Experiences with Special Ed: The Ugly

As bad as the whole of the Kindergarten year was, one incident stands out. Julie came to me one night and told me that Zeke’s teacher had called to talk about his behavior, his acting out in class. What it came down to was she was asking for Julie’s permission to strap Zeke down in his chair so he would sit still in class.

This was 1996, not even 10 years ago, and the teacher (with the concurrence of Zeke’s case worker in the district) wanted to STRAP MY CHILD DOWN IN HIS CHAIR. Julie, of course, said no. Here’s where it gets ugly.

Not long after Julie told me about this obscene request, I happened to be at the school. This teacher, who had already approached Julie and been turned down, told me that she would like to use physical restraints on Zeke. Did she tell me that she had already asked Julie, and that Julie had said no? What do you think? Needless to say, I also said no. (What I thought was, “Why don’t you let me strap you down in a chair!?”)

It wasn’t long after this that we requested the IEP update and got the placement Zeke needed.