[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 50 (Thursday, April 7, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H2413-H2414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     KEEPING ALL STUDENTS SAFE ACT

  (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, 1 year ago this House 
overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that would have prevented 
children from being abused in classrooms; but, unfortunately, it never 
became the law. In the year since then, children have suffered and have 
been abused in school, and parents have felt completely helpless.
  In 2009, the Government Accountability Office told our committee of 
the shocking wave of abuse by untrained school staff who were misusing 
emergency interventions. Most of these victims were children with 
disabilities. Some were 3 and 4 years old. In some cases, children 
died.
  Restraint and seclusion should be used only as a last resort and by 
trained professionals, but the GAO found that was not the case. This is 
unacceptable, and yet it is a reality for too many children across the 
country.
  A media report out yesterday highlights that these horrific abuses 
continued through this past year. In Chicago, a 4-year-old boy's wrists 
were taped together with painter's tape and then duct tape because he 
refused to take a nap and he didn't wash his hands. In Fayetteville, 
North Carolina, a 5-year-old student's arm was broken when a teacher 
held him down. In New Orleans, a teacher handcuffed a male student by 
his ankle to a chair because

[[Page H2414]]

he didn't follow the teacher's instructions.
  This abuse of children and the death of children has got to stop.

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