask them to implement them for your child and other children. This will ensure that all children have a positive environment to learn; even children with disabilities!

CA: 5 Long Beach students arrested in alleged groping

updated 4:55 p.m. ET, Sat., Nov . 21, 2009http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34082968/ns/us_news/

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Authorities say five male students have been arrested on suspicion of sexual battery after two ninth-grade girls were attacked at a Long Beach high school.

Long Beach Police Lt. Ty Hatfield says one of the victims told Poly High School officials they were groped on their breasts and buttocks during a lunch break Tuesday.

The five freshman boys were arrested separately throughout the week as the investigation into the assault progressed.

Hatfield says the attack may not have been an isolated incident and investigators are looking for any other victims who may not have come forward.

None of the suspects has been identified because all are minors.

PA: Death of disabled man at Krol center remains a mystery

By WILLIAM BENDER
Philadelphia Daily News

benderw@phillynews.com 215-854-5255

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/70600847.html?cmpid=15585797

IT WAS after midnight in mid-April, and Greg Harlen would not stop screaming in his room at the Cardinal Krol Center.

Harlen, 52, a resident of the Philadelphia Archdiocese-run home for mentally handicapped men, was lying in his bed, writhing in pain.

Both of his hips had been shattered.

Later that morning, staffers decided to call 9-1-1. Harlen, who had Down syndrome, was taken to Springfield Hospital - nearly 20 hours after he is believed to have suffered a mysterious trauma that broke his hips.

He died in the hospital about a month later of complications from his injuries.

"I can't imagine the pain he was in," said Harlen's sister, Sheila Phelan. "I don't understand why they didn't send him to the hospital long before they did."

Harlen's death has renewed scrutiny of the center's operations, five years after the state Health Department released a scathing report that said the 131-bed home in Delaware County had failed to protect its residents from sexual abuse by another resident - and other serious violations.

"What's happening out there?" Phelan asked. "Is this normal, that people scream?"

Archdiocese spokeswoman Donna Farrell said she couldn't comment on Harlen's case because the investigation was ongoing.

"Greg's death was a real loss and hit everyone here very hard," she said.

It remains unclear how Harlen was injured, whether he was beaten by another person or fell. He was unable to speak afterward.

Harlen's family believes that he was assaulted by a caregiver there, but police are awaiting the neuropathology results from his autopsy before deciding whether to proceed with a criminal investigation.

Philadelphia's Department of Behavioral Health and Mental Retardation Services determined last month that Harlen, formerly of Northeast Philadelphia, should have been taken to the hospital sooner.

The department found that, "given the intensity and duration" of Harlen's crying on April 16 and 17 and other indications that he was in pain, "more timely action should have been taken by the agency to assess Mr. Harlen for injuries and necessary medical treatment."

Records show that the center, in Marple Township across from Ss. Peter and Paul Cemetery, has repeatedly been cited by the state in recent years for a range of violations, some of which are recurring.

Over the past year alone, the center's state-issued certification of compliance was temporarily revoked twice due to "serious substandard conditions" there.

"Many of them are very serious violations," said Jacqueline Beilharz, of the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, a federally mandated nonprofit that seeks to protect the civil rights of people with disabilities.

Health Department inspectors have found that the center has failed to maintain complete medical records, properly train its staff, protect residents from physical abuse by other residents and conduct full background checks on some employees.

Kathy Perry, of the Arc of Delaware County, an advocacy group for people with disabilities, said her office has received several complaints about the center.

MA: Lawmakers in MA take up bully bills

Anyone failing to report incident would be fined

Updated: Wednesday, 18 Nov 2009, 5:08 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 18 Nov 2009, 5:07 PM EST

http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/local_news/proposed-bully-bills-would-require-school-workers-to-report-bully-incident-to-officials

BOSTON, MASS. (WPRI) - Massachusetts lawmakers met on Wednesday to take up several bills that deal with bullying.

If one is approved, it would require school workers in the Bay State to report all bullying incidents on the playground and over the internet to officials.

Anyone failing to report bullying within 48 hours would be fined up to one thousand dollars.

Those bullies would then be required to attend counseling.

Represenative Antonio Cabral, of New Bedford, is sponsoring the bill.

And it's a bill that is important to many people who deal with the psychological effects of bullying.

Elizabeth Englander, who works at the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center says, "the quality and the type of bullying has just exponentially mushroomed, and so now we have a situation where children are not just traumatized a little bit here and there, but it can be a really chronic, ongoing kind of abuse and it can lead to very.. very serious problems."

For now, the bill being heard before the education committee.

TX: School cop pleads no contest to abuse

Express News

Web Posted: 11/17/2009 11:34 CST

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/School_cop_pleads_no_contest_to_abuse.html

A former Edgewood Independent School District police officer agreed Tuesday to surrender his badge after pleading no contest to molesting a teen.

In addition, Jose Manuel Sanchez, 59, faces up to eight years in prison next month when state District Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner is scheduled to sentence him on the sexual assault charge. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors have agreed not to contest how much prison time Sanchez should face.

Sanchez’s accuser, now 20, reported the abuse to San Antonio officers in 2007, saying Sanchez fondled her from the time she was 11 to 16 years old. The incidents were not related to his job with the school district, authorities said. Sanchez was suspended from the district that same year.

The victim approved of Tuesday’s plea bargain because it would save her the pain of having to revisit the memories on the witness stand, said Adriana Biggs, chief of the district attorney’s white-collar crimes division.

AR: Arkansas Cop Tasers 10-Year-Old Girl

Girl's Mom Said She Refused to Take a Shower; Town's Mayor Calls for Investigation

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/18/national/main5697860.shtml

(AP) The mayor of a small Arkansas town wants an independent investigation on whether it was appropriate for a police officer to use a Taser on an unruly 10-year-old girl who kicked him in the groin.

Mayor Vernon McDaniel says he wants Arkansas State Police or the FBI to look into whether the use of the Taser was proper. The girl, who hasn't been identified, wasn't hurt and is now at the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.

Ozark police were called to the home Nov. 11 after the girl's mother couldn't get the child to take a shower.

Ozark Police Chief Jim Noggle, who has defended the officer's action, didn't immediately return a call for comment Wednesday morning.

IL: School superintendent investigated before death

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-superintendentinv,0,5996298.story

BELLEVILLE, Ill. - A newspaper has learned that Illinois State Police had been investigating sexual abuse allegations against Freeburg District 70 Superintendent Robin Hawkins in the weeks before Hawkins' apparent suicide.

State police reports obtained by the Belleville News-Democrat under the Freedom of Information Act showed agents interviewed Hawkins on April 13 and confiscated several computers.

In May, Hawkins' body was found in a 1964 Mustang convertible in a barn near Belleville. The cause of his death appeared to be suicide by carbon monoxide asphyxiation.

Reports showed at least five possible victims, including a minor who was interviewed by police the week after Hawkins' death.

In an interview with Illinois State Police, Hawkins denied sexual relationships with any student but admitted to having what he called inappropriate sexual conversations with some students.

Article: Think positive, act positive in school — Positive Behavioral Support tips for parents

By Terese Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

http://redoubtreporter.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/think-positive-act-positive-in-school-—-positive-behavioral-support-tips-for-parents/

Positive Behavioral Support helps parents and schools create and maintain a safe and supportive learning environment, encourages positive life skills and reduces negative behavior.

PBS focuses both upon the interaction of a student’s disruptive or counterproductive behavior and upon the learning environment. Except in situations where the safety of others is directly threatened, PBS has proven generally more effective than punitive discipline strategies such as suspension and expulsion. PBS programs can effectively address issues, such as preventing bullying, developing social skills, improving emotional resiliency, and building self-discipline.

What is PBS?

Positive Behavior Support focuses on making problem behaviors less attractive to students. Teachers, parents and student observations are used in designing a plan that helps improve a student’s behavior. Data about the student’s behavior is then collected. This helps parents and teachers evaluate whether the student’s behavior has improved or whether further adjustments to the behavior improvement plan are needed.

Levels of PBS

• Schoolwide (primary) intervention. Schoolwide intervention is a preventative approach that seeks to avoid problem behaviors. This usually involves developing a school climate and culture that increases student safety and improves the educational environment. Schoolwide interventions are implemented throughout the school, including the classrooms, cafeteria, gym and playground. Schoolwide interventions provide consistent behavioral expectations that make disruptive and counterproductive behaviors less attractive to students.
• Classroom (secondary) Intervention. Not all students will respond to schoolwide interventions. A secondary behavior intervention focuses more specifically upon a smaller number of students who may need more assistance. These students may be “at risk” because they have a higher incidence of problem behaviors than expected. At this level, students may receive instruction in small groups about appropriate behaviors in various school settings or about improved social skills and solving social problems.
• Individual (tertiary) Intervention. A few students in schools may continue to behave in a manner that interferes with their own education or that may be disruptive to other students. When this occurs, such students may need individual intervention to help them behave in accordance with school rules. Such students may be placed on a Behavior Intervention Plan that is jointly developed by the school administrators, teachers and the student’s parents.

Often, a Functional Behavioral Assessment is completed before the Behavior Intervention Plan is written so that the team members have some information about the student to help guide them in writing the BIP. A Functional Behavior Assessment gathers observations about the student’s behavior and motivations from parents, teachers and the student as a basis for developing a Behavior Intervention Plan appropriate for the individual student.

A role for parents

Parent involvement in all aspects of their student’s educational planning has been consistently shown to be a major factor in a student’s success. When parents are actively involved in the educational activities of their children, their children are more successful in school, particularly when there are behavioral concerns. Parent communication with the school and parent participation in school activities provides important academic and behavioral support for a student and encourages a healthy school climate.

Parents can help

Parents contribute to developing a positive school climate by participating in their student’s intervention team. At home, parent discussions help their children understand that the school’s behavioral rules can make school a happier, safer and more productive place for everyone. Parents can also help by volunteering for school activities so that students realize that their parents take education seriously.

Support at home for the school’s behavioral rules adds consistency for students. If your student is part of a classroom or individual behavior plan, then your involvement as parents is very important. Most importantly, celebrate school successes with your students at home. This helps students believe that positive behavior is appreciated at school, at home and in the community.

This column is presented by the National School Psychologists Association and Dr. Terese Lipinski Kashi, NCSP, 2009-10 president of the Alaska School Psychologists Association.

TX: Freshman says fellow student sexually abused her in school gym

November 19, 2009 9:55 AM
By JARED TAYLOR/The Monitor

http://www.valleymorningstar.com/news/div-63924-marginmidside-class.html

ALAMO — Police arrested a high school senior after an alleged sexual assault behind the bleachers in a high school gymnasium.

A 14-year-old freshman girl told a school counselor about 1 p.m. Monday that Moises Martinez, 17, had sexually assaulted her there, said Alamo Police Chief Arturo Espinoza.

The alleged incident reportedly occurred Monday morning during school hours. No one else was in the gym at the time.

Investigators are “going under the assumption” that the girl and Martinez did not know each other before the suspected sexual assault, Espinoza said. He added that the girl was “doing OK” and underwent an exam that supported her sexual abuse claim.

It is The Monitor’s policy not to identify those who may be victims of sex crimes.

Because Martinez is 17 years old, authorities charged him as an adult. He was arraigned Tuesday in Alamo Municipal Court on one count of sexual assault, a second-degree felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 upon conviction. He remained at the Hidalgo County Jail late Wednesday afternoon in lieu of an $80,000 bond.

Alamo police plan to turn the case over to the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office, which will present it before a grand jury, Espinoza said.

“It’s probably something where they met and it happened and now they have to deal with that,” he said of the alleged incident.

In a prepared statement, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district officials confirmed the sexual assault investigation and said they were cooperating with Alamo police.

KS: Kansas probing allegations of verbal abuse by football coach Mangino

DOUG TUCKERAP Sports Writer

3:25 PM CST, November 19, 2009

http://www.fox4kc.com/news/sns-ap-fbc--kansas-mangino,0,400218.story

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — Former Kansas football players are speaking out about the treatment they received from embattled coach Mark Mangino.

The university is investigating an unspecified personnel issue involving the eight-year coach of the Jayhawks.

Former player Raymond Brown says he once dropped a pass in practice — and Mangino threatened to send him home, where he might be shot like his little brother had been only days earlier.

Another player told The Associated Press that Mangino made insensitive comments about a teammate's father being an alcoholic.

An athletics department spokesman says Mangino was not available for comment Thursday.

KY: Police department investigates alleged sexual abuse on a school bus

Posted: 4:20 PM Nov 19, 2009

http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/70542592.html

Two children are accused of sexually abusing another child on a school bus.

The alleged incident happened on a Clay County school bus a few weeks ago. Police say it happened during a trip to Hacker Elementary School.

The victim's mother is outraged. She says the bus ride for her child is only three miles, and during that time, her child should be safe.

"You think from the time that your child leaves your house, and they go to school, the person that is in charge of them should be able to keep them safe," the victim's mother said.

But a few weeks ago, this mother's five year-old child told her that they were sexually abused on the bus ride to school.

"I was shocked, I was angry, I wanted something done immediately," the victim's mother said.

The mother quickly informed the school and police. Manchester Police investigated and filed formal charges against the two children, ages 10 and 11.

One faces sexual abuse, indecent exposure, and terroristic threatening charges. The other faces one charge of harassment.

"Due to the ages of the students that are allegedly involved, our department will not comment on any details of the investigation at this time," Manchester Police Chief Jeff Culver said.

Chief Culver says the department does everything it can to prevent incidents like this from happening, but there are other ways to watch children.

"Every bus should have monitors, and some may need more than one monitor. Each complaint should be looked at more thoroughly," Culver said.

The victim's mother says she had to pull her child out of school because the child did not feel safe anymore.

"I gotta get my child back. Got to get my child back," the victim's mother said.

The mother says it may be a long time before her child feels safe again in a group setting.

The accused children are still at school. They will face their charges in juvenile court in the coming months.

The Clay County Schools superintendent was unavailable for comment.

ACTION ALERT: Indiana Star Seeking Parent Input on Corporal Punishment

Should schools still use the paddle?
http://www.indystar.com/article/20091119/PROMO/91119015/Should-schools-still-use-the-paddle

The Indianapolis Star is working on a story about the increasing number of Central Indiana school districts banning corporal punishment as a form of discipline. We want to hear what you think.

Most districts in central Indiana counties specifically bar teachers and administrators from striking children. And of those that still do allow it, one is poised to change that policy and administrators in most of the others don't paddle children even when allowed to.

The federal government estimates that 577 Indiana children were paddled in schools during the 2006-2007 school year, the last year for which data were available.

Advocates of paddling say that it is an effective way to get a disruptive child's attention. Opponents say that it teaches violence and is not appropriate for educators to be involved in.

Parents, what do you think? Send your e-mail to andy.gammill@indystar.com. Let us know your thoughts to use in our news story. Be sure to give your name and phone number so we can contact you. We will use the phone number only for having a reporter contact you.

Article: An intervention that can reduce hostile perceptions in children with prenatal alcohol exposure

Posted on: november 19, 2009 - 9:30pm

http://www.sciencecodex.com/an_intervention_that_can_reduce_hostile_perceptions_in_children_with_prenatal_alcohol_exposure

• Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has been linked to significant impairments in social skills.
• Researchers have found that a social- skills intervention called Children's Friendship Training can lead to a decrease in hostile attributions or perceptions of children with PAE.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has been linked to a wide array of developmental deficits, including significant impairments in social skills. An examination of a social- skills intervention called Children's Friendship Training found that it led to a decrease in hostile attributions or perceptions of children with PAE.

Results will be published in the February 2010 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.

"Children with PAE have a hard time making and keeping friends," explained the study's corresponding author Vivien Keil, who was a staff research associate in the department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA when the research was conducted.

"More specifically, they tend to have difficulty understanding social cues and common social norms," she said. "In order to make and keep friends, we must be able to read social cues such as facial expressions and other body language. If a child makes hostile attributions, this means that s/he is more likely to perceive that the people around them are hostile or negative and, as a result, s/he is likely to respond in a hostile manner, thus undermining successful social relationships."

"These social problems are due, in part, to the neurological and cognitive deficits known to be associated with prenatal exposure to alcohol," said Joseph M. Price, a research scientist in the Children and Adolescent Services Research Center at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.

"However, children prenatally exposed to alcohol are also more likely to be exposed to negative early-life experiences – such as unresponsive caregivers, maltreatment, disruptions in early parent-child interactions, and out-of-home placements – all of which are known to contribute to behavior and social problems during childhood and adolescence."

Price also said, given that these social problems may eventually lead to school problems, emotional and behavior problems, early school dropout, delinquency, and drug and alcohol use, that children who were prenatally exposed to alcohol will likely benefit from intervention efforts designed to improve their social skills and their relationships with peers and adults.

Researchers assigned 100 children (51 boys, 49 girls) with PAE, between 6 to 12 years of age, to one of two groups: Children's Friendship Training or a Delayed Treatment Control condition.

"The Children's Friendship Training decreased the level of hostile attributions made by children with PAE in group- entry scenarios, or those situations in which they were asked to join a group of similarly aged children in play activities," said Keil. "This means that when the children were asked about other children's intentions, they made fewer hostile attributions after the intervention. These findings are encouraging because hostile attributions were not the focus or target of the intervention. Rather, the intervention sought to improve children's social skills more broadly; decreased hostile attributions were merely a positive side-effect of the intervention and perhaps a mechanism of change."

"In short," added Price, "it appears that children's hostile interpretations of peers' social intentions, which have been found to be associated with aggressive behavior and peer rejection, can be modified by intervention efforts. What will be exciting to see is if the Children's Friendship Training procedure also improves other aspects of children's social information-processing patterns, such as social problem-solving skills or their evaluation of behavior outcomes, and improves the social behavior and peer relationships of children who have been exposed to alcohol during prenatal development."

"There are many reasons to be hopeful that children with PAE can overcome their weaknesses and reach their full potential," said Keil. "It is encouraging that a psychological intervention such as social-skills training seems to have resulted in improvements in more objective measures of child functioning such as social information-processing like hostile attributions rather than relying on more subjective parent reports of child functioning. These findings suggest that although there are neurocognitive deficits associated with prenatal alcohol exposure, children with PAE can make meaningful improvements in their social skills and overall functioning with the use of effective evidence-based treatments."

FL: Lawsuit claims Florida is failing its schools, wants new education plan

By Ron Matus, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
http://tampabay.com/news/lawsuit-claims-florida-is-failing-its-schools-wants-new-education-plan/1052509

Not enough money. Not enough progress.

Florida is violating the state Constitution by not pouring enough money into schools and relentlessly focusing on high-stakes testing policies that aren't getting good results, says a lawsuit expected to be filed today in Leon County circuit court.

Prepared by a team of lawyers that includes a former Democratic House speaker and a Republican Party patriarch, the suit takes aim at virtually every aspect of the sweeping education overhaul engineered by former Gov. Jeb Bush and kept largely intact by his successor, Gov. Charlie Crist.

Low graduation rates, stagnant test scores, a persistent effort by lawmakers to shift education costs to school districts — all of it shows Florida is not living up to a constitutional mandate to provide high quality schools, the suit says.

Some of the suit's roots go back to last spring's budget cuts, when everything from music programs to teaching assistants were considered for the chopping block, said Kathleen Oropeza, co-founder of an Orlando-based parents group listed as a plaintiff.

"The first question we asked amongst ourselves was, 'What can we do to fix this?' " Oropeza said Tuesday. "It always came back to legal action."

The proposed remedy: having the court order the state to come up with a new education plan.

The St. Petersburg Times was given a copy of the suit, which is being filed on behalf of eight plaintiffs, including Rose and Alfredo Nogueras, a Hispanic couple whose son is a Pasco County 11th-grader. Two parent groups and two black Jacksonville students also are plaintiffs. The suit alleges that minority students have been especially short-changed.

The plaintiffs' attorneys include former Democratic House Speaker Jon Mills, moderate Republican E. Thom Rumberger and members of Southern Legal Counsel, a Gainesville public interest law firm.

The defendants are listed as the state Board of Education, Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith, Senate President Jeff Atwater and House Speaker Larry Cretul.

Board Chairman T. Willard Fair did not return a call for comment. Smith, Atwater and Cretul all declined comment because they had not yet seen the suit.

Bush declined comment, too. But Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for one of his education foundations, foreshadowed the statistical duel that lies ahead.

"It is critical to note Florida has made incredible strides in raising student achievement in the last decade, especially among poor and minority students," she wrote in an e-mail. "In every grade, the percentage of students performing at or above grade level in reading and math has made double-digit leaps since 2001."

The arguments may boil down to what judges think of words like "paramount" and "high quality."

In 1998, 71 percent of Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that says educating children is a "paramount duty" of the state and the state shall make "adequate provision" for a school system that is "uniform, efficient, safe, secure and high quality."

The suit says the state isn't living up to those promises and is "misusing" the FCAT to retain some students and keep others from graduating: "Overemphasis on high stakes testing for multiple purposes has not improved overall performance generally."

The suit offers a barrage of statistics as proof: No. 29 in average teacher salaries. No. 39 in per pupil spending. No. 2 in the percentage of teachers who report being threatened by students.

The suit also points to FCAT scores. "Statewide, there is an alarming number of students who are not reading at grade level: 63% of Tenth Graders, 53% of Ninth Graders, and 46% of Eighth Graders," it says.

But measuring school quality is tricky business.

On one hand, Florida schools are in the midst of historic cuts in state education spending — and a dramatic change in who picks up the tab.

Core funding has dropped from $19.3 billion to $17.9 billion in the last two years, and would have fallen further without federal stimulus money. Meanwhile, the Legislature is shifting a bigger share of education funding to districts, lowering the state's contribution from 62 percent in 2001 to 45 percent this year.

On the other hand, Florida schools — for so long the butt of jokes — are now earning kudos from unexpected quarters.

The widely respected Quality Counts report, put together by the Education Week newspaper, gave Florida a No. 10 ranking this year based on a wide range of factors, including funding, policies and academic performance. The state also is a leading contender for a federal Race to the Top grant because its policies mesh closely with President Barack Obama's vision of education reform.

"So many of the mile markers in these kinds of legal cases can be interpreted in two different ways," said Ruth Melton, legislative director for the Florida School Boards Association, which decided, for now, to not file a similar suit. "This is a challenge worth winning. But it will be a long and difficult legal road."

By coincidence, Pinellas County School Board members discussed state funding at a workshop Tuesday as they crafted their wish list to state lawmakers.

One board member suggested the message be distilled to this: "Obey the Constitution."

Shannon Colavecchio contributed to this report. Ron Matus can be reached at matus@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8873.

Article: Seclusion to inclusion

NOTE: Although this article references techniques that were used in a psychiatric facility, some of the same techniques can be adapted for use in other locations, such as public schools...

Friday, 20 November 2009

Genevieve Costigan

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features/20092011-20269.html

A School of Nursing and Social Work pilot project in an inner city Melbourne hospital has seen the practice of locking up extremely unwell psychiatric patients in isolation reduced by more than 50 per cent.

The practice, commonly called seclusion, involves placing acutely unwell psychiatric patients in a confined space to prevent immediate harm to the patient and other people and is considered a measure of last resort.

It is, however, a relatively common practice in acute psychiatric settings in Australia with thousands of people being secluded each year.

The project, Translating Evidence to Practice: Seclusion Reduction in Acute Psychiatry, was led by Dr Bridget Hamilton, Director of Nursing for Mental Health at St Vincent’s and senior lecturer in the School of Nursing and Social Work.

“Seclusion is an issue that people often won’t want to think about or address, without significant support to do so – in some ways it’s treated like a dirty work practice and this is part of what stigmatises mental health practices,” Dr Hamilton says.

Involuntary psychiatric patients often come through the emergency departments of hospitals and are commonly people who are having a psychotic episode as a result of schizophrenia, hypermania or drug-induced psychosis and sometimes they are people in crisis with borderline personality disorder.

“It is challenging for even highly skilled staff to communicate effectively with people when they are acutely unwell,” Dr Hamilton says.

“Patients may express their fear and frustration being surrounded by unfamiliar people and places, they may be given directives they do not understand or may argue with, and the rising sense of injustice and distress can all lead to conflict situations where patients are manhandled into a seclusion room.

“Nurses don’t want to initiate physical restraint but as they are usually working within a constrained space in a psychiatric unit, they experience chaos, noise and verbal abuse and they work hard to meet the needs of the distressed patient but they are also trying to keep the other patients and staff safe,” she says.

International focus on seclusion policies began in the United States in the early 1990s following a newspaper expose of a series of deaths in seclusion rooms in US mental health facilities. Enquiries into seclusion rates went to Congress which led to changes to legislation and practice.

Yet, Dr Hamilton says, in 2006 when this project was planned the idea of seclusion reduction wasn’t on the radar in clinical settings in Victoria.

“We need to think about seclusion from the point of view of the unintended harm it can do to the patients and not just from the perspective of safety,” she says.

Dr Hamilton established a partnership with St Vincent’s Mental Health and sought support from the National Institute of Clinical Studies (NICS) and the Victorian State government to undertake the project.

Based on the US research Dr Hamilton used six core strategies to reduce the use of seclusion and restraint. The US strategies were adapted for the different mental health service structures and laws in Victoria.

Changes were made in St Vincent’s organisation and practice to reduce reliance on seclusion, including getting senior managers engaged in the goal of seclusion reduction, revising policy, focusing on available seclusion data and surveying staff attitudes to seclusion. Clinicians participated in training and senior clinicians reviewed all seclusion events.

Dr Hamilton believes examining the data was essential as it confronted clinicians and managers with the detail of seclusion, for example how some patients had been secluded many times and it raised the question of why this was so and how it could be changed.

“It was a difficult project for any organisation to take on and needed leadership but with the backing of the University, NICS, many colleagues at the hospital and state government we managed to get it going.

“Patients who are secluded often experience terrible shame, a sense of a loss of control and dignity and it can also re-traumatise people who have been abused, neglected and isolated and putting them in a confined space can reignite memories of abuse,” Dr Hamilton says.

“At the coalface we need nurses to be thinking hard and differently about what you can do in these situations, what you can do earlier, what you can do to address patients’ needs, concerns and fears which may help avert seclusion.

“We need to look at how we can orientate people to the ward, explain what the different spaces are and we need to expect that people are going to find it very difficult and so spend more time with them on admission to the unit.”

Dr Hamilton says some of the things wards can do to support patients are to directly address patients’ concerns which may revolve around their domestic situations, for example they may need to make phone calls to check on family members or arrange for the care of their pets.

“If you see a patient getting upset, behaving erratically, you can speak to the patient and try to find out why they are upset; it may be something you can deal with and can be a better way of handling a situation rather than waiting until the situation escalates,” she says.

Changes in attitudes can be crucial in reducing seclusion rates and Dr Hamilton suggests that the tendency to think that the person who is behaving badly does not deserve more attention needs to change to the idea that intensive work actually needs to be done with this person.p>