You have already approved revised Policy 3246 and congratulated yourselves and District staff for all the hard work and for producing a policy that makes some of the changes needed to protect students.
The first thing you should have done is apologize to the children in your care who have been wrongfully harmed by these horrible practices for years without the School Board or the administration taking action to stop them. I have been coming to the School Board at least once a year since 2015 to speak up on behalf of this group of students who are some of the most vulnerable children in our schools.
Do you know how difficult it is as a parent to come forward publicly and say — my kid is one of “those kids” — the ones who behave erratically, who throw things, hit, kick, run away, etc. Most of us with “those kids” want to hide, we are embarrassed, we are isolated because our children seem out of control. But, I never believed that my autistic kid wanted to be “that kid;” I knew there was something wrong with how he was being treated at school that caused him to be “that kid.” So, as hard as it was, I came here year after year pleading for change, pleading for someone to listen and help my son and his classmates, especially those who cannot speak for themselves and whose families are not able to come forward.
Every year, when staff reported to the School Board about the number of restraints and isolations, I and other parents came and asked for the same things: individualized help for the children being subjected to these practices, help for the schools where it was happening the most and adoption of an evidence-based behavioral framework that will drastically reduce restraint and isolation by preventing the behaviors that lead adults to feel they have no choice but to restrain or isolate a child.
Some of those changes are in the revised policy. But not all. And, all of those changes are long overdue and all are needed if you are really going to change the racist and ableist cultures in our schools that allow our children to be harmed. So, I will continue to implore you to do the rest of the work.
