Parents Tell Schools, "Don't Touch My Child."

Twice this week parents met with me about inappropriate discipline of their children at school. The schools were using physical restraint and confinement. Because of previous life experiences, the children already suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and other serious emotional disturbances.

When the children physically resisted being manhandled and confined the schools called police. The parents were concerned about losing their children in juvenile court. One of the children, who had been adopted from Eastern Europe, panicked, fought or ran whenever police appeared.

Interestingly, the children were not problematic outside the school setting. They still exhibited the same behaviors that caused concern for the school. However, their parents and other caring adults had learned how to redirect their behavior without physical restraint.

Both parents used the techniques recommended by Ross W. Greene in his books Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem-Solving Approach and The Explosive Child: A New Approach for Understanding and Parenting Easily Frustrated, Chronically Inflexible Children. They were frustrated that the schools refused to consider those approaches as an alternative to physical restraint.

We are helping these children by demanding that the schools perform a Functional Behavioral Assessment. If the school's Functional Behavioral Assessment is inadequate, we might demand an Independent Educational Evaluation at public expense. Based on these assessments and evaluations, we will devise a Behavioral Intervention Plan that will become a part of the Individual Education Plan for these children.

The parents of these children were wise to deal with the issue proactively. By using the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act we can prevent inappropriate physical abuse and court involvement.