“What Tim eventually said….was that he didn’t want to go to school because he thought the school was trying to kill him.”
John Miller, a podiatrist in Allegany, N.Y, says this about his 12-year-old son, who has Asperger Syndrome, and who was, according to a July 15th New York Times article, held down prone on the floor by teachers (one time for 20 minutes) when he was “confrontational.” The NYT article discusses something that is too familiar to me—and to parents of special needs children—-and that is, one suspects, a bit more than shocking to many. Kids coming home with bruises …read more

School nurses training goes beyond an apple a day, according to a short report by WCTV.com (Florida):
“Teachers are not equipped and don’t have the staff to handle it and so the school nurse winds up being the one that’s there to make sure these students get the help they need or to refer out,” said Pam Mezzinam, Program Coordinator for Big Bend Hospice’s Caring Tree Program.
“We see a wide variety of problems that are occurring.. more chronic disease, more autism, just emotional issues those kinds of things,” said Leila Thompson, Madison County Health Department’s Senior LPN for the School Health …read more

Put in a timeout room more than 90 times?
Coming home from school with cuts, bumps, and bruises?
Being held on the floor on his stomach by two adults?
All of these happened to 9-year-old Matthew Montgomery in Oldham County, Kentucky, WAVE 3 news reports. Some of them have happened to my son Charlie and maybe not everyone realizes this, but these kinds of physical restraints can have a long-lasting effect on an autistic child; on any child.
Matthew’s mother, Jeanie, took him out of school in March of 2008. She and her husband are now being charged with truancy by the school district …read more