Sunday, June 22, 2014

Controlling the Classroom

It's not an easy job teaching a bunch of young kids, especially when some of them have problems, either emotionally, intellectually or physically. But some schools do seem to go over the edge, e.g., pinning uncooperative children face down on the floor, locking them in dark closets and tying them up with straps, handcuffs, bungee cords or even duct tape. These 'techniques' were used more than 267,000 times nationwide in the 2012 school year, a ProPublica analysis of new federal data shows. Three-quarters of the students restrained had physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities. For a 180 day school year, that's about 1,400 kids a day.
One school highlighted in the article reported using holds on children 177 times—an average of almost once a school day—and isolation 559 times in the 2012 school year. Those numbers placed it among the top 50 schools in the country that reported using restraints and seclusions the most.

Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia has not had similar problems, despite the fact that it stopped using restraints and seclusion more than two decades ago.

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