Date: 2010-03-03
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker and Members of the House. I rise today in strong support of this bipartisan legislation that will make our classrooms safer for our children and our teachers. But first I would like to tell the story of Cedric. This is a picture of Cedric. who was a young man from Killeen. Texas. who died in his classroom when he was just 14 years of age. Cedric was living with a foster family after an early childhood filled with abuse. Among other things. his biological family had neglected him by denying him food. Despite knowing this. on the morning he died. Cedrics teacher punished him for refusing to do his work by delaying his lunch for hours. When Cedric tried to leave his classroom to find food. his teacher put him face down in restraint and sat on him in front of his classmates. He repeatedly cried out that he could not breathe. He died minutes later on the classroom floor. Now I would like to tell you the story of Paige. Paige was a bright. energetic. and happy young girl who started a new school in Cupertino. California. But Paige. who has Aspergers Syndrome. came home from her school the first week with bruises complaining that her teacher hurt her. Paiges parents confronted the teacher. who denied causing the bruising. She did admit to restraining Paige for simply wiggling a loose tooth. Her parents were shocked to learn later that the teacher had lied and that she had actually held Paige face down and sat on her. Sitting on a 7yearold for wiggling a loose tooth. Paige barely weighed 40 pounds. Over the course of many months. Paige was repeatedly abused and injured during restraint incidents until her parents finally pulled her out of the school. She survived. but she still bears the emotional scars of this abuse. Cedrics and Paiges stories are not isolated incidents in Americas schools today. Last May. the Government Accountability Office told our committee about the shocking wave of abuse of children in our public and private schools. This abuse was happening at the hands of untrained school staff who were misusing restraint and seclusion. Hundreds of students across the U.S. have been victims of this abuse. These victims include students with disabilities and students without disabilities. Many of these victims were children as young as 3 and 4 years of age. In some cases. children died. Restraint and seclusion are complicated practices. They are emergency interventions that should be used only as a last resort and only by trained professionals. But GAO found that too often these techniques are being used in schools under the guise of discipline or convenience. Last year. in my home State of California. there were more than 14.300 cases of seclusion. restraint. and other "emergency interventions." We dont know how many of these cases were actual emergencies. We have Federal laws in place to prevent these types of abuses from happening in hospitals and other communitybased facilities that receive Federal funding. but currently there are no Federal laws on the books to protect children from these abuses in the schools. where they spend most of their time. Without a Federal standard. State policies and oversight. they vary widely. leaving children vulnerable. Of the 31 States that have established some law or regulation. many are not comprehensive in approach and several only address restraint or address seclusion. not necessarily both. For example. in one State there are rules only for children enrolled in preK. In another. only children with autism are protected. In yet another example. only residential schools are covered. Many States allow restraints or seclusion in nonemergency situations. simply to protect property or to maintain order. No child should be subject to these extreme interventions for simple noncompliance. like the 7yearold who died after being restrained for blowing bubbles in her milk. Mr. Speaker. when these abuses occur. it isnt just the individual victim who suffers. It hurts their classmates who witness these traumatizing events. It undermines the vast majority of teachers and staff who are trying to give students a quality education. Its a nightmare for everyone involved. We are here today to try and end this nightmare. We are here today to make sure that no other children suffer the same fate as Cedric and Paige. The Keeping All Students Safe Act will ensure that all children are safe and protected in schools. This bill takes a balanced approach to addressing a very serious problem. For the first time. it will establish minimum safety standards for schools. similar to Federal protections in place for children in other facilities. Under this legislation. physical restraint and seclusion can only be used to stop imminent danger of injury. The bill prohibits mechanical restraints. such as strapping children to their chairs or ducttaping parts of their bodies. and any restraint that restricts their breathing. It also prohibits chemical restraints. using medication to control behavior without a doctors prescription. The bill also will require students to notify parents after a restraint or seclusion incident so that parents dont learn about these abuses from whistleblowing teachers or from their own childrens bruises. Mr. Speaker. we all agree that teachers play the single most important role in helping students grow. thrive. and succeed. Teachers support this bill because it focuses on keeping both students and staff safe. giving teachers the support they need do their jobs. It asks States to ensure that enough personnel are properly trained to keep both students and staff safe and encourages the schools to implement positive approaches to managing these behavioral issues. Mr. Speaker. Im very proud that we worked on this legislation in a bipartisan way. I want to thank Congresswoman CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS for her leadership. her diligence. her persuasion. and her hard work in fashioning this legislation. I would also like to thank the National Disability Rights Network for bringing this abuse to our attention. the National School Boards Association. and more than a hundred other organizations for their support. Everyone in this Chamber can agree that nothing is more important than keeping our children safe. Its time to try to end this abuse. I believe that this legislation will go a long way in setting the standard and showing States the way. and hopefully in the next 2 years the States will develop their own standards that at least meet these minimum standards of not depriving these children of the cushion of safety that they are entitled to and that their parents and family expect when they go to school on a daily basis. So I would like to once again remind us of what happened to Cedric and to Paige at their age. their vulnerabilities. their history. and what happened to them one day when they went to school. I reserve the balance of my time.