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.

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	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.

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[Loyalist]

One of these teachers is going to have to kill a student in self-defence, or in defence of another student, before school boards wake up to the problem of mainstreaming such students.

[FR_addict]

I think you did an excellent job explaining what is going on in our schools. These kids are being used as guinea pigs by the politicians. They are suffering and the regular kids are not getting their education needs met when so much attention is being given to those that can't cope in the regular school environment.

I've seen blind kids being mainstreamed. The one I saw handled the problems of regular school very well, but how many others are suffering trying to keep up with those not handicapped. These decisions to mainstream should be made on a "case by case" decision.

[Sungirl]

I respectfully COMPLETELY disagree.

I will bet you MOST people go into teaching to get summers off and other 2 week Easter and Christmas off. Not because they want to 'help others'.
They only teach a few classes a day. Study halls and other free time give the teachers the time they need to 'grade papers', etc. What hours does your wife work? What time is she home? I see and know when the teachers that I know leave and are home. They are home 'by' 3:30pm. Add up the actual hours..and be honest.
Compare this to the average worker like me, who works 9 hours a day (I do NOT get paid for my lunch)...and I work at least 40 hours a week....52 weeks a year. I get 6 holidays and 2 weeks vacation. I do not get paid for my sick when I leave...do teachers? Of course. I do not get a month off for CHristmas and Easter. DO teachers? OF course. I do not get off from May to Sept. Nor do I get paid extra for staying to do 'dentention classes' or any other extra curriculum activities. They do.

[Flint]

Actually a straight jacket would be better, but it takes two or three people to put a maniac in one. The only defence that teachers and sudents have, if they are lucky, is a police officer stationed at their school. Police generally don't have straight jackets nor do they have the help to subdue a person to install them in one. I would say that the office had two choices, get into a fight with an 8 year old and put up with the dammage to the boy and to the other people around the school (and put up with the crap that the local media would come up with about a grown person fighting with a child) or put restraints on the brat. The officer used good judgement and defused the situation by putting the little darling in a conditon that he could do no one else dammage.

[Skooz]

Sungirl,

I disagree with very few of your posts, but I do disagree with this one.

My wife is a school teacher. Yes, her official workday ends at 3:00, but that is irrelevent. She works AT LEAST two hours every night at home. Last night, she was up until midnight because her grades are due today. Tonight it will be something else. Last weekend was a wash because she had some project she had to do. This weekend it will be something else.

She has to be at school at 7:00 every morning, where she works until school official begins.

The "school hours" are only a small portion of her actual work day.

[twigs]

parents who insist on mainstreaming don't do their children any favors

Some studies have revealed that children with special needs also do better in special classrooms especially equipped for dealing with these children. While I can think of some situations where special needs children would be better served mainstreamed (kids with physical problems as opposed to those with emotional concerns), children as a whole would best be served by placing needy children in special facilities with trained teachers.

[Illbay]

Sorry, Sungirl, but you're just wrong about this. That's not to say there aren't some teachers who "slough off," but that's true for just about any profession you could name.

The fact is that most teachers spend inordinate amounts of time at their jobs, either in the classroom, after ours at the school or admin building, or at home.

My wife's school district in fact has just instituted an online system for the teachers so they can enter all their grades, file certain reports, etc., from home. My wife probably works an average of 10 to 11 hours per day during the week.

She is only paid for SOME extra services, such as after-school tutorials (only a few teachers get to do those), and meetings on Saturday.

Otherwise, she's contributing to the welfare and education of her students, and that's what she's in it for. And I don't think she's that unusual.

[Flint]

Teachers actually only work 9 months a year and only get paid for that 9 months. Quite a few school holidays are mandated teacher workdays. My wife is requred to be at her school at 7:30AM and most days does not leave until 6:00PM. She has no "free" time during the day, even to take a bathroom break. Her lunch is spent in the lunch room making sure that little terrorist like the kid in this thread doesn't mame someone with a fork. She doesn't get a lunch break. Christmas breaks are not paid breaks, teachers are only paid for the time they work. Many nights she is up to 1:00am getting the record keeping requirements completed because there is no time in the school day to do so. She is also obliged to attent PTA meetings that take place in the eveings and is not compensated for that time. She also is obligated to schedule parent confrences at times that partents are available to meet, usually not during normal school hours. She is also has spent time giving depostions and called to court as a witness to events that very much mirror what started this thread. All on her own time and then has to make up the work that she missed by having to talk to the lawyers and jury. There is more.

[dead]

I would say that the office had two choices, get into a fight with an 8 year old and put up with the dammage to the boy and to the other people around the school (and put up with the crap that the local media would come up with about a grown person fighting with a child) or put restraints on the brat.

Well I see your problem stems from ignorance.

I have worked with autistic children for twenty-three years. There are very simple and painless restraining holds that can prevent a child (especially one as young as eight) from harming himself or others.

Only a totally incompetent moron would need to handcuff an eight year old. It is barbaric.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

My son is six and he has a situation similar to mild autism.
He is in first grade and requires special instruction when it comes to social skills he lacks. Autism is not a situation that is a cut and dry diagnosis. It can be a mild condition, or as in CallMeShane's case, severe. I have worked with both and am continuing to deal with my son.
The best (Sometime only) way to deal with a child in an uncontrollable state is not to restrain him in the room where he is overstimulated but to remove him from the situation and calm him down. It is not in the child's best interest to remove him from social situations where he doesn't interact with other children they are functional. You have to break the loop they are stuck in and handcuffing them to a chair only serves to enrage them.
Telling them that you will remove the restraints if they calm down is like adding fuel to the fire and saying you will stop when the fire is out. If they were honest with the parents about their ability to deal with Autism, they would know this. The fact that they would even resort to handcuffs shows that they lack compassion.

[philman_36]

Believe me, "phil", she gets the same low pay no matter what.
Yeah, "Bill", I wish I could work 3/4 of the year and make the same money "educators" do.
The Legislative Report is a publication of TG Governmental Affairs (GA)
"On July 16, the American Federation of Teachers issued its annual teacher salary survey for 2000-2001. This report shows that the average pay for Texas 275,000 teachers is $38,359. The national average is $43,250," said Cole.
$38,359/12 mo. = $3197 mo.
Not bad money "Bill", not bad at all. And for only about 9 months of work? Weeeeeell...
That puts just your wife at the Middle 20% - $35,400 all by herself.

[philman_36]

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

[Sungirl]

The town I came from ...a suburb of Buffalo...the average teachers salary (6 years ago now..) was $57,000..yr. They also got paid to take a cruise 'working or workshop' every 2 weeks in the summer..to discuss the next work year. WHen taxpayers found out about this....the crap hit the fan. But nothing changed except the voting days I believe. They wanted all the school districts to vote on the same day.

[Skooz]

Oh, and lunch time? My wife hasn't had a real lunch break in 12 years. She spends her "lunch period" monitoring 30 kids. It's more work than the class time.

[Flint]

If they are painless they are of no use. You have to get someones attention first, then restrain them. Most schools do not have a shrink standing around waiting for one of these kids to go nuts. I know of a child, who it was decided that he needed to be removed from the class room when he went into orbit. One of the feel gooders decided that he needed to be put in a room by himself until he calmed down. They don't build padded rooms in most elementary schools. So, the teachers restroom was chosen as the best place to stick him (the teachers seldom have time to use it anyway). This room is a tiled room with the usuall commercial fixtures in it. After the darling boys confinement in there for thirty min. the school system had to pay $4500 to repair the dammages. This terrorist was back in the class room the next day.

[ApesForEvolution]

I agree with all that. Government schooling is an abomination and people that abuse the judicial system fall into the same category.

Nonetheless, on its face, were I too be ignorant and depraved enough to turn my child over to this system and found my 8 year old child handcuffed and left on the ground, somebody would leave in a bag, and it wouldn't be myself nor my child.

[philman_36]

...she needs the help so that she can spend more time teaching her other children.
BTW, "Bill", how is receiving more money helping her spend more time teaching other people's children? [(those kids aren't "hers"...funny how teachers get that idea) ...teaching the other children.]
That seems incongruous. It would seem more appropriate if the child simply were no longer in the class. If the "special need" child is still in the same class she still has to spend the time on that child and nothing has been resolved. The school still gets more money though.

[dead]

If they are painless they are of no use.

I've never seen somebody so absolutely terrorized by eight-year-old children.

I hope you only deal with them with adult supervision.

Look out! There's an eight year old behind you right now!

[Sungirl]

SKOOZ: Yes, her official workday ends at 3:00, but that is irrelevent. She works AT LEAST two hours every night at home.

FLINT: most days does not leave until 6:00PM.

Uh oh.

[Illbay]

FWIW, my wife makes a little bit above the Texas average.

But this tripe about "only nine months a year" is silly. If you add up the time, not to mention the additional expense, it is far less than it might seem.

Look, I know you and I know you have an agenda. All teachers are "bad" because they are minions of the evil "state." That's the kind of silly, chuckle-headed thinking that is a discredit to Free Republic and to conservatism.

If there are "enemies" in education, they infest the education unions, the schools of education and the bureaucracy in Washington.

Teachers are people like you and me, dedicated to their professions and their students. My wife does NOT complain, b*tch and moan about the time she spends above and beyond the call of duty. She likes her job. It is fulfilling to her; far more fulfilling than the middle-management office position she used to occupy.

But her "pay" is more in terms of a sense of fulfillment and making a difference in the lives of kids than money in the bank. She makes much less than she did before, in fact.

But that's not to say that she DOESN'T enjoy having several weeks off in the summer, and at Christmas--she does. But she, like all teachers, takes that on account against all the tough hours she puts in at other times, and the crud she has to put up with from administrators, uncaring parents, unruly students, and the ever-present bureaucracy with which she has to deal.

Chuckle-headed remarks like yours simply display the level of your own ignorance and your unwillingness to see reality when it gets in the way of your silly agenda.