Handcuffs, Bruises, Wrestling—in a Classroom
September 18, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
From an ABC News report today about autistic children being handcuffed in a public school in North Carolina:
According to the complaint, one parent of a child attending the school reported that her son had allegedly been handcuffed around his ankles to prevent him from kicking during a temper tantrum, said John Rittelmeyer, a lawyer who represents the DRNC, and another parent claimed his son had bruised arms from teachers grabbing him.
One parent said the school had a “WWF room” — a reference to the former World Wrestling Federation — in which students were encouraged to wrestle with one another, according to the claim.
“Specifically, these allegations include claims that the wrestling was done with the classroom teacher’s knowledge and that the classroom teaching assistants were directly involved in wrestling with the students,” the complaint states.
Betsy Johnson, whose son Stone was 12 when he attended Carroll Middle School, told ABC News that she believes her son was so traumatized by what he saw teachers do to his classmates that his autism became more pronounced.
Not to mention what the effects of such “treatment” on the autistic students who were handcuffed have been.
I think Joe was pretty much on the right track with his response to the first installment of this story: http://www.autismvox.com/handcuffs-and-the-wwf-room-in-a-public-school/#comment-496325
I hadn’t heard this story. I am shocked and deeply appalled.
The way people think it’s okay to treat children — what the heck are they thinking???
Joe’s proposal might be useful in preventing a multitude of sins and, who knows, might even be useful for educational purposes.
it’s wrong for teachers to handcuff kids and encourage them to wrestle each other. However, teachers are attacked by autistic students all the time. My sister-in-law was pushed to the floor and kicked in the abdomen by a student when she was pregnant. Some of these kids are big and they don’t care who they hit. Or bite. Or kick.
I think some kind of humane restraints are in order when kids get violent.