Mother Finds Autistic Son In Handcuffs At School

Local 6 Houston TX ^ | 11/12/02 | Staff

[Skooz]

STORY

Mother Finds Autistic Son In Handcuffs At School

School, Mother To Meet Tuesday

Posted: 11:32 a.m. EST November 12, 2002

HOUSTON -- A Houston-area mother who went to pick up her 8-year-old son at school said that she found him handcuffed and lying face down in his classroom in northwest Harris County.

<p>

	Hear More Of What Happened In Class

The incident happened Monday at Haude Elementary School in Spring, Texas.

Lisa Calvin told Houston's KPRC-TV that she is upset after seeing her son, Adam, who is autistic and functions at a 5-year-old level, in handcuffs.

"It felt like some kind of freak show," Calvin said. "I could hear him begging. He was saying, 'please take these off' and he was crying. When I saw him on the floor, he was soaked in sweat."

Calvin said that her son was handcuffed by a Klein Independent School District police officer after having a tantrum.

"I heard the cop tell him, 'Boy, when you calm down, I'll take these off of you.' (It was) what he was saying when I was coming down the hall," Calvin said.

School district officials released a statement saying, "There was a situation at school in which a student was out of control. The situation was of such concern, that there were teachers, teacher assistants, and administrators that were injured due to the behavior. The options for the school district to control a child are limited. Restraint is one of them."

School officials said that Adam was handcuffed for just a brief period -- about two to three minutes -- and that the district does not use corporal punishment on special-education students.

The school suspended Adam for a day.

"(I've) questioned their ability to deal with him and they've told me that they're perfectly capable of handling a child with autism," Calvin said.

Calvin said that what she and her son experienced was fear and inexperience.

"If I go to work and I'm half-an-hour away or I'm on the other side of town, how long will they leave him handcuffed? Will he just stay in handcuffs until I can get there to pick him up? Or will they just go ahead and have them take him to jail?" she asked.

Calvin and school officials are expected to meet Tuesday to discuss whether Adam will return to school.

Copyright 2002 by local6.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[valkyrieanne]

For those who feel intimidated by autistic behavior symptoms, I can certainly sympathize with you but would challenge you to think about it in the same way as you would when confronted with an epileptic kid who has a fit.

Thank you for your comment. It bothers me too when I read remarks by others that autistic children "just need to have some sense knocked into them" or something like that; implying that their problem is one of character or "poor training" or "bad parenting."

[Sungirl]

I understand what you mean...but I don't think the kid belongs in a regular classroom. THe judges are wrong if it was their decision to make. It would be better to send him to a school where all the kids need special attention and then one 'babysitter' could watch several children. More cost effective.

I think teachers have it made! Summers and all holidays off, extra pay for any extra curriculum activity, teach about 3 maybe 4 classes a day....do not have to stay at 'work' for 9 hours.....NICE!
Some say they have to work out of class to prepare. Hopefully there is not that much preparing and the teacher knows what he's teaching already! Especially year after year of teaching the same thing.... and kids will help grade exam (exchange papers, etc.) The only extra time I see is where they have to grade term papers and that is usually done when they babysit during those study hall classes at work. I mean most of us don't have that study hall luxury of doing nothing but staring at kids for an hour or two every day....we work all day long. But I can see where teachers would say this was extra work.
They have it made.

[mhking]

Principal: Carol Mensing 832-484-5590 cmensing@kleinisd.net

3111 Louetta Road
Spring, Texas 77388
832-484-5600
An Exemplary School???!!!???

[valkyrieanne]

Yet another reason to homeschool!

For whom? The children who might be in the same class with an autistic child? Or the autistic child himself?

Some autistic children can be educated at home, but others cannot be. If you read Temple Grandin's autobiography, she mentions her partial "homeschooling," but it was *not* what we think of as conventional homeschooling today. Her mother spent enormous amounts of money on tutors and aides to be with her at home. She got 8-10 hours a *day* of intense one-on-one interaction that for whatever reason her mother was not able to provide. As a high-functioning autistic, she did manage to eventually become an agricultural engineer, but being left alone at home with someone unable to cope with her particular situation would not have helped her.

Other children, if left at home, would basically retreat into their own self-stimulating world. Sometimes homeschooling is presented as a panacea for everything, but there are some situations where a special school and environment are indeed necessary.

[valkyrieanne]

It would be better to send him to a school where all the kids need special attention and then one 'babysitter' could watch several children. More cost effective.

Aides for autistic children are not "babysitters." If they're doing their job, they are supposed to continually engage the child, to prevent him from withdrawing into his own self-stimulating world; to continually reinforce his use of language, eye contact, appropriate social behavior, and all the things autistic children find very difficult.

This kind of intense interaction can be exhausting for the aide, as well as challenging. To call it "babysitting" doesn't even come close to what aides are *supposed* to do.

[laker_dad]

I have always felt that the schools should spend the same amount of money to challenge the extremely bright students as they do to boost the self-esteem of the extremely "special" students. Otherwise, society as a whole loses.

[Sungirl]

they are supposed to continually engage the child, to prevent him from withdrawing into his own self-stimulating world

How the heck can they do that in a classroom? How disruptive!!!

What do babysitters do?

[Vic3O3]

For any kid where the "School Police" handcuff a kid and put them on the floor for merely being disruptive! They could have put him in a separate room, or had the "officer" take the kid outside to the playground until he calmed down.

Yes, I realise for some folks homeschooling is not a panacea--whether or not your kid is LD. And as for T. Grandin's experipence, well gee, it must be nice to be that rich!

[Illbay]

I'm not condoning the handcuffing. But neither am I willing to take this at face-value. With our litigious culture, this woman could be posturing for a lawsuit. That's my bet, anyway.

[Illbay]

Believe me, "phil", she gets the same low pay no matter what.

No, she goes through it because (1) the kids need the help, and (2) she needs the help so that she can spend more time teaching her other children.

[Illbay]

I can't possibly condone handcuffing ON THE FACE OF IT. I'm simply saying that we're getting HER side of the story, and a guarded response from the school district (which doesn't necessarily indicate wrongdoing; the schools unfortunately HAVE to be guarded because anything they say can and will be used against them by a slime-bag of a lawyer in front of a witless jury that "feels her pain.")

[Sungirl]

Teachers make a great salary for the hours they put in.

[Illbay]

Do you think that in many cases the family could care for them?

Well, that's just the sort of cruel and insensitive remark that we can expect from a conservative! How dare you suggest that "the village" is less capable than the ignorant PARENTS of this child!

Next you'll be trying to tell us that the mother has a RESPONSIBILITY to stay at home and care for the child, instead of fulfilling herself in the workplace!

You conservative b*st*rds should rot in h*ll--that is, if there WERE a h*ll, which there's not.</standard leftist screed>

[Illbay]

I'm afraid you're looking at this the wrong way. This woman works. Perhaps she's a single mother; perhaps she simply chooses to work.

She doesn't WANT to homeschool the child; she wants all the rest of us, the residents of the "village," to take care of her child.

So she leaves him in the school, which is required BY LAW (mostly by judicial fiat, as it happens) to put him in the "least restrictive environment--and d*mn the teachers or the other students.

Instead of the standard, pat, one-size-fits-all simplistic answers, you need to understand the real situation here.

[Illbay]

...but I don't think the kid belongs in a regular classroom.

You and I agree, and my wife, a teacher, agrees with both of us.

Unfortunately, the judges don't agree, so there you go.

My wife loves teaching. And she DOES enjoy some of the "perks" that you mention. But she doesn't consider that she "has it made."

It is very hard work, and you have to deal with bureaucracy, with uncaring parents, petulant students (mostly the children of the afforementioned uncaring parents), scheduled bathroom breaks, lots of extra time spent after hours and at home grading papers, entering grades and (what most people don't realize) filling out the tons of meaningless PAPERWORK that is the stuff of our modern bureaucracy--reports for this and that, surveys, applications for student assistance, you name it.

So, like any other job you can name, it has its ups and downs. In the end, just like any other profession, you have to really love it in the "big picture" sense to put up with the annoyance.

[Illbay]

Ironically, the "bright students" DO get all the time and attention (not to mention money) that you think they should have. If you are "G&T" (Gifted and Talented) in most school systems, you truly get the red-carpet treatment. And I think that is a good thing, because it is an investment that will likely pay off in time.

Funny thing is, what you often hear is it's the kids in the "middle", the average kids, often with good grades and good attitudes, just going around being themselves, not taking the world by the horns--but not bent on destroying it, either--who really get the short end of the stick.

The extremes attract the money and the attention.

[Illbay]

Sungirl, with respect, that's just not so. My wife makes about $6 an hour, when you factor in all the additional time she puts in--much of it mandatory; for instance they're required to attend workshops and meetings after hours from time to time--and also the money spent on classroom supplies, etc., to make up the budgetary shortfalls.

NO ONE goes into teaching because they think it's a cushy job.

[Jonx6]

?

[Red Jones]

a free market for schools

a free market for schools

a free market for schools

that is what we need. When you give to the parents a voucher that is enough money to fund a school for a year for one child and you let the parent pick the school and then compensate the school on a per child basis with equal funding for all kids, but extra funding for special needs kids like this one, then you get a free market for schools. Under those conditions the schools will be responsive and will do their jobs. Under no other condition will it happen.

[dead]

Why would anyone think that an entire school should be disrupted by on out of control 8 year old? Should every one stand around while the kid tears up the place?

Gee, aren’t you a tough guy! An 8-year-old handicapped boy has a tantrum, and you advocate handcuffing him face down on the floor.

What if he was 9-years-old? Would you shoot him?