Author: Hilary

Indiana. IPS introduces new policy allowing limited force by teachers to break up fights

This policy is being implemented in response to a recent incident where a female student was attacked, thrown against lockers. Students had to break up the fight because teachers were prohibited from intervening due to school policy.

In light of this incident, the IPS has reconsidered the advisability of this policy stating, “We need a policy to ensure that we can create administrative guidelines and procedures around how staff is involved in terms of use of force,” IPS Superintendent Lewis Ferebee said.

The new policy would allow use of limited force by staff members to prevent a student from injuring themselves or others, interfering with a school activity or education, or damaging property.

HWC Spring 2015 Newsletter!

HWC News & Updates

Hello!  This HWC Newsletter focuses on the Horizon.  We will explore trends in managing challenging behavior; how science is finally catching up with what HWC has known for decades; new HWC projects and HWC’s advocacy regarding restraint regulations around the country.  We hope to inspire you to join our community.

56 % Reduction in number ofrestraints and injuriesRestraint graph statistic

Company experiences a 56% reduction in number of restraints and injuries one year after switching to HWC.

This experience is not unique, most schools, hospital and facilities that switch to HWC experience a 30-50% on average reduction in number of restraints and injuries.

One reason: HWC uses definitive not tentative touch.

Tentative v. Definitive Touch: How science is finally catching up with reality 

There is a distinction between tentative v. definitive touch that science is finally catching up with.  Science is finding that tentative touch overstimulates, excites  and further agitates someone whereas definitive touch creates safe-feeling, calm and secure therapeutic state of mind.  

A holding method that is tentative does not convey clear and safe parameters reflects and belies the fear, apprehension and absence of commitment of the person or people performing the hold. 

A hold like HWC’s PRT, communicates calmness and certainty and helps to reproduce a state of calm in the child and a more rapid return to emotional homeostasis and equilibrium.  In other words, a definitive touch hold performed by someone with a benign heart produces a more rapid return to a calm mind state.

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Current Events: Indiana Public Schools – what happens when school policy prevents teachers from stopping fights 

A girl was attacked at an Indianapolis Public School (“IPS”) by a male student.  A cell phone video captured the attack involving a male student viciously beating a girl while a teacher watches.

The teacher never intervenes because according to IPS policy, staffers are not allowed to put their hands on students.

Find out why IPS’s policy is both ill-advised and illegal.

Read more

Wave of States looking to enact laws regarding restraint and seclusion in schools

Legislation at the Federal level to regulate restraint and seclusion in schools has repeatedly failed.  

As a result states are being lobbied by advocacy groups to pass restraint laws.  The following states have recently proposed or enacted restraint laws: VA, AZ, CT and WA. 

Contact us to request a legal synopsis of restraint law in your state.

We want you – HWC Content Cooperative

WE WANT YOU – HWC CONTENT COOPERATIVE

Want to have your services featured or articles published on Handle With Care?

Here’s How –

We are launching a content cooperative that allows YOU to share your expertise, gain tons of exposure and get paid.

BECOMING A PART OF THE WRITERS COOPERATIVE

If you have content you want published and shared in the Education, Social Services, and Healthcare community – contact us. If your content is published on our blog we will pay you $50.

When we accept new content we reserve the right to edit, proof, produce or add graphics or images.  HWC reserves unlimited non-exclusive licensing to the content provided or will reserve copyright under a work for hire agreement.  

Currently we are especially looking for instructional articles and video in ABA, CBT, and PBIS.

We are also asking our clients for:
  • Statistics and impact of HWC’s program at your facility including restraint and injury statistics.
  • Impact of restraint laws on the number of restraints, injuries and use of law enforcement at your facility or school.
  • Testimonials
We also want to be responsive to our clients needs.  For instance, in light of the wave of state legislation, we have embarked on a Q & A Webinar series on the law and the use of restraint and seclusion in schools. We are also going to provide video showing how people who serve others in human services and education stay strong, recharge, stay engaged and care for themselves.
If there is content you would to see on our site, please contact us with your suggestions.

What happens when school policy prevents teachers from stopping fights: Indiana case study

Background: 

A girl was attached at an Indianapolis Public School: Northwest Community High School by a male student claiming he was bullied.

A cell phone video captured a violent fight involving a male student viciously beating a girl while a teacher watches. The beating continues for under a minute, with the male student pulling the girl’s hair, throwing her to the floor and repeatedly hitting her in the face.  Students (not adults) stop in to stop the attack.

The brutal fight, recorded on video, was in the school hallway Tuesday. Students say it was just one of seven fights at school that day.

That video shows a staff member, there when the fight started, scream at the students to stop.  The teacher never intervenes physically because, according to Indiana Public School (“IPS”) policy, staffers are not allowed to put their hands on students.

Full Story

Social Media and Parent Outrage after press reported the attack

After the press reported on the attack and lack of teacher intervention, there was a public outcry in the press, social media and the community about school policy.

IPS’s Policy Preventing Teachers from Intervening is unlawful, against public policy and can get the school sued

  • Schools cannot legally discipline or fire educators or any employee for acting in a manner consistent with state self defense and defense of others law.  If a teacher defies school policy and physically intervenes in a manner consistent with state self defense law, and the school tries to discipline or fire the teacher, the school can be sued as this is a violation of the teacher’s right to defend self, others and property.  The disciplinary action is a tort and violation of the employee’s civil rights.
  • If a teacher follows school policy and a student is hurt, the school can be liable for failure to protect.
  • Schools have a duty to protect and maintain a safe educational environment. Schools have a “special relationship” with students and act “in loco parentis for students in matters relating to school safety, education and discipline.” Ingram v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651 (1977).  Thus the duty to protect and provide education rests with the school.  A policy that interferes with this obligation and fails to protect students breaches this duty.
  • Schools have a duty to train staff in foreseeable events.  Schools fights are foreseeable.  Failure to intervene in a manner that is effective to prevent or mitigate bodily injury is a tort and a breach of the school’s duty.  Either the school needs to train its teachers or it needs to have on-site personnel that is trained to intervene.  If it was not for the students in this instance, if the girl was hurt and the fight not broken up, the school would have been sued.  Failure of the adult to intervene was an abdication of adult responsibility.
  • Indiana law regarding restraint and seclusion in schools states that schools are required to train staff in the “safe use of physical restraint… The law also provides that “Nothing in this chapter may be construed to prevent a school employee from stopping a physical altercation, acting to prevent physical harm to a student or another individual, or acting to address an emergency… whether or not the school employee has received training under this chapter.”
  • IPS schools and staff are not immune from suit if they follow a hands off policy.  Under Indiana law schools and school personnel have qualified immunity with respect to the adoption of an intervention/restraint plan in accordance with this law.  IPS’ school policy preventing teachers from physically intervening to prevent physical harm to a student or others is in direct conflict with Indiana law, and is outside the qualified immunity provided under this statute.  This means that IPS schools and employees are not immune if they follow IPS’s policy rather than State law.

See IC 35-41-3-2: Indiana defense of self, others and property laws; IC 20-33-8-8 through 20-33-8-11: Indiana Tort Law and In loco parentis

HWC’s Suggestion:

HWC cannot offer  legal advice.  We would suggest that when schools encounter conflicting laws or policies that they solicit the advice of Counsel licensed to practice in their State.  As an example, in light of Indiana’s self-defense and restraint laws, it does not appear that schools can tell teachers not to intervene when a person’s physical safety is at risk. Doing so would be a violation of the teacher’s natural and civil right to defense of self and others as codified in Indiana’s law, Indiana’s State and Federal Constitution and the Supreme Court.  Defense of self and others are non-waivable rights.  Further, Indiana’s restraint law specifically gives teachers the express ability to physically intervene when a person is in imminent danger of bodily injury.

School policies cannot contradict State law or Constitutional rights.

FL. Jacksonville teacher suspended for not intervening in kindergarten fight

A northeast Florida kindergarten teacher named Rita Baci has been suspended for allegedly making multiple video recordings of a child beating up other children without intervening.

But some believe it’s the education system itself that makes it difficult for teachers to intervene in school fights.

On three separate occasions, the teacher used her smartphone to make a video of a male student hurting others in the class. According to the Florida Times-Union, the videos show the boy smacking another boy “about his face and body several times, kicking another student who was attempting to hide under a table, and punching and slapping a third student.” The kindergarten teacher did not intervene in any of these school fights.

How HWC holding methods create a calm mind state – faster

Forty years ago, when I was a young psychiatric technician working on an acute locked psychiatric inpatient unit, I came to realize that physically holding someone in a way that was safe, painless and effectively limited purposeful movement was ultimately reassuring and resulted in a rapid calming effect on patients who had been extremely excited and agitated just moments before.  I postulated that there was some primitive neurophysiological process at work that was related to the restricted movement, confinement and safety of the womb environment.  I also concluded that the process was likely the same one involved in the ancient practice of swaddling infants to produce calmness.

 Tentative Touch vs Definitive Touch

I later made a distinction between, what I call, “tentative touch”, which can excite, overstimulate and further agitate someone and “definitive touch”, which is the quality of touch inherent with a firm-feeling and secure therapeutic holding method.  Tentative touch reflects and belies the fear, apprehension and absence of commitment of the person or people performing the hold.  It produces more anxiety and the continued agitation of the person being held and the loss of his confidence in the people involved in the hold.  Conversely, a hold that exudes definitive touch communicates calmness and certainty and helps to reproduce a state of calm in the child and a more rapid return to emotional homeostasis and equilibrium.  Maintaining a calm affect neutral (and decidedly non-punitive) emotional state by staff and faculty is absolutely critical in helping the child experience the hold as safe and that the hold is being done ‘for’ him rather than ‘to’ him.  In other words, a firm or definitive physical hold performed by someone with a benign heart can produce a more rapid return to a calm mind state.

 The effect of definitive touch on the therapeutic relationship

Some of the holds that I performed with adults on our unit back in the ‘70s became remarkable pivot points in my relationships with patients who had been intractable and unable to form anything other than the most superficial relationships with other helping professionals.  Some of our patients experienced a complete course correction in their commitment to treatment which began once the hold was withdrawn.  It is really a two-step process.  We temporarily assume control until there is a return to a calm mind state.  Once a calm state has been achieved, we relinquish control back to the patient, client or student.  When the cycle is complete, the credit for his return to a positive state of safety and calm is transferred by him to you, the helping person, in a way that fundamentally changes the nature of your relationship with that child or adult moving forward.  An “attachment” takes place.

 Unfortunately, the perception that some professionals and the public have of the therapeutic value of physical restraint has been completely lost over the last decade or so.  Physical restraint is now being promoted as inherently and irreparably damaging and traumatic, especially to special needs and autistic students.  A publicly-funded advocacy industry is busy at work instigating parents, lobbying for draconian regulations and generally interfering with your ability to provide for the physical and emotional well-being of your students in crisis.  It threatens the safety of everyone except for the advocacy attorneys who are driving this train from the comfort and security of their law offices.  Besides being so embarrassingly wrong on policy and disingenuous about the actual constellation of laws governing restraint usage, they are also totally wrong on the science.  There is a serious body of research on the use of “pressure” to create a state of calm in children with autism, ADHD and other patients, clients and students prone to sensory processing difficulty and stimulation overload.  To be clear, pressure does not mean pressure or weight on the person’s chest, diaphragm or anything else that would restrict respiration or cause discomfort.

 What does the research show?

 Well, it confirms my observations about the calming effect of physical holding, its relationship to swaddling and the more contemporary use of weighted blankets with autistic children.  The single unifying feature of these modalities is their ability to create “deep touch pressure”.

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., is a brilliant self-described autistic adult and researcher who built, what she calls, a “squeeze machine”, also referred to as a “pressure machine” or “hug machine”, for herself as a teenager five decades ago in order to overcome her own problem of “oversensitivity to touch” and to “allay” her anxiety.  In 1992. Dr. Grandin published a paper titled “Calming Effects of Deep Touch Pressure in Patients with Autistic Disorder, College Students and Animals“ in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology. 

What is especially interesting is that, by using a pressure-producing mechanical appliance in a study that included autistic, “normal” and animal subjects, she prevented the human relationship from contaminating her scientific conclusions; something that I was unable to do in making my own anecdotal observations.  In my view, physical holding is both an extension of the therapeutic relationship and a neurophysiological process that can be replicated scientifically.

What does this mean for you and your students in the classroom?

While everyone understands the importance of using a physical holding method that is medically and orthopedically safe, in light of the contemporary science behind deep touch pressure and autism, you also need a physical holding method that provides for the firmness and depth of touch that many autistic and ADHD children need to integrate and process sensory input. 

Using a physical intervention method that is able to restore a calm mind state more quickly is even more advantageous for very young children, when the brain’s circuitry is most vulnerable and most pliable.  A faster-cycling “recovery arc” allows the child to more quickly release the fear, anxiety and panic that drives his maladaptive behaviors and reduces the total amount of time the child is spending in the state that is producing them.  By shortening a young child’s exposure to these events, you can diminish the extent to which his maladaptive and pathological behaviors become more and more ingrained over time.  Timely and appropriate physical intervention when it is needed in combination with positive behavioral supports and the other important elements of his IEP/IBP can only improve the child’s functioning and long term prognosis.

If your current physical holding method is ineffective, tentative or it does not produce the firmness of touch necessary to reliably produce a faster recovery arc, you should consider replacing it with a method that does.

Bruce Chapman, Founder & President of HWC

HWC is the only company offering training specifically tailored to pre-school and early elementary students.

CA. PBIS program gets mixed reviews

The Californian reveals only one concrete finding about a new approach to school discipline being widely embraced by Bakersfield school districts: The jury is still out. Just as many respondents, 38.2 percent of the 69 who answered, feel PBIS is not effective at all at improving student behavior as those who think it is somewhat effective.

More than 40% of the educators said that PBIS has made the school more dangerous. That PBIS has let to restricted consequences and more disciplinary problems.

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The above is consistent with other studies that PBIS has not shown any measurable change in a school’s safety climate.

 In one study included in the peer reviewed journal, Education &Treatment of Children, there appeared to be an increase in student’s social skills, but there was no change in the overall safety of the school
(Sprague, et al., 2001). In a dissertation study of schools that implemented PBIS and schools that
did not implement PBIS, Hodnett (2008) noted no reduction in ODRs in terms of defining safe
schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National. Law Enforcement and Arrests Replace Teachers and School Discipline

This is a great must read article from the Wall Street Journal. With School Boards and Education Departments passing guidance, rules, regulations and laws preventing teachers from intervening or removing students from the classroom for altercations, property damage, verbal disruptions, what did these boards, departments, schools and disability lobbyists (aka advocates) think would happen.

Intervention is going to take place. Either teachers will be given the ability to intervene for common disciplinary problems, or law enforcement will be called.

A generation ago, schoolchildren caught fighting in the corridors, sassing a teacher or skipping class might have ended up in detention. Today, there’s a good chance they will end up in police custody.

Stephen Perry, now 18 years old, was trying to avoid a water balloon fight in 2013 when he was swept up by police at his Wake County, N.C., high school; he revealed he had a small pocketknife and was charged with weapons possession. Rashe France was a 12-year-old seventh-grader when he was arrested in Southaven, Miss., charged with disturbing the peace on school property after a minor hallway altercation.

In Texas, a student got a misdemeanor ticket for wearing too much perfume. In Wisconsin, a teen was charged with theft after sharing the chicken nuggets from a classmate’s meal—the classmate was on lunch assistance and sharing it meant the teen had violated the law, authorities said. In Florida, a student conducted a science experiment before the authorization of her teacher; when it went awry she received a felony weapons charge.

Over the past 20 years, prompted by changing police tactics and a zero-tolerance attitude toward small crimes, authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests, the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates. Nearly one out of every three American adults are on file in the FBI’s master criminal database.

This arrest wave, in many ways, starts at school. Some jurisdictions are so overwhelmed that they are experimenting with routing schoolchildren into specially designed courts that would keep first-time offenders from being saddled with an arrest record. Others have passed new laws or policies to dial back police involvement in school discipline.

Read More

WA. Parents of boy repeatedly bullied at school for years sue for 1.2 million

A seventh grader at Enumclaw’s Thunder Mountain Middle School, Andrew had grown withdrawn, listless and depressed. Once a model student, he’d lost interest in school activities by March 2012.

Andrew had been beaten up, again. A group of students who had been tormenting him attacked him at the social, bloodying his nose and bending his dental work while recording the abuse on a camera phone.

He and his parents claim the bullying continued unabated for two years. The March 2012 incident was so bad the family reported the attack to Enumclaw police, but the harassment continued.

Chis and Andrew’s mother Tonya claim their son received nothing but lip service from school officials despite more than 30 complaints of abuse. Tonya said Enumclaw Superintendent Mike Nelson suggested she homeschool Andrew – by her account, Nelson said the boy’s grades were good enough that doing so wouldn’t hurt his future – or move him to an alternative school.

On Wednesday, they took the first step toward filing a lawsuit against the school, which they intend to pursue vigorously. Attorney Yvonne Ward said her clients are seeking $1.2 million in damages from the school district and are prepared to take their claims to a King County jury as soon as possible.

Chief among those claims is the family’s contention that Andrew’s abusers were allowed to bully him freely while he was left undefended. The district did not return a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.

A log provided by the school shows Andrew reported abuse nearly twice a month for two years. The incidents ranged from name calling to physical violence, which left Andrew afraid of school.

It was only Andrew’s departure for high school that stopped the bullying.

Now a sophomore at Enumclaw High School, Andrew said he’s slowly regaining his trust in school. After a stern letter from Ward, the high school administrators pledged to see that Andrew was treated fairly; he said they’ve been good to their word so far.

Two years of abuse shook Andrew’s foundation.

Andrew’s parents want Thunder Mountain Middle School to change.

“There’s a culture at this middle school that doesn’t protect the victim, and almost seems to blame the victim,” Chris said. “I want to see a change in that school, a change in the culture of that school.”

For other parents whose children are being bullied, Tonya’s advice was simple.

“Fight for your kids.”

CA. Los Angeles Judge Objects to School Police Getting Millions Reserved for Students: Routine School Disciplinary Matters Should Be Handled By Schools, Not Police

Los Angeles’ top juvenile court judge is objecting to a planned diversion of $13 million to school police there from state funds earmarked to provide special learning assistance to disadvantaged kids.

In a June 6th letter to the Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles County Presiding Juvenile Court Judge Michael Nash said this particular pot of money should not be diverted to support the L.A. district’s own school police force, which has an annual budget of around $57 million.

Nash expressed “great respect” for recent efforts to reduce school suspensions and referrals to police, but said he did “not see a reasonable nexus between law enforcement and specifically improving the educational experience and outcomes for our most vulnerable student populations.”

“On the contrary,” the judge said, “there has been a wealth of research that indicates that aggressive security measures produce alienation and mistrust among students which, in turn, can disrupt the learning environment.”

“This explains why, as part of a nationwide discipline reform process that has gained significant traction of late, there is a specific focus on reducing police involvement in routine school discipline matters,” Nash wrote.

Nash presides over one of the biggest juvenile courts in the country and was a recent president of the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges. In that role he also wrote to the White House expressing concerns about schools rushing to obtain federal money to put more school police on campuses.

Judge Nash has been involved in efforts in Los Angeles to rein in the use of school police on campuses; practices were leading to the annual ticketing of tens of thousands  students for tardiness, truancy, schoolyard fights and other minor infractions.

Nash argues that excessive use of police in essentially school discipline matters — and matters he said were better addressed through counseling and family support — were contributing to a “school-to-prison pipeline” putting kids at risk of greater, not less, trouble with the criminal justice system.

Other interest groups concerned with the school to prison pipeline in California include:  Children’s Defense Fund, ACLU of Southern California, Youth Justice Coalition, CADRE, Community Rights Campaign of the Labor Community Strategy Center in LA and Public Counsel (the nation’s largest pro bono law firm focused on rolling back school-police ticketing in Los Angeles), National Council of Juvenile Court Judges and the Center for Public Integrity.

Other California School Districts considering using money reserved for vulnerable students to supplement school police include Sacramento, Long Beach and Kern Union High School District, a Central Valley district with a record of high rates of student expulsion or transfers.

Handle With Care will be writing the California Unified School Districts and interest groups mentioned above.  What is happening in California is that the Counties rather than the school are dictating policy and programming, and the policies and programming being provided are not meeting the real needs of the schools.  As a result the counties have unintentionally created a school to prison pipeline. What needs to happen is that the power to choose programming needs to revert back to the Local School Boards and Schools.  The fact is that the prison pipeline will dry up as soon as schools regain and demand the right to choose programming and policy that suits the real needs of the school, its educators and its students.