Preventing Harmful Restraint And Seclusion In Schools Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4247, the Keeping All Students Safe Act. Children with autism, many of whom are nonverbal or have other communications challenges, are especially vulnerable to dangerous interventions at school by staff who can at times be ill-prepared to deal with unique behavioral issues.
I sat recently with a constituent from Greenwich, whose autistic daughter suffered terrible isolation and trauma in her school years, and who herself founded a group of volunteer advocates whose sole mission is to prevent other autistic children from suffering these same abuses.
The GAO study cited by my colleagues included stories which shock the conscience: a 7-year-old who died after being held face down for hours by school staff, and 5-year-olds allegedly being tied to chairs with bungee cords and duct tape by their teacher and suffering broken arms and bloody noses. These could have been your children or mine.
This legislation is an important step toward ending inhumane treatment of children with autism and other disabilities who, like all students, should be able to trust their educators and feel completely safe in their school environments.
There are, of course, rare and extreme emergencies where it may be necessary to physically intervene. But we affirm today, Mr. Speaker, that any behavioral intervention must be consistent with a child's right to be treated with dignity and to be free from abuse.
With the help of this bill, teachers and school personnel will be trained regularly, and parents will be kept informed on the policies which keep our schools orderly and safe and on the alternatives available to traditional forms of restraint and seclusion.
I'm grateful to my friends in the autism advocacy community, including Autism Speaks and the Greenwich-based Friends of Autistic People, for their tireless work on this issue. Children with autism deserve the same rights available to all children, a free and appropriate education, safety and dignity. This bill is a step in the right direction, and I urge my colleagues to support it.
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