Background:
Behavior management is a crucial component of a special education classroom. In fact, on some days I felt like I spent more of my time managing behaviors than teaching academic content! Some common (and general) techniques to manage behavior include: positive reinforcement, self-management, charts and contracts, and restraint and seclusion. Restraint and seclusion often include putting a student in a timeout room, buckling a student into a seat (with the intention of keeping him from getting up), holding a student still, or intentionally blocking a student's path. Because of the potentially harmful nature of restraint and seclusion, it is a very debated topic. Currently, Oregon's legislature is looking at passing a law to ban most use of restraint and seclusion.
The Issue:
Restraint and seclusion can definitely be taken to the extreme--abuse. As in this case:
"DES MOINES — After failing to finish a reading assignment, 8-year-old Isabel Loeffler was sent to the school's time-out room — a converted storage area under a staircase — where she was left alone for three hours. The autistic Iowa girl wet herself before she was finally allowed to leave."
This (in)famous story is one of several in which a child a child dies because of their teacher's insanity. This year, in Oregon: "The proposed law would ban prone restraints—in which children are face down, mechanical restraints such as duct tape, handcuffs, or straps, and chemical restraints including medications and drugs." [my opinion interjected: WHERE IS THE COMMON SENSE? This is obviously unacceptable and begs me to wonder how these people have been in the education system so long!!]
Teachers who use this method (in humane ways) to manage their students' behavior often have "difficult" students. In other words, students who behave such that they put themselves and others in danger. Consider this recent story. An 8-year-old boy is arrested, and suspended (for the fifth time) due to his behavior at school. The story does not give much detail but this it presents a valid concern and need for restraint.
What I think:
I believe that the way a teacher manages behavior is in the teacher's control, not the students'. (Honestly, I have spent less than a year in the classrooms, so my experience with implementing these principles is still limited.) I firmly believe in establishing a positive environment and applying positive techniques in order to prevent misbehavior. I worked in a classroom of students who have autism (and students with autism-like behaviors) and consequently, I learned a lot in behavior management. I believe that a teacher can be effective without the use of handcuffs, time-out rooms, duct tape, or chemical treatment. (I've seen time-out rooms and chemical treatment used, not in my classroom, as regular consequences for certain students when they misbehave.)
Fortunately, the extreme stories mentioned above are far and few between. Unfortunately, they are not far and few between enough because we have to establish laws to prevent it. I am glad for the teachers out there who use common sense and who recognize that these students are human beings, not animals we spray in the face or shut up in a room when we don't approve. I pray that everyone can recognize that they are people first, disability second, and treat them as such.
