Letter explains schools' use of
Body Sox on pre-kindergarteners
December 15, 2006
By Thomas C. Tobin
Pinellas school officials are
sending letters home with about 600 prekindergarten children after
teachers placed a boy inside a therapeutic fabric device, prompting
a complaint from his parents.
The letters describe how the
district uses the Body Sox, a stretchy bag made of thin, colorful
fabric. It is sometimes used to help calm children, boost their
creativity and improve "awareness of their body in space," the
district says.
It is not used to discipline or
restrain children, said Carol Thomas, an assistant superintendent.
The Body Sox is used in 11 of the
34 prekindergarten classrooms that blend disabled and nondisabled
children. In three of those classrooms, it is available for use by
nondisabled children. The 4-year-old boy whose parents complained is
not disabled.
The letters urge parents to call
with questions or notify a teacher if they have a problem with the
Body Sox.
The complaint came after the boy's
mother, Jennifer Holt, arrived at Pinellas Central Elementary last
Friday to pick him up and saw him in the Body Sox. She laughed at
first, thinking he was playing a game of dressup.
But the moment took a serious turn
when she realized her son was crying and a teacher's aide asked her
not to laugh, Holt said. The aide said her son had been "extra
bouncy" that day.
According to Holt, district
officials expressed regret and the couple asked them to notify other
parents about the Body Sox. But when they said they needed to
investigate first, the Holts turned to BayNews 9, which this week
aired a story about the boy.
On several Web sites, Body Sox are
alternately marketed as a toy, a theatrical gift and a therapeutic
tool effective with autistic children.
Its users "find themselves in a
private domain that lures them into kinesthetic exploration," one
Web site says. "They become enraptured as they begin to understand
and explore the three-dimensional space they individually occupy."
The school district has used the
Body Sox for years, and this is the first time anyone has
complained, Thomas said.
The letter says children are asked
if they want to use the Body Sox. She said district therapists
recently attended a statewide training that included use of the Body
Sox.
The Holts' son was asked if he
wanted to use the Body Sox and said yes, Thomas said. She said the
boy did not cry until his mother arrived. "It feels like a big hug,"
she said.
Holt said it felt punitive.
The Holts' complaint has prompted a
district investigation of the teacher and the teacher's aide in the
boy's class. Both are longtime employees with good records, said
Jade Moore, executive director of the Pinellas teachers union, which
is representing the two today during questioning by the district's
Office of Professional Standards.
"I'm absolutely convinced that they
did nothing wrong," Moore said. "It was (the teacher's) call that
she wanted to use it to calm things down. ... It's certainly an
improvement over timeout."
Holt said she has since transferred
her son to a school that uses timeouts, not Body Sox. She also fears
the episode has given people a skewed impression of her son: "He's
really not an unruly child. I don't know of any 4-year-old that's
perfect all day long."
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