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Autistic boy smothered at school
'I don't understand how this happened,' father says of youngster's
death
BRETT BUNDALE The Gazette
Friday, June 20, 2008
Gabriel Poirier seemed like any
other 9-year-old boy. He watched cartoons, collected comic books and
sang along to his favourite songs.
But Gabriel was autistic. He had
problems communicating and interacting with people and would get
frustrated.
His parents knew he could be
difficult to handle and easily agitated. But nothing could prepare
them for the tragic circumstances that led to their son's death two
months ago.
A coroner's report made public
yesterday pieces together the last moments of the boy's life.
In the early afternoon of April 17,
Gabriel began to disturb his classmates at École Marie Rivier in St.
Jean sur Richelieu with loud noises. The school specializes in
teaching children with developmental difficulties.
His teachers gave him two warnings
to calm down. When Gabriel continued to misbehave, one teacher took
him to the corner of the classroom and rolled him in a weighted
blanket, which is sometimes used to calm autistic children.
The heavy blanket was tightly
wrapped around the 3-foot, 11-inch Gabriel at least four times,
pinning his arms to his sides, the coroner's report said. With only
the tips of his toes peeking out, the boy was left on his stomach,
his head completely covered, for more than 20 minutes.
Gabriel eventually stopped making
noise. The teacher went to check on him, turning him on his back.
The boy appeared "listless and blue in the face," the coroner's
report said.
The teacher called 911 and the
school nurse tried to resuscitate Gabriel. He was already in a deep
coma, however, and died the next day at Montreal's Ste. Justine
Hospital.
The coroner's report cited
suffocation as the probable cause of death.
"He was a very gentle boy," Gilles
Poirier, Gabriel's father, said at a news conference yesterday in
Montreal.
"He was only 53 pounds. He was so
small," Poirier said of his son. "How can they wrap him up like that
in a 40-pound blanket? How can this treatment be tolerated?"
His wife, Isabelle Lépine, tried to
comfort him as he cried.
"Sometimes he was loud, but he was
never aggressive or violent. I just don't understand how this
happened," Poirier said, tears streaming down his face.
When used under the guidance of an
occupational therapist, weighted blankets can be calming for
autistic children, said Kathleen Provost, executive director of the
Autism Society of Canada.
"They have a therapeutic use and
can be relaxing," she said.
Many autistic children respond
positively to sensory stimulation like touch, massage and weighted
blankets.
Occupational therapists have found
sensory stimulation is soothing to autistic kids and sometimes
produces better results than medication.
Although teachers at Marie Rivier
had received training and guidelines from occupational therapists
about how to use weighted blankets, the rules were not followed the
day Gabriel died, the coroner's report said.
Occupational therapists recommend
blankets not be used as a form of punishment. They are not to cover
a child's head and ought to be loose enough to be easily removed by
the youngster.
In addition, the weight of the
blanket should be in proportion to the weight of the child, and he
or she should be monitored at all times.
The government needs to protect
vulnerable children like Gabriel, said Jean-Pierre Ménard, the
lawyer for the boy's parents.
"We're asking (Education) Minister
(Michelle) Courchesne to implement a legal framework to regulate how
these children are handled."
Gabriel's parents plan to sue the
Commission scolaire des Hautes Rivières for compensation in the hope
of preventing another tragedy, Ménard added.
bbundale@thegazette.canwest.com
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