Schools must keep all students safe
Steps taken by the Clover school district last week should help reassure parents of children with special needs that the district is committed to keeping the children safe.
About a dozen parents addressed the school board in February regarding allegations that autistic children at Larne Elementary School might have been mistreated. Some parents suggested installing surveillance cameras in the special ed classrooms as a precaution.
Superintendent Marc Sosne has recommended more study before taking action on cameras, which we think is the right approach. While the idea might seem reasonable at first glance, a number of issues, including federal restrictions regarding the privacy of all students while in the classroom, could complicate the issue.
Meanwhile, though, the district has instituted a policy that allows parents to visit classrooms and observe their children being instructed at any time as long as they get permission from the school’s principal first. The policy would apply to all parents, not just parents of special education students.
Sosne said he hopes the new visitation policy will help allay concerns of parents about the treatment of their children. He notes that many of the classrooms have adjacent rooms where parents can observe classes without being seen by students.
Safety of students while in school is paramount, especially for students who might have trouble communicating mistreatment by teachers or other students. And such abuse has been widely documented nationwide.
In cases that often involve teachers with little or no training in dealing with children with special needs, abuse can be common. The National Autism Association reports that autistic children have been thrown to the floor face down, had their hands and arms restrained with tape or cuffs, been bound to chairs or sent to small rooms, isolated from their peers.
No federal laws protect students with disabilities from dangerous restraint practices, and only 13 states currently have laws regarding use of seclusion and restraint in public schools, according to the association, and, it claims, abuse is on the rise. As a result, the association advocates the use of cameras in self-contained special education classrooms.
While federal law reasonably forbids cameras from being placed in areas demanding privacy, such as restrooms or gym changing areas, the issue of whether the law permits them in the classroom is less black and white. But the use of cameras in South Carolina classrooms is rare.
Greenville, in fact, is the lone exception, with cameras in one school that serves only special ed students. The S.C. Department of Education has not taken a position on the issue.
Again, the safety of everyone in the classroom, students and teachers alike, is the primary concern. Careful oversight and ensuring that teachers are trained in dealing with special needs students should be a top priority.
For now, we think, the Clover school district is right to move cautiously before adopting any new policy on cameras. But we think the effort to reassure parents about the safety of their children and to allow first-hand observation of classrooms are positive steps toward easing concerns.
This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 6:03 PM with the headline "Schools must keep all students safe."