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Thursday, 14 May 2015

Excessive restraint used on young children


"Police in the northern German city of Bremen have been issued with a new weapon in their fight against crime: "spit hoods", transparent cotton hoods that can be placed over detainees’ heads to prevent them spitting at officers."

It is shocking to know that this type of restraint is being used on young children with special needs.

From mysonsnotrainman:
 
"But how can anyone think this is the right way to treat any child, let alone a child with special needs? It happens more and more - even the language of special needs education has changed over the years to justify the unjustifiable. The term 'restraint' has become 'positive handling'. Seclusion rooms are 'Chill-Out Zones'. It's bloody wrong. By using airy fairy terms, we start to make people think their use is justifiable, even beneficial to the individual, whereas if we returned to the bleaker language of 'restraint' and 'isolation units', maybe people would think twice before using them, and ensure they really are the last minute, absolute emergency intervention they were always intended to be. "

"I'd love to tell you the spit-hood was a one-off, but so conditioned have things like this become I even have a 'Spit Hood Policy' adorning my coffee table, no doubt created to both justify its existence, and to satisfy Mr Ofsted that all is well with the world. As long as we document it, its use must be legitimate, right?"

http://www.mysonsnotrainman.com/blog

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