Texas bill would ban schools from restraining students on the ground

Parents and advocacy teams communicate at the Texas Capital for brand new laws banning sure restraint strategies on Jan. 30, 2023. (KXAN Photo/Kelly Wiley)

AUSTIN (KXAN) – Texas Rep. Mary Gonzales, D- El Paso, this session launched a bill that would ban lecturers and different college workers from restraining students on the ground in school, particularly these with particular wants.

It comes after dad and mom and advocacy teams demanded modifications from lawmakers – and several other promised laws zeroing in on considerations from households with students receiving particular wants providers.

As nicely as making it unlawful to restrain students on the ground, the bill would additionally ban workers from utilizing particular strategies resembling inclined and supine restraint – which includes workers taking a scholar to the ground both going through up or down.

In the U.S. Department of Education’s restraints and seclusion useful resource doc, it states, “prone restraints or other restraints that restrict breathing should never be used because they can cause serious injury or death.”

But there is no such thing as a particular regulation in Texas banning the transfer in class settings.

“Tragically those restraints are happening more and more violently to students with disabilities,” Disability Rights Texas Senior Policy Specialist Steve Aleman stated.

Gonzales stated she authored the bill, partially, due to a KXAN investigation right into a restraint final yr at a Round Rock Independent School District college for students with disabilities.

The restraint captured on the college’s surveillance cameras confirmed a faculty administrator throwing a 14-year-old boy into the wall of a ‘cool-down room’ after which restraining him on the ground.

“I just think about how our schools exist or do exist, for our most vulnerable kids to get the support they need, and when I see this video – it just gives me some red flags and this is why we are doing this piece of legislation with Disability Rights Texas,” Rep. Gonzales stated.

The restraint was not labeled as supine or inclined, in keeping with college data. We reached out to RRISD, particularly asking about the incident proven in the video and its coverage on inclined and supine restraint.

The district stated its investigation into the incident has not been re-opened and that its workers makes use of disaster prevention and intervention coaching that focuses on verbal de-escalation first. If restraint is required, the commonest method would be the “Child Control Position,” which is a short-duration maintain meant to trigger no harm or ache.

The TEA investigation into the college administrator in the video is ongoing, in keeping with data revealed on the state companies’ trainer look-up database.

Professor of Special Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Professor Reece Peterson stated he couldn’t decide from the video whether or not the scholar was in a inclined or supine place in the video.

“However, the way the boy was thrown against the wall was inappropriate,” Peterson stated after viewing the video from the KXAN report. “I also did not see any de-escalation procedures employed.”