ACTION ALERTS

Calling all advocates for the humane treatment of the cognitively disabled. [Updated June 2, 2004)]

URGENT CALL TO ABUSE AND INJURY VICTIMS! Anyone who has had their disabled children's civil and human rights or parental rights violated by intrusive behavioral practices or policies please respond promptly--National exposure opportunity at the APRAIS Press Conference:

APRAIS PRESS CONFERENCE-------JULY 15, 2004 THE ALLIANCE TO PREVENT RESTRAINT, AVERSIVE INTERVENTIONS, AND SECLUSION-----PRESS CONFERENCE --WASHINGTON DC STATE OFFICE BUILDING--JULY 15, 2004 (Specific information available soon on the upcoming history-making conference and White Paper)

WHAT TO DO TO HELP EXPOSE THE ABUSES TAKING PLACE: 1. Find your child's photo that best displays the trauma or injury for the large posters being displayed at the Conference. 2. Attach to the photo and email the below questionnaire to CIBRA8@webtv.net for forwarding to the APRAIS conference organizers who are working on the posters. (**Cut and Paste the form or just number your answers on an email page to correspond with the number of the question.)

QUESTIONNAIRE ON INJURY 1. I am the parent or legal guardian of the child in this photo, and I give permission for the photo and the following information to be displayed at the APRAIS Press Conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C. during July 2004 to address the need for protection from the use of aversives, restraints, and seclusion. YES____NO____

2. Name of Child (first and last OR first name only):

3. Child's home is in (city and/orstate):

4. Child's injury, trauma or death occurred in (city and state) IF DIFFERENT FROM CHILD'S HOME (ie. a residential program):

5. Type of setting in which the above occurred (public school, private school, residential program, in-home professional program, etc.):

6. Name of school, program, etc. (NAME IS OPTIONAL TO DISCLOSE) and nature of the injury etc. (bruises, broken bones, psychological and emotional trauma, significant weight loss, asphyxiation, etc.):

7. What aversive, restraint or seclusion technique caused the injury, etc. above (e.g. 4-point restraint, baskethold, child tied to chair, slapped, liquid sprayed in face, denied food or water, etc.):

8. Child's age (when the above occured):

9. Outcome for child (still in hospital, returned to school, diagnosed with PTSD, developed permanent physical problems, died, etc):

10. Outcome for program/perpetrator (lawsuit pending, perpetrator arrest, nothing done, etc):

11. Additional comments or information:

-------------------------------- -----PREVIOUS EXPIRED ALERTS BELOW---

NEW JERSEY ---IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED ON ANTI - AVERSIVE/RESTRAINT BILLS! Help stop the abusive treatment of special needs children in NJ. ----- Assembly Bill #A134 - Senate Bill #S1134 (formerly A2540) gives professionals and parents the option of any teaching method without using punishment through aversives. ---------What are aversives? Aversives include any of the following: spraying mists in the face, ammonia inhalants, pinching, hitting, restraint for non-emergencies, corporal punishment, seclusion in spaces which are not easily accessible, withholding meals, deprivation of any of the senses, ignoring a child while they hurt themselves, verbal or mental abuse or pushing a child to the point of "severe emotional or physical distress." Examples:

1. A child has been continually "acting out" during work sessions and it has been determined that they are trying to escape working. The child is forced to continue working and a punishment is implemented for time out with arms and feet restrained for 5 minutes each time they "act out."

2. A non-verbal child is screaming when trying to communicate. Spray mists are used on their face each time they scream to let them know it is inappropriate.

What about emergencies where the child is in danger of hurting themselves of others? Assembly Bill #A134 --Senate Bill #S1134 limit RESTRAINT FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY with regulations for their use to protect the child and professional and does not support aversives for punishment.

How far should a child be pushed to learn? These bills promote educating the professionals in not forcing a child to learn to the point of "severe emotional distress" which leads to an emergency. There is a difference between protecting a child with challenging behaviors and intentionally inflicting physical or emotional pain on them. This is not teaching.

Why should a child be punished for their disability? The use of any aversive as a punishment is inhumane, would never be used on a typical child and is a violation of our children's civil rights. Many disabled individuals are now speaking out on the abuse that they received. There are no current laws or regulations regarding punishment for special needs children in New Jersey. Many parents and professionals have joined the fight: The Autism National Committee (http://www.autcom.org) The Association for the Severely Handicapped (http://www.tash.org), Positive Supports Network of New Jersey (http://www.aclink.org/PSNNJ/), Children Injured by Restraint and Aversives (http://users.1st.net/cibra) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------WE NEED TO GET THESE BILLS MOVING! PLEASE WRITE OR PHONE THE TWO CO-CHAIRS OF THE EDUCATION COMMITTEE FOR THE SENATE AND THE CHAIR FOR THE ASSEMBLY TO REQUEST AN EDUCATION COMMITTEE HEARING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE : ------- 1) Bill #S1134, Senator Robert J. Martin, Co-Chair Education Committee, 101 Gibralter Drive, Suite 1-A, Morris Plains, NJ 07950 ----Phone: (973) 984-0922, Email--SenMartin@njleg.org -----------------2) Bill #S1134, Senator Shirley K. Turner, Co-Chair Education Committee, 14 East Commerce Street, 3rd Floor, Bridgeton, NJ 08302----Phone: (856-455-1011), Email---SenTurner@njleg.org----------3) Bill #A134, Assemblyman Joseph Doria, Chairman, Education Committee 595 Broadway,Bayonne, NJ 07002---Phone: (201)437-5150

SAMPLE LETTER: *******

Dear (Senator/Assemblyperson): I am writing this letter to request an Education Committee hearing on Assembly Bill #A134/Senate Bill #S1134 as soon as possible. This bill will help to ensure the safety of our special needs children in New Jersey. It will also provide support and education to our professionals and parents. Restraint should be used for emergencies only with specific regulations to follow. Aversives should never be allowed and are a violation of our children's civil rights.

(Any personal note or experience you may have had) Thank you.

**Comments may also be emailed to DonnaLitr@aol.com

UPDATES TO FOLLOW

A New Jersey Mom's Viewpoint (reprinted with permission) I don't know how many of you are aware that there is a bill that recently passed committee in the NJ legislature relevant to our kids. Can anyone explain to me COSACS position on bill A-2540? It is disgusting and I for one will never attend another function held by them or write another check. I can not post their response. For those of you who have signed up to put your time and energy into selling their message....The bill seeks to put a limit on the use of aversives and restraint and requires a M.D. to sign off on what methods are being used. We also want someone to monitor whats going on and a Human Rights committee to handle disputes. Certain practices should not exist--they are cruel and dangerous. My daughter is 14 and within a public school (which aren't as inclined to use aversives or restraint) these are the things that she has already been subject to: a rifkin chair which was the only time she ever exhibited SIB (the outside behaviorist we were working with couldn't believe they were using this on her for pulling papers down off the wall; 6 hrs. of a tie in chair every day), forcefeeding which they call food desensitization (one person restrains the child, the other forces food in to the child's mouth), and being grabbed around the neck which left marks for walking away from circle time. [The force feeding her sister witnessed. She is a college student majoring in spec. ed. and art therapy and was working the summer program. This was being done on another child and she was traumatized by it. They investigated it and put a stop to it fearing a lawsuit.] The principal of the school did call me about the scratches around my daughter's neck because forensicly there was no doubt how the injury happened. We have changed these practices in our district but in the private schools pretty horrible practices are common.

COSAC"S response to outlawing corporal punishment---things like pulling hair, hitting, ammonia in the face and slapping is that "the list is just too subjective." They aren't willing to outlaw anything from locked boxes on down. Can anyone explain this to me? ----We have a big problem in our community. The Sense of the Senate reports that 70% of our kids are on their way out of our homes by age 13. This used to be because they couldn't care for themselves. Now it's because of aggression. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots here.

An Advocate's answer to the utilitiarian "speaker": When human suffering is viewed as "too subjective" then human civilization is lost. If I take the speaker's arm and put it behind his back (as is being done to the disabled), he will give me a quite clear and objective sign of his discomfort. If I proceed to ignor those signs I will be rightly accused of brutality. ---- The same people who find the suffering of a child "too subjective to respond to" have no difficulty whatsoever ascribing, in the most subjective way possible, the worst motives to the child by their use of the term "tantrum."

NEW JERSEY (November 2001) The Division of Developmental Disabilities in the State New Jersey has opened a comment period for consumers until November 26, 2001 to give feedback on newly proposed regulations on the use of restraint and behavior modification that will effect people with developmental disabilities in New Jersey residential/residential treatment facilities, etc.. Their proposed budget for the fiscal year 2002 is $1,027,777,000.00 (over one billion dollars). Their website states, "Services for people with developmental disabilities must be designed to meet the specific needs of the individual" and also that they must "Ensure that the RIGHTS of people with disabililities are PROTECTED and have access to quality programs and services that meet their needs." And "consumer choice must be maximized..." -----HOWEVER, THE NEW REGULATIONS DO THE FOLLOWING: Attempt to enforce greater control over the use of RESTRAINTS in emergencies while leaving the EVERYDAY use of restraints as PART OF A BEHAVIOR PLAN wide open and only lightly controlled. The net effect will be to encourage more programs to get restraints into the child's behavior plans so they do not have to report them as emergencis and follow the new emergency rules. USE OF RESTRAINT AS TREATMENT VIOLATES THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF DISABLED PERSONS AND DESTROYS THEIR RELATIONSHIPS WITH CAREGIVERS.------------TAKE ACTION: Send comment letters to the following address: James M. Evanchko, Administrative Practice Officer, Division of Developmental Disabilities, Department of Human Services, Trenton, NJ 08625-0726-----------If you don't have time, their email is taken on the following page: www.state.nj.us/humanservices/ddd/email.html------and the phone number is 1-800-832-9173.