For a third straight year, Florida parents and special-education advocates are trying to get a law passed that would prevent school employees from holding students with disabilities facedown or shutting them in rooms to try to control behaviors associated with their conditions.
This year, proponents have the backing of the National Autism Association, Autism Speaks and 26 state organizations that are primarily involved in medical or disabilities issues.
There's also a federal push to limit the use of such practices after a U.S. Government Accountability Office report revealed hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and several children who were killed when school and treatment center staffers used the methods....To help make their case, supporters of the bill (HB 81) have a grainy video of a 14-year-old autistic boy from Citrus County who was dragged on his hands and knees and thrown into a dark room by his teacher and an aide last school year. When he tried to get out of the room, the teacher slammed the door shut on his hand, leaving him in the room with a bleeding and broken finger.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Seclusion and Restraint
The Palm Beach Post reports:
