Kids locked in closets, restrained, dragged down school hallways: advocacy group

VANCOUVER – The head of an advocacy group says children with special needs are being dragged down hallways and locked away at school for hours, but the bulliesaren’t other students.

Faith Bodnar, executive director of Inclusion BC, says an online survey of 200 parents across the province suggests kids as young as five are being restrained and confined by staff in classrooms, closets or stairwells because of behaviour issues that aren’t being addressed in other ways.

Bodnar says kids subjected to such treatment are being traumatized and excluded by their classmates, who are getting the message that they could also suffer the same experience.

Karen DeLong, director of community development for the organization formerly known as BC Association for Community Living, says that in one case someone left an anonymous note on a parent’s car, saying the child had been put in a closet for the day.

The survey says 49 of the families removed their child from a public school and that 80 per cent of respondents said the school district’s failure to properly handle the issue calls for the Education Ministry to take immediate action.

The survey, which was also released by the Family Support Institute, says nearly three quarters of parents learned their child had been restrained or confined at school from other students or parents.