Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar » Stop torturing children!
SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax      Advertise Here      About     Exclusive Subscriber Content     Updated Posts    Contact Rich Miller
CapitolFax.com
To subscribe to Capitol Fax, click here.
Stop torturing children!

Friday, Dec 20, 2019 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Jennifer Smith Richards of the Chicago Tribune and Jodi S. Cohen and Lakeidra Chavis of ProPublica Illinois

An analysis of more than 15,000 physical restraints in 100 Illinois school districts from August 2017 to early December 2018 found that about a quarter of the interventions began without any documented safety reason. Instead, they often happened after a student was disrespectful, profane or not following rules. These instances violate a 20-year-old state law that allows children to be restrained at school only for safety reasons.

Records show that most of the children restrained had behavioral or intellectual disabilities.

The law defines physical restraint as holding a student or otherwise restricting the child’s movement. The student can be standing, seated or lying down. A brief hold intended to keep students safe or to escort them from one place to another is not considered a restraint. Illinois law prohibits the use of mechanical restraints, such as straps or handcuffs, in schools. […]

In 50,000 pages of school records reviewed by reporters, aides and teachers documented numerous injuries to the children they had restrained: Cuts on the students’ hands, scratches on necks and noses. Collarbones that hurt to touch. Knots on their heads and split lips. Sore ankles and wrists.

In at least two dozen incidents, schools called an ambulance for a child.

You hurt a kid enough that it requires an ambulance call, you should be arrested. Also, where the heck is DCFS on this?

* More

The schools examined as part of this investigation likely represent a fraction of the number that actually used physical restraint in Illinois. The 100 school districts and special-education cooperatives included in the analysis were selected because they previously reported using seclusion to the federal government or because they exclusively served students with disabilities.

Many more districts — more than 280 — reported to the U.S. Department of Education that they had used physical restraint in the 2015-16 school year, the most recent data available. Even that number is likely an undercount, as the federal database relies on self-reporting from districts and is known to omit information. […]

Restraints in a prone position are particularly dangerous because they can cut off a child’s ability to breathe. Officials from the state Board of Education, which was not monitoring schools’ use of seclusion or restraint, said in an interview they did not know the extent to which Illinois children were being put in prone restraints. A board official noted it was not required by law to keep track.

The board, which put emergency restrictions in place on all restraints in the wake of “The Quiet Rooms,” is moving to ban prone restraints permanently.

* Ugh

For 11-year-old Austin Kelly, being restrained or secluded has been a routine part of his time at school, his family told reporters.

The school he attends, the Kansas Treatment and Learning Center in east-central Illinois, restrained students at least 171 times from August 2017 to early December of last year, records show. Officials from the Eastern Illinois Area Special Education district did not respond to requests for comment. […]

About three dozen districts examined for this investigation had restrained children at least 100 times between August 2017 and December 2018. For some, it was many more.

In Mount Prospect, the Northwest Suburban Special Education Organization, or NSSEO, reported 2,078 incidents of physical restraint. The total for the Southern Will County Cooperative for Special Education in Joliet was 1,424. For the Northern Suburban Special Education District in Highland Park, or NSSED, 1,175.

State records show each of those entities enrolls fewer than 425 children.

* More

Of the 15,000 restraints analyzed by reporters, roughly 1,300 lasted 15 minutes or longer. About 260 went on for more than 30 minutes — with more than a quarter of those involving children being held faceup or facedown on the floor.

Some children had medical conditions that made restraint unsafe for them, but school staff physically restrained them anyway in apparent violation of state law, the investigation found. […]

Restraints that can obstruct breathing, including prone restraints, are prohibited in 31 states for all children and in a handful more just for students with disabilities. Last month, three California school workers were charged with involuntary manslaughter after the death of a student with autism who had been restrained prone. […]

Reporters’ analysis of school records found that “floor restraints” — both prone and supine — were used in about two dozen of the 100 districts analyzed. Together, districts used these restraints nearly 1,800 times in the 15-month period examined.

Thirteen-hundred of those floor restraints were in the prone position, and three districts accounted for the majority of those incidents. A.E.R.O. used prone restraint 530 times in 15 months; the Southwest Cook County Cooperative Association for Special Education, more than 300 times.

There’s so much more. Click here to read the rest.

* React from Rep. Jonathan Carroll…

As a parent, I’m angry. As a legislator, I’m outraged. As a child who was punitively restrained, it’s humiliating.

       

8 Comments
  1. - Out Here In The Middle - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 12:29 pm:

    It’s amazing how people can rationalize these actions against children simply because the child is “difficult”.

    A Central IL administrator was on the radio denouncing the new rules as a “knee jerk political action” by ISBE. Yes, I guess its political in the sense that there is literally no way to say that you locked a child in a room with no supervision and make it seem acceptable.


  2. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 12:32 pm:

    This makes me ill, angry, and saddened.

    Inexcusable.

    This is torture, this needs to end.


  3. - Cassandra - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 12:56 pm:

    DCFS would probably investigate a case of improper restraint especially if a child got injured.

    But where does that get us. Maybe somebody gets fired, but this problem seems to be more than a few bad apples. I’ve never been confronted with an out of control person, so I don’t know what they’re supposed to do, but this sounds like a systemic issue to me. What do the best practices folks recommend? Why have current guidelines failed?

    Looking at you educational system leaders.


  4. - Nick Name - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 1:00 pm:

    ===For 11-year-old Austin Kelly, being restrained or secluded has been a routine part of his time at school, his family told reporters.===

    Lord Jesus have mercy. What is wrong with people?


  5. - FormerParatrooper - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 1:11 pm:

    This is vile.


  6. - Perrid - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 2:02 pm:

    “You hurt a kid enough that it requires an ambulance call, you should be arrested.”

    Not a bad knee jerk reaction, but I’d want to know more about how the injury happened before making sweeping statements. If a teenager is punching and you push them away and they fall and get hurt, that’s not abuse. Now there’s basically no way that ALL of the ambulance trips could be waved away like that, but the possibility exists.

    Restraints or seclusion shouldn’t be used as a way to discipline children


  7. - Papa2008 - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 2:06 pm:

    It’s not about discipline, it’s about control. And anytime someone tries to control someone else, bad things are bound to happen. Make no mistake, these schools, administrators, and staff are about control. Not teaching. Pathetic.


  8. - Maryjane - Friday, Dec 20, 19 @ 2:08 pm:

    “15,000 physical restraints in 100 Illinois school districts from August 2017 to early December 2018″

    I can’t but help flash ahead ten years and visualize 15,000 mass shootings that no one will be able to figure out.


Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.


* Federal appeals court stays Downstate federal judge's gun ruling
* Isabel’s afternoon roundup
* Illinois Supreme Court: Raw cannabis smell is enough to trigger warrantless automobile searches
* Question of the day: Golden Horseshoe Awards
* Carp-e Diem!
* Roundup: Jurors see Madigan’s list of recommended hires for Pritzker administration
* Open thread
* Isabel’s morning briefing
* Live coverage
* Selected press releases (Live updates)
* Yesterday's stories

Support CapitolFax.com
Visit our advertisers...

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............

...............


Loading


Main Menu
Home
Illinois
YouTube
Pundit rankings
Obama
Subscriber Content
Durbin
Burris
Blagojevich Trial
Advertising
Updated Posts
Polls

Archives
December 2024
November 2024
October 2024
September 2024
August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
April 2005
March 2005
February 2005
January 2005
December 2004
November 2004
October 2004

Blog*Spot Archives
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005
July 2005
June 2005
May 2005

Syndication

RSS Feed 2.0
Comments RSS 2.0




Hosted by MCS SUBSCRIBE to Capitol Fax Advertise Here Mobile Version Contact Rich Miller