Great NY Times Article on Restraining Kids at School

This week the New York Times had a very interesting article on restraining in school, called "Calm Down Or Else." Before reading this story, I actually thought that the use of restraint on children in school was reserved for situations in which someone's safety was at risk (i.e. a student attempting to injure himself or another student). In fact, schools use restraining as a disciplinary measure for behavior problems as minor as "noncompliance." Restraining is primarily used on students with disabilities that affect their behavior (for example autism, ADD, ADHD, cognitive impairment, psychiatric disorders).

Some examples of these disciplinary measures included in the article are a twelve year old held "face down on the floor, straddling him at his hips, and holding his hands behind his back," a 'takedown' holding a preteen with Asperger Syndrome on the floor "prone for 20 minutes until he stopped struggling," and "an 8-year-old with a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and mild mental retardation repeatedly locked in a 'seclusion room' alone, adjacent to the classroom." Students have actually been killed while being restrained by adults at school responsible for their care. I have personally known parents who have gone to court to try and prevent the school district from using physical restraining on their child.

The article tries to explain why these incidents are occurring. Compared to a decade ago, there are many more children identified as 'special education' students. Staff aren't trained to manage severe behavior situations, and yet they have to maintain safety in the classroom and teach their students. The use of physical restraint in schools has very little oversight, unlike nursing homes or psychiatric facilities, so most of these incidents of abuse are going unnoticed. The author concluded that school districts and state authorities need to provide adequate training and guidance on what disciplinary techniques are appropriate and safe in order to provide for students with special needs.

It pretty much goes without saying that using physical aggression on elementary age kids, some of whom can't even talk, is barbaric. This is coming from someone who has been kicked, punched, slapped, bitten, head-butted, chased, spat on, screamed at, intentionally urinated on, called every insult you know and probably a few you don't, and had the contents of my desk flung across my office, by kids and adults with developmental disabilities while at work. The job is hard, sometimes frustrating, and often low-paying. There will always be people with developmental disabilities who get frustrated and use aggression.

But. I have never put my hands on a person entrusted to my care with the intent to physically dominate them, frighten them, or perform a "takedown." There are almost always better or gentler solutions.

When I was just a little sprout (in the eighties!), in Indiana the local schools were just coming to the end of an era where paddling in schools was considered appropriate and encouraged. It's still legal in that state, but currently banned in the majority of US states. My elementary principal kept a paddle conspicuously visible in her office and, though it was rarely used, just the thought of it terrified us. Even the kids whose parents used corporal punishment at home were afraid of her. I can't imagine the fear that a child with a cognitive disability who doesn't understand the situation would feel for a large adult pinning them face down on a gym mat for up to twenty minutes at a time. Then every day at school the child must face the person who did that to them and try to have trust in that person, or face yet more physical punishment.

Now go read the article!

Warning: Your Head May Explode From Cuteness

From The Daily Mail comes a story (with pictures!) of Hope, a very tiny and adorable dog born without her front legs. An orthotist made a mold of her torso and fitted it with two prosthetic wheeled limbs. When she grows, she will need a new prosthesis made. The story has some great photos of Hope, her custom prosthetic, and the molding process. As I said, you have been warned that your head may explode from adorable puppy pics. Quoth the reporter, "This tiny puppy may have been born without front legs but there's no way that is holding her back."

Image: Small fluffy white puppy missing her front limbs. She has a brace on the front part of her torso which is attached to two bent plastic limbs with wheels on the ends.

Punk Band With Members With Developmental Disabilities: Heavy Load

Definitely click here to check out 'Heavy Load,' a punk band from the UK. From boingboing.net, we learn that the band's mission is "to demonstrate that disability rocks"! They also have a campaign (in the UK) called Stay Up Late, to help people with developmental disabilities advocate for themselves to be able to stay out late enough to go to a show. Most punk/rock/pop shows last until 11 or 12, but many adults with cognitive impairments aren't permitted or aren't able to stay out so late. Also check 'em out in the NY Times!

Check IFC for a rerun of their documentary, which aired on June 23rd. It's on my DVR and I am hoping to watch it soon!

Image: The punk band Heavy Load playing in a tent. Shown are two guys jamming on guitars and a drummer with Down Syndrome rocking out at a black drum set.

Resources for Including People With Developmental Disabilities in Religion: Adam's Pew Project

I wanted to share a site with lots of links to resources for including people with developmental disabilities in religion. Earlier I wrote about Adam Race, an autistic boy whose church obtained a restraining order to prevent him from attending Mass due to his autism-related behavior. Adam's family has created a website called Project Adam's Pew. The website includes this page of great resources. Many of the links are specific to Catholicism, but there are others for Christianity, Judaism, and general spirituality as well.
Publish Post

People With Disabilities In the Google Graphic Today!

Wow! Today Google's Homepage is celebrating the birth of Diego Velasquez with a special Google logo containing his painting "Las Meninas" (The Ladies-in-Waiting). It'll only be there for a day, so I have posted a copy above. Velasquez is one of my favorite painters, so pardon me while I geek out. Here's the painting, so you can see it a little closer:

There are all sorts of awesome things about this painting which I suggest you read about. I've seen it in real life at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. It's basically a painting of five-year-old La Infanta Margarita, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain (being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be: forced to marry a man who was both her maternal uncle and paternal cousin, Margarita had six children and died at the tender age of twenty-one).

Anyway, to the far right of the painting you will see two enanos (dwarfs), the German Maria Barbola (who is an achondroplasia dwarf) and the Italian Nicolas Pertusato. At that time in history, dwarfs were frequently forced to be a part of the royal court, serving as a jester or other entertainment due to their appearance. In this article I found the following quote:

...modern conceptions of dignity of merit are understood in terms of a struggle to excel in particular activities, and thus to overcome the risk of failure. More radically, Velázquez' portraits of dwarfs and the mentally disabled are argued to be expressive of dignity, not by finding a positive representation of the sitter's dignity, or to find scales of activities by which they can be positively assessed, but rather by grounding their dignity, negatively, in a protest against indignity and humiliation.

Through his art, Velasquez was lobbying for disability rights centuries before the movement really took off. According to this interesting PBS piece about dwarfs in art, Velasquez was the first to paint subjects with disabilities with the same warmth and humanity used for his royal subjects-other painters created disabled subjects "with a cold detachment that reflected the 16th and 17th century attitude toward the handicapped."

Velasquez painted more than ten dwarfs during his career, as well as subjects with developmental disabilities. To me, the beauty in his paintings really lies within the eyes. I'll share two more beautiful portraits with you:

Don Sebastian de Morra (an achondroplasia dwarf)


Francisco Lezcano (a young boy with dwarfism and a developmental disability)

I will leave you with a link to the beautiful paintings and photography of Tim Lowly. One of Mr. Lowly's main subjects is his daughter Temma, a young woman with a severe anoxic brain injury. His work is very powerful and his images will stay with you.

Dave has declared today Harry and Kevin Day! Go find out why. Now celebrate!