I have a new piece at CNN today on the ACLU lawsuit of a sherrif's deputy who likes to solve behavior issues in children of color with disabilities by shackling them until they obey his commands.
The whimpers turn into cries of pain as the cuffs go around the child's biceps. He's a small Latino boy, 8 years old, 3½ feet tall and 52 pounds. He has ADHD. The school resource officer says, "You can do what we asked you to, or you can suffer the consequences."
"Ow, that hurts," sobs the boy. The officer appears to yank the chain to force the boy into a chair facing the corner, and he and his partner loom over the child. "Please," the boy says. But more than seven minutes of sobbing later, he is still cuffed, and a voice says, "Stop the video."
It's a terrible video. But the images aren't, for me, the worst thing.
The absolute worst thing about this video is that without it, almost no one would care. The use of violent restraint and seclusion to enforce compliance on children with disabilities, especially children of color with disabilities, is a well-documented problem. In 2009, the Government Accountability Office reported on widespread abuses, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for action. And yet, if anything, the problem is only getting worse.
Here are some numbers, based on the most recent data (from 2011-12). According to Claudia Center, senior staff attorney of the ACLU's Disability Rights Program, there are more than 52,000 students with disabilities restrained every year, 4,000 of them in "mechanical restraints' (handcuffs and shackles). That's over 20 times the rate that children without disabilities are restrained. Within that population, children of color are far more likely to be restrained than white students with special needs.
Please read and share. It's not just a Kentucky problem. It likely happens in your school district. We need to fight this abusive practice everywhere.
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I am a freelance journalist focusing on disability issues. I have written for CNN, Al Jazeera, Chronicle of Higher Ed, New York Times, The Guardian, and many more. I'm also a blogger, long-time member of this site, and a history professor. You can read my blog at How Did We Get Into This Mess?
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