A way to safely restrain
students?
Bereaved mom at odds with state
December 8, 2006
By Lori Higgins
Michael Renner-Lewis III entered
Parchment High School on Aug. 25, 2003, full of excitement about the
beginning of a new school year. But hours after the first day of
classes began, he was dead.
Michael, who was autistic, had what
appeared to be a seizure, and then became combative, prompting staff
members to physically restrain him while he lay facedown. He stopped
breathing while restrained.
His death -- and the death of
another child in 2003 in which restraint was involved -- prompted
the Michigan Department of Education to draft tighter restrictions
on the use of restraints and seclusion in state schools and document
just how often the practices occur.
On Tuesday, the state Board of
Education will consider its fourth version of the policy this year.
The emotional debate pits
special-education advocates against state associations that
represent school workers. As advocates seek a ban on what they say
are inhumane practices, educators fight for what they say is an
unfortunate, but necessary, way to address children with challenging
behaviors.
It also pits parents like Michael's
mother, Elizabeth Johnson, who want a ban on seclusion and
restraints, against those who say school staff should be allowed to
use them with children who otherwise may not be able to remain in a
public school setting.
"When you have an issue of this
magnitude, the emotion that flows is unbelievable. Nobody wants to
be in this position to begin with," said Mark Moody, director of
special education for the Midland County Educational Service Agency
and president-elect of the Michigan Association of Administrators of
Special Education.
Certainly not Johnson, who lives in
Kalamazoo. Three years later, she is still fighting to make sure
educators learn a lesson from her 15-year-old son's death. His death
was ruled an accident, but an autopsy report said the cause was a
combination of prolonged restraint and cardiac arrest.
"I'm still outraged. It cannot
happen to another person's child," Johnson said this week.
A revised policy would guide
districts on how to address the issue, but schools wouldn't be
mandated to adopt it, said Martin Ackley, spokesman for the
education department.
"But if there are cases where a
student or a teacher were harmed, and there were legal actions, the
court would look at whether a school district had implemented the
policy," Ackley said.
Michigan has not kept records on
how often restraints and seclusion are used.
Existing policies allow physically
restricting movement and confining a student to a room or an area of
a room. But advocates say the policy is vague and applies only to
special-education students. The policy the board will consider
Tuesday restricts the use of seclusion and restraint to emergencies
and applies to all children in public schools.
"Seclusion and restraint are cruel,
inhumane and degrading practices. I don't think they belong in
educational settings," said Elizabeth Bauer of Birmingham, a member
of the state Board of Education. Bauer is a longtime advocate for
people with disabilities.
Only one state, Massachusetts, bans
seclusion and restraint in schools. Several others, including Texas
and California, restrict their use.
"These practices are inherently
dangerous," said Mark McWilliams, director of education advocacy for
the Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, a nonprofit
organization that looks out for the rights of people with
disabilities.
His group investigated the 2003
death of a child in the Saginaw Intermediate School District after
the child was restrained. The cause of death was acute congestive
heart failure.
But people like Blu Hintz of
Midland, who is raising her 13-year-old grandson, Dustin, worry that
if educators don't have the ability to seclude or restrain students,
there would be no room in public schools for children like Dustin.
Dustin has Asperger's syndrome, a
form of autism, and spina bifida. His behavior has improved, but at
times he still loses control -- kicking, biting, hitting, throwing
chairs.
"If children like Dustin aren't
restrained, they have no other place to go," Hintz said. "They would
end up in an institution."
Educators fear the state board will
approve a policy that will place too many restrictions on school
staff.
"We're concerned that classroom
teachers and administrators ... would not have the tools they need
in potentially explosive situations," said Tony Derezinski, director
of government relations for the Michigan Association of School
Boards.
But advocates say that instead of
secluding and restricting children, schools must get to the root
cause of behaviors that may prompt such action.
"That student is communicating
something. What they're communicating, we don't always know. It's
our responsibility as adults, the people in power, to figure out
what it is and intervene in constructive kinds of ways, not dragging
the child off to a broom closet," said state board member Bauer.
Bauer and others point to programs
like Positive Behavior Support, which the state board in September
urged all districts to adopt, as crucial in helping schools address
all students' behavior. The program gives schools tools they can use
to emphasize good behavior.
Since October, educators and
parents who want schools to have the option to seclude and restrain
have peppered the state board with letters, e-mails and calls, many
of them saying they are concerned about how schools would address
the needs of children who have challenging behavior problems.
The policy the board will consider
completely bans restraining someone facedown or in a way that would
affect breathing. It also requires that schools document each time
seclusion or restraint is used, something parent Sandee Koski likes.
Her son has a developmental
disability and attends Pinckney Community Schools.
"It takes it out of the shadows,
which is where it's at right now," Koski said.
Kathleen Straus, president of the
state board, said that although she has some questions about wording
in the policy, she believes it represents what the board asked staff
to come up with and is a compromise. Straus said she hopes a time
comes when the state can ban seclusion and restraint completely, but
that time is not now.
"We have to do a lot of training of
school staff," Straus said. Staffers need effective alternatives
when confronted with serious behavior problems, she said.
Johnson said the debate has given
her mixed emotions.
"If it's going in the right
direction, it makes me feel better," she said. "But every time it
doesn't, I feel people don't see Michael's death as a lesson to be
learned. This cannot happen again."
Contact LORI HIGGINS at
248-351-3694 or lhiggins@freepress.com.
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Elizabeth Johnson holds a photo of
her son, Michael Renner-Lewis III,
who died in 2003 after he was
restrained at Parchment High near
Kalamazoo. Michael had
autism. (KIMBERLY P.
MITCHELL/Detroit Free Press)
WHAT THE PROPOSAL SAYS
-
The state Board of Education, at
its meeting Tuesday in Lansing,
will consider a policy on the
use of seclusion and restraints
in Michigan schools. The meeting
begins at 9:30 a.m. in the board
room of the John A. Hannah
Building, 608 W. Allegan,
Lansing. The policy:
• Restricts
the use of seclusion and
restraints to emergency
situations.
• Says
seclusion and restraints cannot
be used for the convenience of
staff as a substitute for an
educational program, as a form
of discipline or punishment, as
a substitute for adequate
staffing or as a substitute for
staff training.
• Bans
the use of mechanical restraint
(a device or material attached
to a student's body), chemical
restraint (such as medication)
and any restraint, including
prone restraint, that affects
breathing.
• Sets
limits on how long children can
be secluded: 5 minutes for
preschool children, 15 minutes
for elementary students and 20
minutes for middle and high
school students.
• Says
students should not be
restrained for more than 10
minutes; any longer use would
require additional support and
documentation to explain the
extension of the time limit.
•
Requires that schools document
each time seclusion or restraint
is used. Also requires parents
or guardians to be notified.
Districts must report the data
to the Michigan Department of
Education.
•
Requires schools to create an
emergency intervention plan for
students who have patterns of
behavior that require the use of
emergency seclusion or
restraints.
•
Requires training for school
personnel who may have to
seclude or restrain children.
LAWSUIT PENDING
- A decision in
one lawsuit is still pending in the death of
Michael Renner-Lewis III, 15, who died in 2003
after being physically restrained by staff
members at Parchment High.
The lawsuit seeks to force
the Parchment School District to implement a
policy on the use of restraints and to train
staff for such emergencies. It was filed by the
Autism Society of Michigan and the Michigan
Protection and Advocacy Service against the
district.
Michael's mother,
Elizabeth Johnson, settled her $25-million suit
against the Parchment district, the Kalamazoo
Regional Educational Service Agency, which
operated the program Michael attended, and the
employees involved.
Johnson said the terms
of the settlement prevent her from disclosing
the details.
In the lawsuit, she
alleged four school officials restrained Michael
for up to 45 minutes and held him to the floor
with their hands, arms, legs and feet, "ignoring
his medical condition and placing weight on his
body which hindered and/or prevented him from
breathing."
Parchment school
officials referred questions to their attorney,
Gary Bartosiewicz. Because of the pending
lawsuit, Bartosiewicz would not address
questions about Michael's death. He said the
district has always maintained it did not break
any state rules.
"Parchment is positive
it's in compliance with the state rules. And it
is concerned for the safety of all of its
students," Bartosiewicz said.
Lori Higgins
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