FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Disability Rights North Carolina Praises Representatives Miller and McMorris Rodgers and Senator Christopher Dodd for Introducing Legislation on Restraint and Seclusion in Schools

Group Calls for Swift Passage of Federal Legislation for the Protection of Students and Teachers

Raleigh, NC - Disability Rights North Carolina (DRNC), along with the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN), praises Representative George Miller (D-CA), Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) for introducing legislation in Congress today addressing the disturbing use of restraint and seclusion in schools.

Earlier this year, NDRN issued a national report on seclusion and restraint in U.S. schools. The report showed an unsettling use of seclusion and restraint tactics, which resulted in physical and emotional injuries as well as deaths, in schools affecting students in grades K-12. The report documented cases that ranged from students being locked in rooms or even boxes for hours to students who were encouraged to release their aggression by wrestling in "WWF Rooms."

The report was a compilation of cases outlined by NDRN's 57-member network of Protection and Advocacy (P&A) systems nationwide, including DRNC. The P&As work to ensure that people with disabilities are afforded equality of opportunity and are able to fully participate by exercising choice and self-determination.

"DRNC supports the passage of federal legislation to protect the safety of both students and school employees," stated Vicki Smith, Executive Director of Disability Rights NC. In the last year, DRNC has investigated allegations of inappropriate seclusion and restraint in several school districts across North Carolina. "This legislation would provide significant protections that are currently not included in North Carolina's seclusion and restraint law. For example, schools would no longer be permitted to utilize seclusion or restraint to prevent minor property damage. Now, a child can be restrained if he breaks a pencil." Smith stated that DRNC has been working to ban the use of face-down restraint in North Carolina's public schools, a position that interferes with a student's breathing and can result in serious injury or death. "The proposed legislation would prohibit this kind of restraint and any other restraint that restricts a child's breathing."

NDRN report: http://www.ndrn.org/sr/SR-Report.pdf

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Disability Rights North Carolina is the state's federally mandated protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities. One of the P&A's primary federal mandates is to protect and advocate against the abuse and neglect of people with disabilities.