For over a decade, the United States Health & Human Services Department's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has recognized that seclusion and restraint are traumatic NOT therapeutic^(4). Mental health experts have developed tools and protocols that have successfully helped many mental health facilities and schools significantly reduce seclusion and restraints.

Educating, Debating & Legislating...A Slow Process

While America's special needs children are traumatized at school, sometimes physically injured to the point of death, legislators still debate whether or not to support a federal law to keep all children safe. Some debate whether to support a "federal" law because they are "pro-states rights". Yet, disabled children can't wait around for individual states to "do the right thing" and pass similar laws. If states were capable of doing the right thing, they would have already done it. Other legislators listen to the lobbyists who demand they "need" to use seclusion and restraint even though these methods are not evidence based or therapeutic. And while both Senator Harkin and Representative Miller have introduced the Keeping All Children Safe Act, S.2020 and H.R.1381 respectively, which would help protect children from the abuse of seclusion and restraint, the legislation still needs cosponsors and more "debate" is expected.

And while this debate continues, the fact is that the only way to help every American child is to pass a federal law. Senate Bill 2020 would prohibit schools from using seclusion and aversives. It would also prohibit restraint from being written into IEPs. Restraint could only be used in an emergency and as a last resort (i.e. child about to hurt self or others). There is no need to write restraint into an IEP, when essentially, restraint is a failure of treatment (Curie, 2003; NASMHPD, 2001) ⁽⁵⁾⁽⁶⁾. If the IEP is such a failure that restraint is needed, then the team would be required to reconvene. The team would need to analyze what went wrong with the plan and how to fix the plan as to prevent restraint from happening again in the future. And while all this sounds great in theory, the bill has not passed yet.

So as a parent of a special needs child, I am left wondering, "What exactly needs to happen to our children with autism and other disabilities before America says enough is enough?" In order to get this bill moving and passed, exactly how many kids need to be traumatized? How many kids need to die? What is the litmus test that will finally make society pass a federal law that will force schools to eliminate seclusion and reduce restraint? What will it take before someone gets the educators to learn about the many evidenced based alternatives to seclusion and restraint. Because as I see it, seclusion rooms (a.k.a. scream rooms) are a national disgrace. As a mother and as an advocate, I am pleading for America to wake up and end the civil rights injustices that happen to disabled children in the name of education.

Infringement of Civil Rights

Whenever these stories come out in the news, inevitably you get administrators, teachers or aides who work with special needs children commenting that they "need" the rooms because the children are "out of control" as if there is no other evidenced based method to modify behavior.  When the reality is that restraint and seclusion is often used during times when children are merely loud or noncompliant, not as a last resort.  Or worse, I read comments that say "children like seclusion rooms" as if a small child would like being dragged and put into a concrete, closet sized prison cell against their will.  What our children do like are quiet areas or sensory rooms, a far cry from a seclusion room.  And then there are the public comments that show the discriminatory, true colors of those who believe it is entirely acceptable to isolate and segregate special needs children. I have read plenty of comments from parents, who clearly are not interested in inclusion or tolerance, and simply want special needs children to stay away from their neurotypical children...preferably in another part of the school or in another building entirely. And of course, you get the "spare the rod, spoil the child" comments, from people who believe it is entirely acceptable to beat a child in school or let the child bash his head against a concrete wall....because "they deserve it" or "they just need to learn a lesson".

As much as I would like to be tactful, I will just say it...The ignorance of both education and the public about behavior in special needs children is astounding at times. As is usually the case, this unbridled ignorance breeds discrimination which has seeped into education. Our current American education system, which accepts the free utilization of seclusion and restraint, often treats our children as if they are less than human. As if they cannot feel or be traumatized. As if they do not matter. And the truth is our children DO feel even if they cannot speak for themselves. And they most certainly do matter. They can learn when taught with compassion and understanding. They may grow up and change someone's life someday...even the life of that teacher who shoved their face into the floor and dragged them into a seclusion room. We should never underestimate the abilities of our special needs children and their future contributions to society based solely upon a disability.

Yet, by continuing to dehumanize them, we do not treat our future well. Seclusion and restraint has the potential to crush their spirits as well as their very being should they die from the event. Despite how well someone is trained, which often they are not, restraint is never without risk (Haimowitz, Urff, Huckshorn, 2006) ⁽⁷⁾.

Preventing and Reducing Seclusion and Restraint

At the heart of this issue, many schools lack understanding about autism, why behaviors happen, how behaviors can be communication or sensory related, how calming and verbal deescalation techniques work and how to modify behavior using positive behavior support. Often, our children cannot speak or communicate well, so they use behaviors as a form of communication to get their needs and wants known. Because school staff do not understand these behaviors as a way for the child to try to communicate, the child is punished and the need goes unmet.