Dear Senators Casey and Specter:
I hereby write to you this day to ask for your consideration in support of the HR Bill 4247 OR S 2860- Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act. I therefore bring to your awareness that I am one of your constituents and that I am presently a student taking BSN at LaSalle University. I think it will be very useful for you to get a feeling of why I regard this bill as a fundamental one that requires everyone of us to take care of the poor and the vulnerable in our society; the disabled to be more specific.
In the past as well as in the present times, there has been an improper use of physical restraints on such children with disabilities in our schools which go unreported. It is very discouraging to find out there are no laws governing the utilization of restraints. The differences seen in the application of seclusion as well as restraints is indeed a very humiliating affair. Moreover, there are a lot of published materials that highlight the severity of the restraints in calming students. They have been very disastrous the moment they are applied in an unsuitable manner.
It is therefore very imperative if we considered standing in support of this bill because it makes us come up with strategies as well as methodologies of restraints use; putting a ceiling on restraint and seclusion use save for a looming danger cased by the child; demanding the culmination of restraints and seclusion use the moment the looming danger is no more; offering personnel training at institutions of learning; together with requiring schools to do restrain and seclusion documentation and thereby informing the guardians or parents the moment restraints have been used.
This bill has received a lot of support from both national and no-governmental organizations which work towards advocating the needs of the disabled. There are other options to use instead of restraints like keeping an eye on children one on one by a well trained staff as purported by Esquire (2009). Therefore I humbly request you to co-sponsor this bill for us to be in a position of helping these disadvantaged children.
Thank you
Esquire, J. B., (21st December, 2009). Preventing Harmful Restraint and Seclusion in Schools Act. What Does It Mean For Children with Disabilities? Retrieved April 29th, 2010 from http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/restraint.hr4247.butler.htm
This article gives an overview of the way the children in all over America are confined in rooms of seclusions and also restrained. It highlights the problems associated with these restraints and how disastrous they have been to the point of losing the lives of the vulnerable and disabled, giving a list of examples. The article also shows the move taken by GAO in proving that the application of such restraints was not an efficacious solution in addressing the problems faced by our children at school. The article lays emphasis on the contents of the bill highlighting its strengths and weaknesses in an effort of making sure that the bill is effectively applied. It has pointed out several bans on restraints giving comprehensive reasons as to why such a move should be taken. The rights of children are dealt with very well in the article. This is indeed a real strength that has been shown by this article. The author has vividly explained the areas of concern in the bill which may need amendment for it to function very well to our children at school. I think that this article is a good one as it helps us see the real issues which need to be addressed to see the success of the bill. It has been very instrumental in promoting the well-being of our children at school. It is an article worth of consideration if there are any effective changes to be established in the current method of dealing with the problems of the disabled and the vulnerable in the society at large.