NASHVILLE, Tenn. When a 5-year-old autistic boy came home from his Nashville public school with bruises and a bite mark, his parents sent him back with a recording device.
It captured a therapist slamming their son’s head on his desk, and a teacher using a martial arts technique that made him whimper and cry.
Now these and other parents are suing over their children’s treatment, hoping a federal judge will order the state of Tennessee to hold school districts accountable for complying with disability laws.
Nearly 40 years after federal laws began requiring schools to educate disabled students alongside their non-disabled peers as much as possible, many of these children are still channeled into separate and unequal educational programs, often because of serious behavioral challenges that come along with their disabilities.
Without enough training and resources to manage these behaviors, some teachers and their aides routinely isolate and restrain children —techniques that are supposed to be reserved for emergencies and last resorts —in ways that can become violent.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office found hundreds of allegations of abuse and even deaths associated with the use of restraints and seclusion in the nation’s public and private schools over two decades before 2009. Seven years later, Congress has yet to approve comprehensive legislation to limit these practices, which are disproportionately used on disabled children.
The National Disability Rights Network has done its own investigations and found little change. Students are continuing to be confined, tied up, pinned down, battered and nearly killed on a regular basis,” the nonprofit said in a 2012 report.
Jennifer, the mother of the 5-year-old, said they grew concerned as their son’s behavior changed from excited to anxious. His autism limits his speaking ability, but he managed to say, “I’ll die. No school,” she told The Associated Press. She spoke on the condition their last name not be used, to protect her son’s identity.
