From Inquest:
“You should just be a normal boy. Why can’t you be a normal boy,” Julie said, repeating the words a school aide yelled at her son. Julie cried uncontrollably as she described their experience at a school in Texas. Her son Alex, a ninth-grade student who loved playing with Pokémon cards, had been diagnosed with autism and oppositional defiant disorder. Like any parent, Julie sent Alex to school with the belief that teachers would help him gain valuable skills and provide access to important opportunities. Instead, a teaching assistant disregarded Alex’s diagnoses and pinned him down with his face pressed against the ground. School staff also placed Alex in a small, locked room countless times a day, which pushed him to run away from school on several occasions. The U.S. Department of Education describes these tactics as restraint and seclusion respectively.
When Julie confronted the staff at Alex’s school, the teaching assistant made a chilling statement that echoed in Julie’s mind. Julie cleared her voice, erased all the emotion from her face, and imitated the teaching assistant’s coldhearted demeanor as she recited the declaration. “We see our students going into the world and accomplishing great things. But it doesn’t seem like your son will be able to do that.” I wondered what the teaching assistant’s comments signified about the school environment for families of children with disabilities, and how it affected Julie, Alex, and their family. My research focuses on the experiences of families like Julie and Alex as they navigate schools that use restraint and seclusion in ways that harm children with disabilities.
When many of the parents I interviewed watched their child leave for school in the morning, they assumed their child would be in class learning throughout the day. Instead, they were—as one child told his mom—serving time in a seclusion room. Consider how a child interprets “serving time”—not inside a prison or jail, but a public school. Visualize being a child who is locked inside a small room—usually the size of your bathroom. You push the door with all your strength and kick it repeatedly. The door will not open. Continue reading >>>
|
|
|
|
