Parents Angry After School Put Autistic Son in Bag

This is beyond horrible how could they do this to this child.

I would own that school and that is a fact.

There are alot of special needs children so out of control they are a threat to everyone else at the school and themselves. These “kids” have no business in shcool………school is supposed to be educate the general population not to be babysitters for the handicapped. I am sorry parents, but if this is your kid, you should take care him instead of enabling him to harass others trying to educate

Those parents need to talk to an attorney with special education experience. That child is legally entitled to FAPE, a Free Appropriate Public Education, with the emphasis on Appropriate.

And “Sayit” you should be ashamed of yourself. What happened in your education that you did not learn better than to say such hateful things?

@F Sacco: maybe avoid the ableist slurs (ex: “imbecile” and “idiot”) when trying to make a point about ableism?

@Brad: Having special needs does not preclude being mainstreamed. I have a friend who is likely on the autistic spectrum and is severely dyslexic. This means he has special needs and had an Individual Education Plan (IEP) in school. He might not have been able to spell simple words in third grade, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be in regular math, social studies, and science classes, just going to a different room for a remedial reading class. As to his ASD, it meant he got bullied like hell because he didn’t know how to recognize expression, tone of voice, etc. We take for granted the “sarcasm detector” and other aspects of processing and assessing other people’s emotions.

How could they do this to any child, much less to a special needs child? What a bunch of irresponsible, heartless ANIMALS!!!!! They had better thank their lucky stars it wasn’t MY kid in that bag or all of those BAGS that did it would be on to meet their maker! How dare they?!!!!!!!! I hope this goes to court and I hope that myself or someone like me gets to be on the jury…there are MANY of us out here! And, to the person who had the nerve and ignorance to say “the one with the problem kid is the one who needs to make the special effort” needs to grow up, grow a heart and pray that they never end up with one of THEIR children being injured in an accident and THEY end up with a special needs child. Yeah, the one they are calling a ‘problem child’. You can bet your sweet bippy that their rude and ignorant attitude would surely change real quick. Dontcha’ just love that type of person? NOT!!!!!!! Their integrity is sorely lacking…..

This is disgusting! I have 2 children with classic autism and in 9 years I have never heard of or seen anything so horrible. There are so many ideas, resources, etc, etc that could’ve been utilized instead. It would be great if the Dept of Education could make a webpage where ideas could be submitted and okayed for use (if there isn’t one already). I wonder how anyone ever thought this bag thing was ok and not traumatizing for the child. Very sad……

wow thats all I can say…. This woman probably showed more self control then I would have, if I walked into school and my child was in a bag … I think I would of grabbed the person sitting next to my child and flipped out. Children do NOT deserve that! On the other hand we have a child who is autistic and extremely hyperactive. Not at all defending the actions of the school but when 1 child disrupts the whole class over and over, it becomes unfair to the other students. According to the article its bad enough that this woman has to come in from time to time to calm him down, if he is that bad it might be best to keep him out of “regular” classrooms. Sure he has to right to learn too but he is not the only student, you have to look at this as a whole and if one person is always stopping the teacher, stopping the lessons, and distracting other students, he does not belong in the classroom.

I’m horrified at some of these insensitive remarks. from reading the original article the child was in a special needs classroom where these teachers are supposed to be able to handle children when they get out of control. As a mother of an autistic child I am terrified that this could be mine. Although my child is on the high end of the spectrum and doesn’t have these issues whose to say he won’t have a bad day. Since they had an aide by the child the same aide could’ve taken the child to another room until said child calmed down. Apparently they had already called the boy’s mother and if they were able to get the kid in a bag he could just as easily been taken to a another room so the children trying to learn wouldn’t be disturbed.

There isn’t a bigger disability than ignorance…
Teachers should all have mandated crisis prevention training to help ensure the safety of all students, special needs or not. A good teacher will always have proactive strategies to help prevent certain behaviors when possible. I question why this family has been called 3 times so far this year? Lack of adult:student ratio? Hmmmm sounds like this special ed teacher and school officials needs to stop wasting taxpayer dollars by accepting positions they are obviously not qualified to do. To the idots with the stupidest opinions I heard so far this entire year, it’s obvious that the kids are “getting dumber” because of the idots raising them. Get educated.

I can not believe the stupidity that is being printed. Your kids that have no “problems” really do and these problems are their intolerant and uneducated parents. Society is made up of all kinds of people. We have to learn to deal with them in the best way possible. Bagging them like garbage is not the best way. Ljinnv learn to accept others and realize that should you compare your perfect child to others you will soon realize that that child does not come up to many other people’s standards.

Wow, this is such a sad situation for all parties involved. I’ve got perspective, my now 22 year old son and I have lived through this hell multiple times. My son was never bagged. He was physically restrained numerous times (a practice no longer supported in the research literature). I dreaded the calls that came from the school to come pick up my son when he was out of control. My son suffered through a lot of humiliation and punishment from teachers who did not understand him. Heck, I did not even understand him despite the fact that I diligently consulted folks considered experts in the mental health field.

I don’t blame the teachers so much anymore They did not get, nor do they still get the training or support they need to work with challenging children. We all know hind-sight is 20-20. If I were to reverse the clock and have a do-over rearing my son, I would require my child’s teachers to be trained by Dr. Becky Bailey or Dr. Ross Greene. Helping kids like ours begins with understanding and the development of a specific skill set. May we all have the patience to endure. Being different is not easy.

To the parents who are criticizing special needs kids and their right to an education: Remember this; Autism is quite common and those perfect children you think you have may one day make you the proud grandparent of a special needs kid. Hopefully, sometime between now and then, you will have had considerable growth, mentally.

It sounds like the people at the school probably had a rapport with the student that the parents (and many parents) wouldn’t understand. Still, it wasn’t bright of them to do it.

However, I’ve seen what just one ADHD student can do to the structure of an entire class. Parents still need to do their part by either medicating or changing the child’s diet. I’ve seen too many people go, “But he’s special needs!” and expect that the student gets special privileges. They’re setting that child up for failure once they’re at an age where ADHD can’t be an excuse.

If I did not control my bipolar disorder to the best of my ability, you’d better believe I wouldn’t have a job for long.

I am absolutlely astonished at some of the comments. First of all yes most speical needs children have and IEP. But what people don’t know is that is for the acedemics. My grandson is special needs adhd behavioral issues and odd and developmental delays. The problem is these children think out of the box. so you have 30 children in a class that are thinking in the box and one that is out of the box. The teachers do not have enough training to know how to work with these kids. there are some special teachers that really work at it, but some just come to do their job. By the time my grandson was in 2nd grade we finally got him and aide. this helped a lot. He did ok in elementary but when he started middle school and on to high school that was horrible. I had to put him in a facility for 2 years to help him learn to deal wth his behaviour issues. they finally got him off all his meds but one and we sent him back to high school he had 2 years more. He did wonderful because we had a principle that had worked with special needs and set up a program for him for his behaviour. Its calle the stop light. red for danger yellow for warming that he was getting loud or out of control in class and green was excellent behaviour. they had cards with those colors and he learned what they was for and how to avoid the red. when he got upset or out of control his aide would take him out of class for 15 minutes or so and let him run the track or walk around the yard, to get his energy out then he went back to class and he was fine.He graduated 1 1/2 years ago and now lives in a waiver home, The main reason these chidlren can’t go to a special school is that there isn’t enough of them, and the states don’t have the money to supply them. also some of these children are entitled to a regular education. we had to step back and put in in a residential facility for 2 years. but after he learned to control his behaviour in 4 months he went to group living and did great. then he came home. I also have a 10 year old granddaughter that i am raising, she has been in the regular schools till this year. we moved to a different state and they have a life skills class, she is doing great and loves school. she has progressed remarkably. they have different stages of life skills and she is in the upper level, I love it for she doesn’t get the nasty looks or get shunned by kids in school. she loves school and is very outgoing. she also is adhd developmentally delayed. but they can be controlled, I can only say that if anyone had ever put one of my children or grandchildren in a bag. well there would have been someone sent to the hosp. I also have been called to school with my grandson when he started middle school constently. That was when we knew we had to find a solution to his issues. he then went back to school and has become a member of society. the school districts don’t train the teacher enough to deal with specialneeds children. and there isn’t enough specials schools for them. so there is not other resort except to send themm to regular school. when my boys was growing up and my youngest was adhd, he was the bad kid in class and problems child. he didn’t have a problem he was specialneeds but we wasn’t told that. so we learned the hard way with him. One other thing if people would raise there children to be more understanding and not make fun of children with special needs. there wouldnt be so many problems in school. the words retarded and dum and stupid should be taken out of the dictionary. Children learn from their parents and some parents just don’t know how to teach their children how to be nice. there are less unfortunate people in this world and its not their fault. they dind’t ask to be brought into this world with their special needs. god put them here for a reason.

I am truly floored at the majority of responses to this story. Obviously the negative comments regarding special needs children in public school settings come from people who are ignorant and have chosen to comment before doing any research. Try looking up Least Restrictive Environment and the benefits it has to children with special needs. Research how having special needs children in regular classrooms benefits “normal” children in teaching them tolerance and acceptance. I don’t care how badly a child is “bouncing off the walls.” You don’t place him inside a friggen bag. And shame on all of you that seem to think this was acceptable. Let’s hope you are all blessed with healthy, “normal” children, because you have NO IDEA what it’s like to raise a child with differences, and it’s obvious you wouldn’t be able to handle it.

Where is the compassion? Those of you who say that “special needs” children should be in separate schools, or should be shoved in a bag, are the reason this country is going backwards and ensuring history will repeat itself. Plessy VS Ferguson, if you don’t already know what it is look it up. It is thinking like that, that leads to the demise of a nation. Human beings are exactly that HUMAN, they are made with flaws and imperfections. I can clearly see that those of you who lack the feelings are indeed the ones with the problems. I went to school with a few special needs children, and my educational experience was in no way affected by any of them. Pull your heads out of wherever they may be rammed at this moment open your eyes, and see that you are not helping this country, and have no business speaking on a matter that is in need of sympathy for the child and parents.

ANY parent would be fuming if they came to school and their child had been placed in a bag… special needs or not!!! Who wouldn’t be angry? Gross. Makes me want to vomit…the thought of a child being tied in a bag. I would be terrified if that was ME in there! My children have no special needs, but whether they do or don’t, I would hope they would NEVER be treated this way! Everyone seems to have gotten off of the subject and is arguing about the schooling of special needs vs mainstream students. Restraint is restraint and should not be used in this fashion, period.

HOW DARE SOME ONE SAY SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN HAVE ISSUES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE GODS ANGELS AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS EQUALS NOT INFERRIOR LIVING BEINGS. THOSE WHO BELIEVE THEY OR THEIR CHILDREN ARE BETTER BECAUSE THEIR CHILDREN ARE LESS SPECIAL ARE PATHETIC PEOPLE!! IF SOMEONE TOLD ME MY DAUGHTER WAS “SUCKING UP RESOURCES” I WOULD KNOCK THEM OUT COLD!!

For those of you who think special needs children should be in separate schools, probably in another location. Jump in the time machine and take a trip back to when they were in special schools. See that kid in a wheelchair? The one who can’t use her arms or hands? See that uneaten lunch tray in front of her wheelchair? No one thought to pick up the food and put it in her mouth for her since she couldn’t do it herself. And then there’s a child who the teacher said was ready to learn to read but since there was only 3 or 4 months left in the school year, there wasn’t any point in teaching him/her. Take a spin further back and you can see the institution (they used to call them snake pits for a reason) where they warehoused the disabled and mentally ill till they died (usually pretty quickly too), whose families either couldn’t or wouldn’t take care of them.

No it is not the school’s job to teach this woman’s child how to behave. The longer I’m in education the more I realize the weak link in education is the parents.

Posted by: Randal Rudder | December 23, 2011, 8:44 pm 8:44 pm
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Back at you. The fact that you’re in education and think autism is a behavioral problem concerns me. What? You can’t understand the basic concept of it’s in their wiring and not remotely a choice? Perhaps you need a different career.

This is ouragous there are other techniques other than a garbage bag. Iam a parent of a special needs child this matter should not be swept under the rug at all. Justice is what is needed to a greatest degree. They need to train the teachers and school aides properly a lot of people are not trained to take care of special need kids. It requires a lot of patiece and understanding

35 years ago, I was what you would have called, Special Needs. I was diagnosed at the age of 3 as being Hyperactive. At the age of 7, they put me on Ritalin. Before that, I can still remember to this day, being in my first grade class. I had to much excess energy that yes, I bounced off the walls, I pretended I was a plane and zoomed around the classroom distracting the other children. My teachers response was to bring to class a refrigerator boz and cordon me off from the rest of the classroom.

She seemed to forget about me at that point. I was never given any one on one teaching, no home work, no work sheets, nothing. It wasn’t until 6 months later tat my mother stopped by my class to pick me up for a Dr’s appointment that the school had forgotten about, that she saw me. She literally flipped shi*, and with good reason.

She pulled me out of that school and put me into another where the teachers worked closenly with HER (despite being a working mother that had 2 other children, one that was severely dyslexic, to take care of) She and the teachers taught me how to focus and understand what it was they were trying to teach me, and to this day, I bless each an every one that took an active interest in a problem child that they could just have easily ignored.

For those that have no compassion for someone that has a problem, I wish you insight and understanding and pray that you never have a child that needs the kind of devoted parenting and teaching that I recieved.

I find this appalling on every level possible. Trying to mainstream was what they called it when I was in high school. The special ed students took classes like shop and home ec in hopes to help in life skills. None were so out of control they needed to be bagged. How horrible for the kid and the mom must have been heart sick. It’s hard enough to raise a kid w/o special needs, I don’t think I could do it. I throw no stones here, but I think special needs kids ought to be in special needs schools.

If the child put the teacher in a bag, I wonder would the school find it so amusing and be so understanding? Children learn by example, and that is no example to set. Shame on that school.

Mainstreaming special needs kids, integrating them with “regular” kids, is important for all the kids in a given classroom. It helps socialize the special needs kids and raises awareness among the “regular” kids of the great diversity among all people.
That said, bagging an autistic child also dealing with ADHD because he “was out of control and bouncing off the walls” is WRONG, WRONG WRONG. Children such as this little boy act out due to a combination of frustration and excess energy. They’re usually frustrated (or bored) because the lesson being taught at the time is accompanied by vocal tone and body language which autistic kids have difficulty understanding. Couple that with the absence of safety valves such as recess, which has been done away with by most schools, and you have an out of control disruptive student.
My younger son possesses a near genius IQ, but was so severely dyslexic his kindregarten teacher scoured school supply stores in the Chicago area for a lefr-handed scissor. Throughout school reading was a terrible chore, but whatever was taught orally he retained. He wasn’t an overtly disruptive child but from infancy had the ability to create hillarious facial expressions. Early on in school, he could set an entire classroom into giggles by making faces! Thus, at the beginning of every school year I’d send a note to his teacher to (1) seat him in the front of the class to curb the funny faces, and (2) whenever possible, test him orally. In high school he was placed in a special reading class and did graduate high school.
He was and is artistically inclined and developed amazing ambidextrous ability in the use of many different tools, and has owned his own business for 30 years, though remains left-handed for writing and eating. Reading was a challege for him, but when his son was born and six years later, his daughter, he read to them every night at bedtime. Who knew that “Good Night Moon” would enable him to read the technical manuals he uses in his business with ease?
The parent whose 15 year old son is still in diapers ranted against the various schools which were unable to respond to his multiple special needs needs to keep in mind the necessity of having an aide assigned specifically to him, but if the schools didn’t have funding for this, or the community lacked trained personnel, than it was unrealistic to expect the teacher in a classroom in which the majority of students were NOT special needs to drop everything and everyone else to respond to her child’s multiple special needs. At this point, the parent must become proactive.
I’ve been completing my baccalaureate degree in Spring 2012 at the age of 80. On campus of my state’s largiest university I’ve seen many students with special needs becoming integrated in the campus community, attending classes, making friends. If they can’t read, readers are provided; if they can’t see or hear, the same; if they’re unable to write, note takers are made available to them and special arrangements made for taking exams. I’m left-handed and have a condition called non-Parkinson’s familial tremor affecting my left upper extremity. I’m able to type with little difficulty, but my handwriting has deteriorated to a scribble. Class notes have been a combination of scribble and shorthand but I’d have to transcribe my notes that evening because I wouldn’t be able to read them a day later. Through the university’s Ability Services, I’ve been able to take exams, and typing my answers on computer. I’m taking 9 hours of classes to complete my degree and anticipate at least one of those classes will entail exams which I’ll take on the Ability Services computer.

Parents do no know the scope of it. The school assures us that they are the professionals. So much goes on that is untold. The poor children cannot express things to their parents and the parents feel the children are being cared for. The school system is putting so much on the teachers and they are over stressed themselves. They are looking for a way to punish a child, not correct behavior. Our children are not being cared for properly. Vinegar water sprayed in the face, being placed in a bag, strapped in chairs, insulted, bullied and insulted and more. Its too much. I do not see a solution.

Wow, it’s so funny how the media blows everything out of proportion. But thats the media for you. :)

I have an autistic son. It seems from the comments that people do not know how special needs kids are educated. The IEP not only has academic modifications, but is required by federal law to contain behavioral modifications and instructions on what to do if the child gets out of control. There are specific steps the school is to implement and those steps are usually written by the child’s doctor or therapist. And putting them in a BAG is not one of them. This is child endangerment, plain and simple. And the people who put him in that bag should be arrested. The school has to follow the IEP, that is why you put in the behavior modification plan. So that if they get out of control, everyone knows what to do. This is abuse. and for those of you who think special needs kids shouldn’t be in regular classes, ask Temple Grandin. She is an autistic woman, who is a full professor at Colorado State University in Animal Behavior. She is also a spokeswoman for the American Autism Society. She was in regular classes when she was in school. Our kids deserve an education just as much as your kids do.

Take all of them and put them in a special class in a different building and put in someone who knows how to deal with them, the mother is just lucky they did not put him in the bag and hang the bag on a wall to really control him, do what you have to so you can keep control of these sort of issues if the parent or anyone else does not like it then put him in a different school even if it means you have to move and anyone who does not like this comment I do not care so slam all you want but I say lock those freaks up and do it fast before it causes more issues with the NORMAL ones

“Bags are used to calm and control special-needs children, the Bakers said, but they are elastic and allow the child to stand, move around and get out if they need to.” are you kidding me?! I’m sure there are better ways to calm and control special needs children. If the child is acting out, step outside and speak with him or send him to the office. Don’t tie him in a bag! That’s completely unacceptable.

I have repeated the last comments by the father several times when regarding my own sons school. He is on the Autistic spectrum and also has anxiety disorders. My husband is a stay at home dad. We do not have a vehicle and live 40 miles outside of the nearest town and 6 miles away from the nearest grocery store. It seems that every week, on the 1 day he can go to town with his mother to do the shopping or running around we need to get done, they decide to call while he’s out and tell us that, “they can’t handle our son and we need to come get him.” It is very hard to try to go get him when we are 40 miles away and he is grocery shopping and I am working with no vehicle, this being at 10 AM almost every time. Sometimes it feels as though his teacher has better things she wants to do and just doesn’t want to be there on a Friday. He is 6 years old and has been suspended 6 days. He is a kindergartner. For crying out loud, he is on and IEP and I feel it has been ignored several times. After having a very heated conversation with the principal after the last suspension, things are finally starting to turn around. I made sure they knew I wasn’t going to give up and I would take it to the Federal government if they didn’t start treating my son the way he deserved to be treated. Believe it or not, it worked. We’ll see if it remains that way throughout his school career.

So, now it is coming out that the bag was not a gym bag or a mesh bag, but a sensory integration therapy bag called an Abiliations BagOBalls, specifically designed to calm children through sensory awareness.

What the TEACHER’S AID SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE IS TAKE THIS BOY TO THE PRICIPALS OFFICE AND HAD HIS MOTHER CALLED.
THE TEACHER’S AID THAT DID THIS SHOULD BE FIRED FROM HER JOB & SHOULD HAVE TO FACE ABUSE CHARGES. THIS WAS SO UNCALLED FOR.
A PERSON CAN’T HELP THE WAY THEY WERE BORN AND THEY SHOULDN’T BE TREATED AS SUCH.
I JUST HOPE THIS TEACHER’S AID IS FIRED FROM HER JOB AND SHE HAS TO DO JAIL TIME.

Ok first off I don’t care whatever different ability a person has. They are still a person no matter what stage of intellect, understanding or behaviors. No one should be tied up, drawn stringed up and can’t get out on their own. There are other ways of dealing with out of control behavior that don’t use any type of negetive punishment. A person with different ‘abilites’ may not understand but the effects last. Whatever happened to nurturing? So when I see people who are not disadvantaged and left at the mercey of others should I just tie them up in a bag for the ‘fun’ of it so they behave? No one should be tortured like this. So the next time I see someone drunk on the street should I tie them up in abag so they can’t get out till they sober up? WOW people! would you have liked this to happen to you?

I don’t blame the school or teacher , and if you don’t keep your mouths shut your kids will be placed in institutions. why should they have to deal with your child acting up ? a bag will keep the child from hurting anyone else. would you have prefer a strait jacket ?