Here’s one of those news stories you hate to read–a mother came to her child’s school for a meeting and found her son belted to a chair.
Mom: Son With Autism Tied Up By Teacher’s Aide
From the story:
IPS Special Education Director Robb Warriner said the aide who belted the boy to the chair made a very poor decision, and that the aide had been disciplined.
You don’t get much detail, but there were three adults in the room, a teacher and two aides. Why only one was disciplined? Why the aide? Did the teacher try to stop the restraint?
Left Brain Right Brain 
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/bill-to-protect-disabled-students-from-abusive-restraint-633351.html
Sad. I made the mistake of reading the comments on the site. The ignorance makes my brain hurt and my heart cry. (and I don’t get why they are assuming he was mainstreamed – mainstreamed classes rarely have multiple aides, unless one of them was acting as a one on one. The other problem is often the para professionals are placed based on seniority, rather than skills/experience/ability to work with the child)
Me too Navi, you have to wonder how they can hold on to the term ‘heartland of America’ in Indiana with ignorant and rigid opinions like some of those. But you have to remind yourself that outside of our world of special needs and disability rights, lurks a public mob that has absolutely no patience for anything that is outside their ideal of ‘normal’…
“But you have to remind yourself that outside of our world of special needs and disability rights, lurks a public mob that has absolutely no patience for anything that is outside their ideal of ‘normal’…”
Sadly, we don’t have to leave the wrld of disability to find this attitude.
“Suzanne Aaron with About Special Kids, a resource center for parents of children with special needs, said increased supervision in the classroom can reduce the need to restrain a child who wanders.”
…yeah, and so can a fricking BELL on your door. Come on, people. A two-dollar solution that saves the kid’s sanity and gives you the heads-up if he ever leaves the classroom. Why do people not think about these things first? There is no need to “restrain a child who wanders”. Even if he’s the kind to outright bolt from the classroom, all that’s needed is to place him at the back of the classroom and the teacher near the door. Preferably with a couple of bean bag chairs thrown somewhere quiet, that he can run to instead.
All I could ask for is that all the educators that were present get something like sensitivity training. (I would state it as victim awareness training, but that is reserved for harsher offenses.)
I used to be restrained by my parents with a harness, as a ‘bolter’. For all I know it kept me out of death by rivers and street traffic. I can’t be to harsh if the child was basically unharmed, though the spectre of psychological hurt might linger.