I’m sad to say Max Benson, a 13-year-old with autism died after being restrained face down for 2 hours at a private school he attended in California. This incident happened last year and now 3 school employees have just been charged with a felony for involuntary manslaughter. I hope we as a community can have a larger conversation about restraints in schools to avoid a situation like this happening again.
There have been numerous reports of injury of students as well due to restraints & seclusion. Restraints to me is a very scary issue altogether in our schools. I posted this video last year on my page sharing my thoughts on the matter. In the comments of my video you can read here several people indicated the importance that if you do have to restrain someone, it should never be face down and it should only be for a very short period of time.
Please if you can take a moment to read Autism Society’s position statement below on Max and what they are doing to advocate for less restraints in our schools. Thank you. Best, Kerry Magro