Autisic boy locked in concrete scream room; left with broken hand by teachers

a reply to: Anyafaj

That is a truly awful and despicable way to treat a young girl with autism. I am shocked and truly sorry to hear that Anyafaj

There is a growing movement to globaly reclassify autism from a mental disorder (this was from the 60s/70s days when refrigerator mothers were incorrectly blamed for causing autism) and in many cases it has been reclassified and recognised as a neurological disorder but even the law still needs to catch up in places. It's a slow process but doesn't excuse the way your daughter was treated.
In the Uk a child with autism or other developmental delay can be classified as a child up to the age of 21 and receive child services up to that time to ensure they are appropriate. Just goes to show the differences. Most kids with autism are developemtnally delayed so they mature later and this also needs to be recognised when they are engaging with supprot services.
I am certain your daughter woudl thrive given the correct support and understanding of her condition. She is lucky to have an understanding parent I hope she is doing ok now?

listen whatever the underlying causes and "communication errors" they are having, the fact is some of them are making violent threats and physical attacks against themselves and others. Yes we could beg the caretakers to waste an entire day on that single student ignoring all others in a vein attempt to calm them. Or simply remove the one violent and hostile distraction from the classroom and place them where they cannot hurt themselves or others. How hard is that? I have been in a restraint chair for a duration before (drunk and disorderly i jail). When I finally regained my sobriety, I realized that it was probably a good idea.

Who knows what other charges I would have caught if I were allowed to just continue freely walking about being uncooperative and hostile?? Restraint chairs are not torture, I really dont care what anyone says. I been in one and I did not feel tortured. Those who dont want to be honest and admit that a child's violent behavior, especially a teenager has, can, and will cause great bodily harm if not properly restrained.

And if this child were in a restraint chair, his hand injury would not have even have been possible.

a reply to: DYepes

Listen to me please, you don't have an understanding of autism and that's ok but trust people that do - this child was treated wrongly. The care-givers work in a school for the disabled, it is part of their job to ensure the safety and wellbeing of each indivdual child, not to lock them up when they are acting out. Anyone who has been a carer in a special needs school will know this. Simple.

This school is clearly not providing adequate care. They do not have an understanding of why it is wrong to lock children up when they are distressed. It makes the carers job easier, that's why they do it. It doesn't make it right.

The way you put quotes around 'communication errors' makes me think you don't care much for the very real communication difficulties these kids have due to autism but perhaphs I am picking you up wrong, forgive me if I am. I have tried to explain why seclusion rooms are wrong, here is a linkto further illustrate the points people in this thread are trying to make - it is not just an issue in the US, bad carers exist everywhere and cases like these highlight this and make calls to action.

a reply to: DYepes

I should add that agression is a way of communicating one's needs when communication is limited. Again any professional carer should know this. Even someone biting a carer should be seen as communication - they are frustrated, they want out of a situation, they don't want to go where you are taking them, they need to pass bowels but can't verbalize this... the list can go on. It's called 'acting out' and any professional should be taught descalation techniques and alternative communication methods such as flash cards etc can be used.

But the important thing to realsie is this is a child who should ahve a care support package in place, therefore, the staff working with him know him, know his triggers, know how to avoid an escalation. There are usually four stages to consider for autistic kids who may act out - identification, understanding, management and prevention.

The carers in this case just work by the fourth stage.

The other stages are holistic, meaning past incidents can be logged to identify triggers to understand why the kid acted out and to then manage this so as to prevent it happening again in the future.

It's simple and it's called holistic care but this isn't happening here. You cannot argue with that I'm afraid.

originally posted by: WilsonWilson
Schools and teachers cant be trained to deal with these issues they are not the police to defend themselves and other children from violence. As soon as children become aggressive they should be removed from the school by their parents.
You cant force an aggressive child to calm down.

They can actually as they specifically work in a school for the disabled. It's a fundamental part of the job. They shouldn't be trained as police, hell no. But as holistic carers. You can get an aggressive child to calm down if you understand their disability, how it affects them, their needs, their triggers and how best to support them when they escalate. Carers should know this about every person they support but it is clear from this story and many others that this doesn't happen.

That's the problem here. Not the kids. I agree that, if the child has the mental capacity to understand, suspension from school can be used as a consequence ie you keep behaving this way and you will be suspended. But not all disabled kids will have the mnetal capacity to appreciate these consequences. So it is not a simple case of chuck them back to their parents I'm afraid.

a reply to: Anyafaj

My son has Aspergers and some other related issues.

Now, as far as I know, this sort of thing does not happen in SCHOOLS here in Britain, although there are residential institutions, which do have problems with staff who display total indifference to, and willingness to inflict suffering on kids and young adults. Either way, if my son was even verbally abused by someone in a position of power, I would find the guilty party, and make hamburger meat out of their face flesh. If I heard that my son had been LOCKED UP LIKE AN ANIMAL, while screaming in agony from a BROKEN HAND, I would terminate the bastards, pull their heads clean off and shower in the arterial mess that followed.

One should not be allowed to work in education of any sort, at any level, if one is capable of the sort of vile stupidity or wilful callousness, exhibited by the people running the show at the location around which this story revolves.

originally posted by: DYepes
Ok anyone with an autistic kid (dont have any but I have had experience seeing the horrible behavior they are capable of.) knows how violent and loud they can become when upset. If my child were behaving that way, I would have no problem allowing the school to send him to an isolation room as long as they used a restraint chair similar to the ones in jail. This would ensure they cant even move, let alone hurt themselves on the walls or bang their head until unconscious.

Heck I would approve that for my kids now if they became violent in school at all anyways.

I am not against an isolation room, but I am against a concrete cell with no monitoring.

I'd say most kids with anger issue, are so out of frustration. Being locked up is not the answer.

They need a cushioned cell and a trained monitor talking to them through their outburst --- via close circuit or view "window".

They should never just be left alone. That's criminal.

originally posted by: daftpink
a reply to: Anyafaj

That is a truly awful and despicable way to treat a young girl with autism. I am shocked and truly sorry to hear that Anyafaj

There is a growing movement to globaly reclassify autism from a mental disorder (this was from the 60s/70s days when refrigerator mothers were incorrectly blamed for causing autism) and in many cases it has been reclassified and recognised as a neurological disorder but even the law still needs to catch up in places. It's a slow process but doesn't excuse the way your daughter was treated.
In the Uk a child with autism or other developmental delay can be classified as a child up to the age of 21 and receive child services up to that time to ensure they are appropriate. Just goes to show the differences. Most kids with autism are developemtnally delayed so they mature later and this also needs to be recognised when they are engaging with supprot services.
I am certain your daughter woudl thrive given the correct support and understanding of her condition. She is lucky to have an understanding parent

I hope she is doing ok now?

She is now living in a group home with 3 other Autism girls and lives an hour and a half away from me. She comes home on the weekends and is doing very well. She got first place in Special Olympic swim category in her school. At her school, she is eligible for services until she is 25. Or until she choses to terminate before then. For obvious reasons she doesn't like to talk about her time in jail or at the psych wards. She knows I'm here when she needs an ear. In the past, she was having outbursts because she was mad at her father leaving and didn't know how to express that. Her father cheated on me, and not only that, but took her with him when he went to do it. Something like that would confuse any child, let alone a special needs one. Especially one that worshipped the ground he walked on. She actually told the psych nurse that "Children beat their mommies to make their daddies come home." Of course the psych doctor told me it was all my fault. Worse was, I couldn't get her services because there was a year long backlog! So for the state, it was easier to throw her in a psych ward or jail.

I'm just glad she's in a better place now. She hardly has a breakdown now. Once in a blue moon she'll have one, maybe two. Our goal now is to graduate high school and enter community college, she wants to be a veterinarian, and work on moving back home. that one we're playing by ear.