Children Should Not Be Restrained

Floor Speech

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Ms. GARCIA of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the need for us to prohibit the physical restraining of young children as a form of discipline in schools.

Shockingly, in the 2017 through 2018 school year, nearly 71,000 elementary school-aged children were physically restrained. Even worse, 80 percent of the restrained children were kids with disabilities, some younger than 5 years old, even though they only make up 13 percent of the student population.

In Texas, 91 percent of all reported restraints are experienced by children with disabilities. Regrettably, children who are Latino and Black are at much higher risk of being restrained.

Since 2020, nearly 20 fatalities have occurred because of poor restraining techniques and children's bodies simply being too small to endure this form of discipline. This is simply heartbreaking and is totally unacceptable.

It doesn't appear to be slowing down. Just this month, Moesha Baker, a mother from the Houston Independent School District, received a letter from her 4-year-old son's elementary school and was told that he had been restrained at school. Ms. Baker learned 2 days after the incident that this restraining had been unjustified and that the teacher was on administrative leave.

This is a very deeply troubling case. Fortunately, her son was not physically hurt, but think of the emotional scars that he must endure. This is, again, totally unacceptable.

Many times children are hurt, like a 10-year-old student from a charter school in Waco, Texas, who sadly was restrained to the point that he actually had a broken arm in four places when he was restrained last month. The child had a learning disability.

Madam Speaker, put yourself in the shoes of these families. One minute, you are hugging your child, saying goodbye, they are off to school. The next minute, you get a call that your child has been restrained, put in handcuffs or zip-tied as a form of discipline. This is flat wrong, it is inhumane, and it must stop.

Madam Speaker, today, I will be introducing my resolution called the No Kids in Cuffs Resolution to encourage local and State governments to prohibit this practice.

Young children who are restrained are more likely to experience short-term and long-term problems in sleep, learning, relationships, and trust. In fact, being restrained is so traumatic that it even impedes a child's development. Many of them go on to struggle with suicidal thoughts and are forced to live with post-traumatic anxiety. All of this on top of the physical pain that they may experience.

While the children clearly must be the first we protect, sometimes teachers, administrators, and officers are also at risk of developing trauma from just simply witnessing a child being restrained to the degree that their little arm is broken in four places. It is hard to endure, it is hard to witness, and this trauma must end.

Let's make sure no other parent must endure what Ms. Baker and thousands of others families must go through. Let's begin the conversation of prohibiting the physical restraining of children. Let's put children over restraints. Let's put books over cuffs.

That is why I am introducing today, Madam Speaker, the No Kids in Cuffs Resolution, and I ask all my colleagues to help me. We must end this practice. Children should focus on their books and their learning, not on cuffs and trauma.

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