Parents of Churchill HS Student with Autism Sue After Child is Restrained, Put in Handcuffs

[Anonymous]

Maybe the parents should consider homeschooling for a while.

[Anonymous]

I have a special needs child, and while my gut reaction is to defend the child, I do understand that sometimes restraints are necessary to ensure everyone's safety.

However, I am stopped short by the parents making the effort to sue. Special needs are so EXPENSIVE to manage, the great majority of families are just scraping by with all the appointments, therapies, and tutors they're paying for. This gives MCPS a huge and unfair advantage over all service and placement decisions, because parents usually cannot afford to sue, or challenge school decisions for long.

Perhaps this family is wealthy. Or perhaps what happened on that bus is so egregious that the parents are rightly outraged and are doing anything they can to push back against their son's mistreatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

Agree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

Agree.

What do you suggest, that they return the kid home?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well what are they supposed to do? Just because someone has a disability doesn't mean they get to be a danger to themselves and others. They clearly thought it was a legitimate safety concern or they wouldn't have immediately called the police.

They ALSO have a right to protect themselves and an obligation to do whatever they can to protect the other students. They are also special needs students who might react in different ways to an out of control situation on the bus.

It's different if they were hitting him or if they had immediately restrained him due to his disability when he first entered the bus. But just restraining him until police get there after he started to have a physical outburst? Clearly very reasonable and appropriate behavior.

This exactly. As long as they did the restraint in a CPI-approved method, I don't see the issue here. Physical restraint is appropriate when a child is an imminent danger to hurt themselves or someone else. You cannot stand by and try to sweet-talk them down or use a token board when someone is getting injured or there's about to be a traffic accident. On a school bus, there is no ability to "leave the room" to let them deescalate. You have the inherent danger of a moving vehicle, and the safety of the other students to consider. What if the student grabbed the wheel or attacked the driver and the bus crashed? What if another student got injured? Then what would all of you be saying? On a moving school bus, your list of options is short and you may have to judge and act quickly. I'm not ready to condemn the staff based on that parent complaint. There's always another side of the story.

I also question why the parent put the child on the bus at all. From the school end, if we have a child acting out who we think is at risk of a serious outburst on the way home (very rare, but it happens a handful of times a year), we call the parent to come pick them up due to safety concerns. They don't get on the bus. Precisely to avoid a situation like this, where you have a student melting down, trapped in a moving vehicle with other vulnerable children who cannot leave the situation the way you could clear a classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the parents should consider homeschooling for a while.

Maybe you should learn something about the mandate to provide children with a Free and Appropriate public education before writing stupid posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

Agree.

What do you suggest, that they return the kid home?

Do you really think that Someone who is supposedly has training in special needs shouldn’t have a backup plan for when a kid has a bad day? This incident should not have escalated in this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have worked with younger students who have Autism and who are non-verbal. Unless you have seen the tantrums that children with that combination can have, you may not understand what an intense, scary situation it presents. It is much, much different than a typical child having a tantrum! I cannot imagine trying to deal with a high school age child, on a bus, who is raging; it would pose a safety issue for everyone on that bus!

Every special ed teacher or paraeducator I know (and I know dozens) has been bitten, kicked, punched, hit, slapped, or knocked down by a student. Often, they end up having to have physical therapy for injuries -- and I am talking about injuries caused by elementary-age students! The ones who have worked with middle and high school students always have scars and can tell you stories that will make you wonder how they can continue going to work every day. Dealing with special ed students is not an easy job! It is dangerous! And despite any training one can be given, it will always be dangerous!


I think before you all make judgements, you should wait for the facts of the case to come out and not be so quick to assume wrongdoing. Unless you have been in a similar situation, you have NO IDEA of how you would react!!

I absolutely agree with this. It seems like every year we get more and more intense behavioral issues, with larger class sizes/ case loads and no increase in staffing. It's a difficult, dangerous job and I don't feel like the school districts care much about my safety or the children's. over half of the people I started with have left special education in less than a decade. I don't even know if more money and training would keep good people in the profession. It's just so exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have worked with younger students who have Autism and who are non-verbal. Unless you have seen the tantrums that children with that combination can have, you may not understand what an intense, scary situation it presents. It is much, much different than a typical child having a tantrum! I cannot imagine trying to deal with a high school age child, on a bus, who is raging; it would pose a safety issue for everyone on that bus!

Every special ed teacher or paraeducator I know (and I know dozens) has been bitten, kicked, punched, hit, slapped, or knocked down by a student. Often, they end up having to have physical therapy for injuries -- and I am talking about injuries caused by elementary-age students! The ones who have worked with middle and high school students always have scars and can tell you stories that will make you wonder how they can continue going to work every day. Dealing with special ed students is not an easy job! It is dangerous! And despite any training one can be given, it will always be dangerous!


I think before you all make judgements, you should wait for the facts of the case to come out and not be so quick to assume wrongdoing. Unless you have been in a similar situation, you have NO IDEA of how you would react!!

I messed up the formatting

I absolutely agree with this. It seems like every year we get more and more intense behavioral issues, with larger class sizes/ case loads and no increase in staffing. It's a difficult, dangerous job and I don't feel like the school districts care much about my safety or the children's. over half of the people I started with have left special education in less than a decade. I don't even know if more money and training would keep good people in the profession. It's just so exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

Agree.

What do you suggest, that they return the kid home?

If you had actually read the article, then you would know the mother said her child was already “stressed and uneasy.” She should’ve kept him home instead of sending her child to school in that mindset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

The article didn't specify if the child was riding the bus to school or riding the bus home from school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well what are they supposed to do? Just because someone has a disability doesn't mean they get to be a danger to themselves and others. They clearly thought it was a legitimate safety concern or they wouldn't have immediately called the police.

They ALSO have a right to protect themselves and an obligation to do whatever they can to protect the other students. They are also special needs students who might react in different ways to an out of control situation on the bus.

It's different if they were hitting him or if they had immediately restrained him due to his disability when he first entered the bus. But just restraining him until police get there after he started to have a physical outburst? Clearly very reasonable and appropriate behavior.

This exactly. As long as they did the restraint in a CPI-approved method, I don't see the issue here. Physical restraint is appropriate when a child is an imminent danger to hurt themselves or someone else. You cannot stand by and try to sweet-talk them down or use a token board when someone is getting injured or there's about to be a traffic accident. On a school bus, there is no ability to "leave the room" to let them deescalate. You have the inherent danger of a moving vehicle, and the safety of the other students to consider. What if the student grabbed the wheel or attacked the driver and the bus crashed? What if another student got injured? Then what would all of you be saying? On a moving school bus, your list of options is short and you may have to judge and act quickly. I'm not ready to condemn the staff based on that parent complaint. There's always another side of the story.

I also question why the parent put the child on the bus at all. From the school end, if we have a child acting out who we think is at risk of a serious outburst on the way home (very rare, but it happens a handful of times a year), we call the parent to come pick them up due to safety concerns. They don't get on the bus. Precisely to avoid a situation like this, where you have a student melting down, trapped in a moving vehicle with other vulnerable children who cannot leave the situation the way you could clear a classroom.

First, the police restrained the student. They used handcuffs.

Second, the article didn't specify if the child was riding to school or home from school. If the child was having a bad day at school, I agree that the school set him up for failure. The parent should have been called to pick him up at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

The article didn't specify if the child was riding the bus to school or riding the bus home from school.

The mother put him on the bus if she was able to notice her child was “stressed and uneasy.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

The article didn't specify if the child was riding the bus to school or riding the bus home from school.

The mother put him on the bus if she was able to notice her child was “stressed and uneasy.”

+1
I have a child with ADHD and several times we’ve been on the way to a group therapy session for speech or something else and decided not to do it because it would not have been a favorable outcome for my student, the therapists, or the other students.

That’s just how it goes with SN, unfortunately. I could force it of course, since it’s our “right”, but a negative experience really doesn’t help anyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did she put him on the bus when he was "stressed and uneasy" seems like setting the kid up for failure.

The article didn't specify if the child was riding the bus to school or riding the bus home from school.

The mother put him on the bus if she was able to notice her child was “stressed and uneasy.”

She didn't say she was the one who noticed the behavior. Reread the article.