Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Seven-year-old Angelika Arndt died in 2006 after being suffocated while in a face-down restraint hold performed by staff members at the Rice Lake Day Treatment Center in Wisconsin, where she received academic assistance and therapy for a variety of psychological and developmental problems.
Courtesy Donna Pavlik
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Christopher Baker, a Kentucky fourth-grader with autism and learning disabilities, was stuffed into a sack resembling a duffle bag and placed in a hallway by a teacher's assistant for misbehaving in class.
Courtesy Sandra Baker
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

A duffle bag, specially made to restrain children, similar to the one Christopher Baker's mother said she found her nine-year-old son in at a Kentucky elementary school.
Courtesy James Gallini
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Corey Foster of New York City, 16, died after being restrained by school staff members for allegedly refusing to leave the basketball court at the Leake & Watts school for students with special needs in Yonkers, N.Y. The autopsy report ruled Corey's death an accident due to "cardiac arrest during excited state while being subdued." The Foster family is suing the school.
Courtesy Foster family
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Sheila Foster's son Corey died after being restrained face-down by staff when he allegedly refused to leave the basketball court at Leake & Watts school in Yonkers, N.Y. Mrs. Foster has joined other parents in the fight to end the use of physical restraint and seclusion in schools.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

The mother of Lukas Hines, a 10-year-old with autistic characteristics, captured video of her son being manhandled on his school bus in Texas by a bus supervisor who said the child refused to stay in his seat on the bus and was potentially harmful to others.
Courtesy Anna Hines
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

The mother of a seven-year-old boy in Phoenix learned her son had been placed in this padded "seclusion room" numerous times from 10 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon.
Courtesy Leslie Noyes
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

The "isolation booth" at Mint Valley Elementary School in Longview, Washington. Pictures of the booth were placed on-line by a local mother who called the booth abusive, according to Portland, Oregon ABC affiliate KATU. A local public school official said the booth was not abusive and was used as therapy for children who needed to calm down.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Cheryl McCollins reached a settlement with the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts after it shocked her special-needs son Andre 31 times using skin-shock therapy for refusing to remove his coat. Video of the incident was released this year after McCollins fought fora decade to have it shown. The school says the skin-shock therapy can be an effective treatment for extremely troubled students.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

As seen in this image from a video, high-school student Andre McCollins was restrained face-down on a board before being shocked 31 times using skin shock therapy at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts after refusing to take off his coat. The school says the skin-shock therapy is only given after court and parental approval is received.
Courtesy Cheryl McCollins
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Rep. George Miller, D.-California, has introduced federal legislation that would enact stricter guidelines on the use of physical restraints and seclusion in the nation's public and private schools.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA), opposes federal legislation on the grounds that restraint and seclusion techniques are essential tools for schools serving students with disabilities who may become aggressive and a danger to themselves and others.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Dr. Michael George is the director of the Centennial School of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.,which uses a positive behavioral teaching approach to prevent aggressive behavior by students with autism and other special needs. The school never uses padded seclusion rooms, and physical restraints are used only when there is an imminent threat to the safety of the student, staff or others.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Students with autism and behavioral problems at the Centennial School of Lehigh in Bethlehem, Pa. described being restrained face down, locked in tiny, cell-like "scream rooms" for hours and tied up with string for misbehaving at their previous schools. Centennial does not use restraints or seclusion to punish or discipline its special needs students.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Jackson Patzer, a second grader at the Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pa., describes being restrained at a previous school after he became rambunctious and punched a teacher. He said the restraints hurt and only made him angrier.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Bobby Mullen, a fourth grader at the Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pa., recalled being pinned to the ground by "a really big man" at his previous school after he had misbehaved. Mullen said being restrained "makes it worse." He likes the problem-solving room at Centennial, where he says he can go to calm down if he's feeling bothered.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Thirteen-year-old Ethan Shumway of Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pa., remembers suffering harsh consequences when he misbehaved or took a break from doing his classwork at other schools. He said he was restrained face-down, where a staff member would sit on top of him making it difficult for him to breathe, and having his hands tied behind his back with string, which left marks around his hands.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Jordan Peterson, an 11-year-old student at Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pa., said she was dragged by the wrists and put in a dark, windowless seclusion room for the full school day at another school. She said it was her punishment for yelling and screaming when she became upset.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Dayne Cruz, a sixth-grader at the Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pa., said he had been restrained many times at previous schools. He said the restraints hurt and made him angrier.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Sixteen-year-old Terrence Jubilee, now a student at the Centennial School in Bethlehem, Pa., described being strapped inside a closet-sized booth for an hour at a previous school, punishment for misbehaving.
ABC News
Kids Hurt, Killed by Restraints at School

Michael Renner-Lewis III, a 15-year-old autistic student, was killed on his first day of high school in 2003 when he was restrained face-down by several staff members at Parchment High School in Michigan after he became agitated following a seizure. His mother, Elizabeth Johnson, sued the school district and settled the case.
Courtesy Elizabeth Johnson