LETTER: School district should ban dangerous restraint, seclusion practices
Dec. 16, 2022To the Community:
I encourage the Harwood Unified Union School District School Board to prohibit prone restraints, supine restraints and seclusion. These prohibitions would align with several states that have laws prohibiting those interventions as well as proposed federal legislation, The Keeping All Students Safe Act. The United States Department of Education’s “Restraint and Seclusion: Resource Document” states that “prone (i.e., lying face down) restraints or other restraints that restrict breathing should never be used because they can cause serious injury or death.” The document is even linked on the Vermont Agency of Education’s website.
During the Dec. 5 restraint and seclusion school board subcommittee meeting, the committee added the following language to its draft policy regarding prone and supine restraints: “Restrictions on the use of prone or supine restraint and seclusion in only last-resort matters, taking into account the safety of the student or others. Any action(s) should be performed in trauma and stress informed practices.”
This board action does nothing. All restraints are already required to be used only in last-resort matters. Prone and supine restraints are not trauma-informed practices. Simply adding the words ``trauma-informed” does not make it trauma-informed. The fact that prone and supine restraints are dangerous and traumatic should be clearly stated in the policy.
A 2021 study of restraint fatalities conducted by the Residential Child Care Project in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research found that out of 63 fatalities related to physical restraint, 38 happened in a prone position. A confluence of factors contributing to the deaths is identified in each fatality, including organizations that did not understand that the techniques are dangerous.
Language used by the school district or contracted service providers that may give the impression that restraint is safe or therapeutic should be intentionally avoided as it only increases the danger for our students. The policy should state clearly that all restraints pose significant risks and should be used only when there is imminent risk of serious bodily injury. Every contractor or employee that is trained in restraints must understand the risks involved.
Brian Dalla Mura
Duxbury
A former HUUSD School Board member, Dalla Mura submitted a similar letter to the HUUSD School Board.
The school board’s Restraint and Seclusion Policy Committee meeting agendas and minutes can be found on the HUUSD.org Board page under Workgroups and Committees. Video recordings are on the board’s YouTube channel.