Report says children as young as five restrained and secluded in Irish schools

Shocking.

A position paper released by Inclusion Ireland has reported that children as young as five are being forcibly restrained by adult staff and left unsupervised in unsafe rooms in Irish schools. The paper focuses on 14 case studies of children with disabilities who attend both mainstream and special Irish schools. These children have all experienced seclusion and/or restraint in their educational environments. According to the report, one child was five years old when he was restrained up against a wall on a number of occasions. This child was also separated from his peers by a ring of chairs around him at the back of the classroom. Some parents reported signs of violence on their children, like bruises and scratches. In most cases, the staff involved had not received any training in ‘crisis intervention or prevention’ strategies. Under current Department of Education guidelines, there is no compulsory requirement for staff training on crisis interventions. This kind of training and supervision is compulsory in other sectors such as mental health. The cases reported by Inclusion Ireland include children who were secluded and restrained for minor incidents or 'just in case'. Another child who was prone to seizures was left unsupervised for long periods of time.

"Ben* was placed into seclusion (he calls it solitary confinement) in school as a form of discipline. He was no threat to others; all he did was kick a table. The school did not even tell me this room existed; another parent did." "I had to collect him from the room and it is like a prison cell with no handle on the inside of the door. My son was quite distressed and was crying. I contacted Tusla who made no finding against the school".

Inclusion Ireland says the children in the case studies were all harmed by their experience.

"Some children with disabilities were physically affected and some were emotionally affected by their experience... There is a real risk of physical and emotional harm for children who experience restraint or seclusion, staff who partake in incidents and children who witness incidents."

One child was locked into a small storage room with a small window. Killian's Mum says her son was locked in the room, unsupervised for four or five hours "for trivial reasons such as not doing school work quick enough or talking in class." Killian was expelled for trying to escape from the room. His mother says he "was so traumatised that he was out of school for 18 months. The parents involved and Inclusion Ireland have expressed concern at the inaction of the Department of Education and Skills and the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) in addressing the issue of seclusion and restraint in schools. The report by Inclusion Ireland  states that "there is a real, on-going risk of physical and psychological harm to children." The National Council for Special Education (NCSE) asked the Department of Education for guidelines on the issue of restraint and seclusion in 2012, in 2016 and again in 2018. The NCSE called for “immediate action" and Inclusion Ireland says that the 14 cases in their paper do not represent the full extent of the issue.

"There is currently no legal requirement for a teacher or school in Ireland to record or report the use of restraint or seclusion of a student. This means that there is little or no data available on how frequently these practices occur in schools, why they are used or their impact on children or staff."

Prior to reporting to Inclusion Ireland, some of the parents had been trying to ensure their children would be safe at school by engaging with the schools and State bodies to help their children. Inclusion Ireland says that in those cases "nothing changed for their children". Inclusion Ireland is calling on the Department of Education and Skills to issue guidelines that ensure that restraint and seclusion are used only to protect the child or others and not as a form of punishment.