It's been called "the dirty little secret" of special education.
New Jersey gives schools a virtual free pass to forcibly restrain unruly kids with disabilities or confine them in "timeout" rooms until they calm down.
School employees can use "bear hugs," "basket holds" and "takedowns," which sound more like wrestling moves than anything you'd expect to see in school.
Nationwide, the use of extreme restraints has led to the deaths of at least 20 schoolchildren, and three others in New Jersey medical facilities.
It's also OK for school employees to spray kids in the face with water or noxious chemicals, snap their wrists with rubber bands or put hot sauce on their tongues -- aversive techniques legally used on severely autistic kids who habitually injure themselves by banging their heads, biting their hands or other compulsive behaviors.
As the paper reports, New Jersey is one of 19 states without statewide rules on seclusion and restraint. Federal legislation is pending, but it would not go into effect for at least two years. Meanwhile...
Currently, New Jersey law allows school employees to use reasonable amounts of force to protect a child or others from being harmed, or to prevent school property from being damaged, but it doesn't specify what methods can and can't be used.
Policies vary among school districts and private schools, and they're rarely written down, special-education advocates say.
The Middlesex Regional Educational Services Commission uses "time-out" rooms in its schools when an aggresssive student can't be calmed down safely in class. There are two such rooms at the MRESC's Academy Learning Center in Monroe, which specializes in autism. The rooms are padded, well-lit and closely supervised, said school principal Erik R. Solberg. The rooms don't have doors but sometimes a staff member may have to use pads to block an aggressive student from exiting, he said.
