(no subject)
I was just reading yezida on LJ regarding Guontanimo and her questions about torture and human nature. Last night, someone sent me this www.cnn.com/2008/US/12/17/seclusion.rooms/index.html which discusses the death of a child in a seclusion room at a school in Georgia. In my research over these past months (since the request from my son's school to give consent for a room like this to be used for his "safety"), I have learned that these rooms are used in all but 22 states with little oversight, documentation or limitations.
I have learned that these rooms are, as a rule, kept secret. The majority of classroom teachers who work in my son's school are not aware the school even has a seclusion room. I am quite certain that my neighbors and townspeople in this far-left-leaning liberal, highly educated and priviledged community have no idea. Seems it's gonna be my job to tell the the bad news.
I just spent the day at my new nursing job completing Mandatory Inservicing which includes in depth reviews of patient rights and some great information on how best to approach dementia patients who cannot communicate verbally. The idea is that the negative behaviors of these patients are actually the only way the individual can communicate. When I was first working as a nurse (over 20 years) ago, it was commonplace for patients to be force fed and forced to comply as well as being physically and chemically restrained "for their safety." Patients died, strangled by thier restraints and overdosed with Haldol, Ativan, Librium, Thorazine. People faught for these things to be looked into. Legislation was passed. Now, nursing homes are Restraint Free, drugs are used only as a last resort and you can loose your license to practice as a nurse for a tone of voice.
What about our children?
Our children are being systematically abused by state institutions (called public schools). They are being psychoanalyzed, labeled, chemically and physically restrained and held in cells within the walls of the schools we voluntarily send them to, obstensibly, to learn to read and write.
What about our children?
In 28 states it is perfectly legal to seclude a child in a cell within a public school.
These "seclusion rooms" are most often used for our most vulnerable students--those with learning disabilities, autism and complicated medical disorders which make communicating difficult (or impossible) for them. These children "act out" because they cannot describe what they are experiencing. Like the elderly patient with Alzheimer's Dementia, their "negative behaviors" are not to "gain attention," not because they are "bad kids" or have "parents who don't discipline them at home." Rather, the behaviors are their way of communicating they are uncomfortable, in pain, overstimulated, exhausted, hungry or sad. How many seven year olds do you know who can look you in the eye (like a self-aware adult) and state calmly, "I am feeling overwhelmed. I think it would be best if I took a break now to walk around the room and exert some of my excess energy." I don't know many. I know for certain my son can't say (yet) what set's him off.
What about our children?
If a child cannot communicate that she needs to go to the bathroom, how can she communicate that she is being abused for 6 hours a day, 5 days a week in the untouchable bastion of the public school system?
What about our children?
Routinely held in basket-restraints? Padded cells. Electroshock therapy (yes, a case in MA in 2007). Having to "earn" lunch. Having to "sit still" in order to receive the "reward" of seeing your peers? These punishments are repackaged and relabeled as "therapuetic." My old favorite radical feminist author, Mary Daly was onto something when she rewrote the word "therapist" as "the-rapist." These kids get labeled oppositionally disordered, non-compliant, attention-seeking, defiant. It doesn't take long for the child to get worse. If someone three times your size stood over your desk while you tried work, wouldn't you feel intimidated? What if, when you got up to stretch between tasks, he grabbed you in a restraining hold and dragged you to an isolation room and locked you in for hours on end, wouldn't you fight back? Wouldn't you have a law suit on your hands? In the school system, fighting back is not allowed. It gets the child a new label: "Violent." The new label, of course, gets the child new "therapuetic measures." In the school system, a threat to file suit gets you a visit from the child protective services agency who was directed to investigate you for suspected neglect.
What about our children?
Kids with special needs are routinely given over to the care of "para-professionals" who have no teaching degrees and no training to deal with special needs children. You need a high school diploma and a clean CORI check to work as a para-professional with these kids in the state where I live. This individual, with no training, is supposed to teach my child the second grade curriculum and deal appropriately with his special needs! Those with degrees, however, don't necessarily have a better handle on how to deal with our most vulnerable kids. Principals and administrators are trained as disciplinarians, not in the skills to decipher what a scared child with neurological impairments is trying to communicate when he says, "I don't want to do this work." The statement is heard as a "refusal." Non-compliance is punishable. Oh, I'm sorry, not 'punishable," but rather, "in need of remediation using therapuetic behavioral strategies."
What about our children?
We rise up in protest against the torture of innocents by our government.
We rise up in horror against the abuse of children at the hands of parents.
We rise up in disgust at the abuse of animals treated inhumanely.
We raise out voices at the improper use of land.
When it comes to our children the silence is deafening and deadly.
I am not just outraged at the treatment of my own child. His problems and issues are insignificant when compared to other children with special needs. I am outraged that institutionalized torture is happening within the walls where parents send thier children for 900 hours per year trusting they will be safe, given guidance and educated in the skills necessary to become productive members of the society. I think, as a culture, we cannot conceive of it. It is TOO hard to hear. It is too difficult to believe. We blame the parents. We blame the overburden of our teachers. We blame the budget. We blame the president and the corporations. We blame the kids themselves. Blame doesn't solve problems.
The child who died in Georgia weighed 60 pounds. Sixty. He hung himself inside the seclusion room with a rope he was given by a teacher to hold up his pants. They took his shoes when they put him in seclusion. They left the rope. They locked the door. After years of fighting for his life and only getting in deeper and deeper in the system, this little boy couldn't stand it anymore.
What about our children?