An important bill for Autism rights is going through congress right now on the topic of seclusion and restraint for those with disabilities. Thanks to Savannah Logsdon for pointing out this important topic in her blog. The Autism Self Advocacy Network has released a statement applauding this bill for its prevention of the abuse of seclusion and restraint in schools on students with disabilities.
There however remains much criticism on the bill including some phrases in the bill that are considered very subjective and not well defined which is apparently a common problem with laws on seclusion and restraint in schools. Many advocates are hoping for more well defined terminology that is less subjective. You can read the Senate Bill (S.2860) and the house bill (H.R.4247) at their respective links.
What are your thoughts on the seclusion and restraint bills?
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It’s tough.
We got some people arguing that people who have ASD shouldn’t be kept apart from other people, and meanwhile we got some people arguing that people who have ASD shouldn’t be expected to respect other people’s personal space (see items 5 and 6 at http://www.aspieweb.net/aspergers-as-a-legal-defense/comment-page-1/#comment-507 ).
If we got any people arguing *both* (instead of one *or* the other), then logically they’re arguing that students who have ASD should be allowed to grab and grope their classmates (including classmates who have ASD), no matter how much those classmates (including classmates who have ASD) say no, instead of either being taught separately or told to follow the same rules about unwanted touching as everyone else in class is told to follow.
It reminds me of this: http://letters.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/03/26/bauer_autism/permalink/a5b4b3aaebdd4aa3fdb54da976e40ed0.html
“…In the letter from the woman who works with autistic children (sorry, can’t remember the poster), she described almost being choked to death by a young student and blames it on herself. She had tied her scarf ’stupidly’. At no point does she mention telling the child that what he had done was wrong and giving him a just punishment. She’s simply glad the kid’s murderous rage passed in time and takes him outside, which was what he wanted. So he does not learn consequences or to respect others. Whatever he does, he’ll still get what he wants. The fact that he almost killed someone is ignored and/ or minimized. When he gets older and bigger, is anyone going to be surprised if he actually does kill someone?…”
I think that this blac or white thinking is damaging. There is a difference between taking someone aside for a little while and explaining why certain things shouldn’t be done, and completly isolating them from thier fellow students!!
Idealy what would be good would be finding a way to stop the child without hurting them, and taking them aside, and instead of throwing them in an isolation room by themselves without explaining what they did wrong and why it is wrong, go to an isolated room with the student and explain to them what they did and why it was not wanted.
That is what I would reccomend to those students who are able to be mainstreamed.
“I think that this blac or white thinking is damaging. There is a difference between taking someone aside for a little while and explaining why certain things shouldn’t be done, and completly isolating them from thier fellow students!!…”
I totally agree with you here! Comparing 3 options:
(a) Explaining to a student why certain things shouldn’t be done to his or her fellow students
(b) Completely isolating that student from his or her fellow students
(c) *Neither* explaining to the student why certain things shouldn’t be done *nor* isolating that student
(a) is much, much better than (b) and (c) is even worse than (b).
(a) should also be done with every student ahead of time, no matter where he or she may be on the ASD/NT spectrum (for example, telling each student that it’s not OK to grope a classmate, if a classmate of yours does that to you then he or she’s doing something wrong *and* if you do that to a classmate of yours then you’re doing something wrong).
“…Idealy what would be good would be finding a way to stop the child without hurting them, and taking them aside, and instead of throwing them in an isolation room by themselves without explaining what they did wrong and why it is wrong, go to an isolated room with the student and explain to them what they did and why it was not wanted…”
…and then returning to class with the student as soon as he or she agrees to not do that again!