A NEW SURVEY of just over 400 parents reveals that 27% of children with disabilities have been restrained at school, while 35% have been secluded from others in the classroom.
The survey was conducted by Inclusion Ireland and autism charity AsIAm, who have called for “urgent guidance and regulation for schools concerning seclusion and restraint” on the back of the findings.
As part of the survey, parents were asked if their child ever experienced seclusion, and/or mechanical, physical or chemical restraint in school.
Seclusion is defined as placing and keeping a person alone in a room or other space, from which they are unable to leave.
Meanwhile, a mechanical restraint is the use of a device to subdue or control bodily movements, while physical restrained it the use of direct physical contact to restrain someone.
A chemical restraint is the use of substances to restrain a person, regardless of whether this substance has been medically prescribed for the treatment of a diagnosed physical or mental illness.
Some responses included reports of children being locked in rooms alone, sensory rooms being used inappropriately, children being dragged across the school floor, and children being physically lifted or held against their will.
One parent of a child with Asperger’s who is in fifth class in primary school said their son tried to “leave the room abruptly without permission” during rehearsals for a Christmas play, he was “rugby tackled to the floor by the female teacher”.
“She held him there for a while and shouted at him about how struggling was futile due to her superior strength,” said the parent.
Another parent said their son was “dragged across a school floor” to a seclusion space where he was “stripped naked multiple times due to distress”.
“The door was held shut [by] multiple persons… An animal would not be treated this way,” said the parent.
A third parent said their daughter “was lifted by arms and legs by a teacher and SNA into a sensory room and told she wasn’t allowed leave. She was bruised from this.”
Commenting on the findings, CEO of Inclusion Ireland Derval McDonagh said: “What disabled children are enduring in schools is hugely damaging and a violation of their rights.
“In many cases these children are desperately trying to advocate for themselves and are being told over and over again from very young that what they have to say doesn’t matter and who they are is wrong.
“Meanwhile, parents share with us feeling powerless and facing persistent gaslighting.”
McDonagh said the findings “reveal a chronic and often oblivious ableism, as well as a lack of training in some of our schools”.
She added: “Classmates are often witness to seclusion and restraint, learning that if you are different you are punished. This needs to end now.
“We will look back on this era with shame.”
Meanwhile, Adam Harris, CEO of AsIAm, said the findings “are a deeply distressing snapshot”.
He added that the Department of Education has a “statutory public sector duty to uphold human rights”.
However, he said “we have waited since 2018 for promised guidelines on this issue”.
While he acknowledged that this work is underway, he remarked that it is “greatly overdue” and expressed concern that “it will fall short of what is required”.
Harris added that enacting “robust systems to safeguard young people is not about a blame game or a matter of trust” but is “about protecting everyone within our education system”.
The AsIAm CEO has called on the Department to “commit to comprehensive statutory regulations which prioritise the rights of children in our schools to be free from seclusion and inappropriate restraint”.
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