Show Some Restraint

Sheesh. How do you defend restraint techniques that result in the deaths of two teenagers? Why wasn't the story all over the news?I guess they figured that our society doesn't need those kinds of teenagers anyway, so their lives are of less consequence.

My kid had to be restrained a few times, but her former elementary had strict rules about it, and they were pretty civil with her as far as restraint goes. That doesn't mean she wasn't traumatized. The whole school experience was traumatic enough for her without four adults crowding around her, gripping her arms and telling her to calm down. Once she got under the principal's desk, she felt much better, and they let her stay there until I could come. I always knew when it happened.

I have an acquaintance who's non-verbal son came home from school with a bruise on his chest when he was about 5. His behavior had deteriorated in dramatic ways after he began public school. One day the principal called his mother in to explain to her that the special ed teacher had hit her son so hard on the back of his head that his chin had bruised his chest. His mother believes that this kind of abuse had gone on for a while, but because her son couldn't say anything, nobody knew. She homeschools now.